I wrote yesterday about my first day’s training experience with EMDR Therapy. So far, I must say that the implications for using EMDR in a therapeutic setting as I have experienced are pretty intriguing.
It focuses a lot on re-organizing the memories in a client’s mind. So, what’s the difference between doing this and, say, Re-imprinting Therapy?
- EMDR has been explored through academic rigor. You need a big team of people to research this area and I can see the end result of a very organized team that put the EMDR training curriculum together.
- EMDR follows a process that need not focus on content. In certain kinds of reimprinting, it may be necessary to get content information (which I don’t prefer to do). EMDR allows the client to be the pilot, and that any changes of experiences are shifted purely as a result of the client’s change of condition. Memories accessed are controlled and re-processed by the client; negative beliefs (negative cognitions) are handled by the automatic processes within the client’s brain. For instance, in a phobia cure, some people may experience the therapist as doing most of the work and that it was the level of skill of the therapist that made it work. However, in EMDR, the charisma of the therapist and how much more competent the therapist is above the basic level of adherence to process does not factor into the end result. Of course having said that, it would require a relatively experienced clinician to understand how these processes work and to be mindful that EMDR is an intervention and presumes competency in other areas of therapy such as client rapport, among other things.
- EMDR is complementary to other theoretical approaches. You don’t need to be a client-centered / psychodynamic / systemic / solution-focused therapist to learn EMDR. In fact, it is essential to use EMDR only at the appropriate time (i.e. it is highly unlikely that you will use EMDR on the first session). When it is time to begin the processing with the client, EMDR can be instituted anytime because it is process oriented.
More to come 
Stuart Tan, MBA, SDCG, BA (Hons), is a Licensed NLP Trainer since 1997, a trained counselor and therapist since 1999, and a leadership, team performance and change management consultant. He certifies NLP Practitioners and Master Practitioners through a competency based approach. He is also an executive coach and life coach.
Contact him for information about his corporate seminars, certification workshops and coaching services.