Re:More conclusions from the new EMDR meta-analysis

I chose the word "organic" because I can't find another to express that there is something qualitatively different from the clients' experiences of other therapies, including cognitive-behavioral/exposure therapies. People commonly say it goes deeper, or express amazement that this or that thought, feeling, or memory surfaced quite when it did. I never had that happen in years of doing cognitive behavioral exposure therapy before I did EMDR. CBT for PTSD was very effortful for the therapist, and painful for the client. It was arduous. It was unpleasant. EMDR is much easier. It flows.

The subjective experience of EMDR is to that of CBT for exposure to traumatic memories what videotape is to snapshots. It just flows. It flows during the bilateral stimulation. Without bilateral stimulation, the memory doesn't flow, but had to be jumpstarted with effort on both client and therapist's part.

The other thing that stands out in my experience is that whether or not the client is dissociative makes a huge difference in EMDR processing, that is, which protocol is used, because EMDR uncovers dissociation. I'm not aware of any discussion in exposure circles about dissociation, and I don't know if that is because of the politics of dissociation or if it seems or is irrelevant to traditional exposure procedures. If anyone knows of exposure literature discussing dissociation and how to apply exposure procedures to dissociatives I would be glad to hear about it. It makes a big difference in EMDR processing because EMDR is all about associations (the opposite of dissociation).

It is that spontaneous associational characteristic of bilateral stimulation that makes it different from both the client and therapist point of view. It comes out of the client, spontaneously, in the course of the EMDR process, so they don't experience it as coming from something arcane I have done. If you have a better word than "organic", I'd happily receive it.

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