EMDR FORUM ARCHIVE, 2000
Re:EMDR & Dissociation & Parts
Cynthia A. Byrtus · 08/12/01 at 3:16 ET
In response to both of you, both client and therapist, I would like to say that EMDR takes down the walls whether the "host" is ready or not. The problem with this is that the host will hide instinctively especially if she is not ready to look at something from the past but if she is forced to "look" then she is further traumatized. If she is actively being "dissociated" by virtue of how the therapist sets up the EMDR session, then she is indeed going to be disconnected from what the session is about. It shouldn't be decided for her whether she should remember or not, but she should be supported to remember what she is able to remember, when she is ready. When the host is told about what went on in the session when she doesn't remember anything, commonly the host feels confused and suffers further reinforcement of her disssociated system of parts. Most unfortunately, she can and often will feel separated from the "helpers" in her life. That is, her therapist and her parts within. I have seen many mistakes made with EMDR especially with DID clients and I have left therapy sessions several times thinking about the re-traumatization of these clients that these types of session cause. Through the years as I have been called as a consultant in these cases, it never seems to fail that for every good therapist there seems to be twenty that have no clue as to what they are doing, especially with EMDR!
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