EMDR FORUM ARCHIVE, 2000
Re:Emetophobia (fear of vomiting) and EMDR
Sandra Paulsen Inobe, PhD · 12/08/02 at 1:20 PM ET
Yes, and in my experience this is most likely to happen with phobia treatment for some reason. I've had clients tell me that they can't get properly cranked up about the imaginal exposure because they are sitting in my office and I'm right there with them. The following suggestions may not be appropriate in your case, and I am intending them as general comments. Talk to your therapist about their appropriateness. Instead of offering reassuring words, therapist may need to contribute to the horror of the image by saying NONCONSOLING things, not consoling things. This is similar to the approach used in exposure and ritual prevention for obsessivecompulsive disorder. So, contrary to their kindly nature, a therapist may need to say things like, "you see the person retching, and hear the noises, and its awful" instead of "you're all right, I'm here." I know it sounds horrid, but the two agree ahead of time that that's the therapist's role. Sometimes the therapist may want to create a loop tape, obtainable from Radio Shack (the kind used for answering machines, 30 sec is long enough, or maybe 60 seconds) and load it up with the yuckiest most horrific images. THAT should get many clients SUD levels up high enough that it can be worked with.
This might sound unethical to therapists not familiar with this tradition, but its really not unethical as long as the client gets the rationale and agrees to it.
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