by jordan Bateman

What is it?

Eye movements or other forms of bilateral/dual attention stimulation activate your problem-solving process, which occurs during REM sleep when your eyes dart back and forth. By focusing on a specific problem and its negative and positive emotions, sensations, and beliefs, then adding bilateral/dual attention stimulation, your brain begins problem-solving. Since you are focused on the specific problem, your brain can work through it more effectively than what may randomly come up during REM sleep.

RISKS

This therapy can stir up difficult memories even if we are targeting one specific experience. The ideal processing is to be 50% in the experience and 50% in the present. Following each session, my hope is that clients will feel tired but good. If there is nausea or headaches, it likely means we did too much processing and need to dial it back.

Criteria

1. External Stability: it is best to take on EMDR when you are no longer being traumatized (i.e.

the traumatizing event is over and you are safe) and your life is stable enough that you have

the time and energy to do the work. We will look at “how much do you have on your plate

right now?”. If the trauma is chronic (i.e. workplace bullying) and no more steps can be

taken to create safety we may proceed but we will be careful and “break the work down”

into small bits.

2. You have basic “emotional literacy” – this means that you can identify and name feelings.

It also means that you can find words to describe intense a feeling is/was.

a. Example: “When my boss yelled at me I felt mad… I felt calmer after I went for a

walk”. OR “When my boss was yelling I was a 9 out of 10 for MAD – after I went for

a walk I was a 6 out of 10”.

3. You can notice and describe body sensation and shifts in sensation.

a. Example: “When I was mad my chest felt tight and my face and hands felt hot”.

“When I happy if feel a fuzzy warm feeling in my chest – my face wants to smile”.

Part II

4. You are able to stay present with both positive and negative emotion for 30 – 90 seconds.

a. This like a mindfulness exercise – you can notice a feeling and just “stay with it” without ‘fueling it” or “pushing it away” for 90 seconds.

5. You can regulate your emotions – that means that you have 2 – 3 reliable ways to calm

yourself down when you are upset.

a. Examples: Calming breath, acupuncture breathing, light stream…

b. You are not using self-harm, suicidal actions or addictive behaviors as ways to

regulate your emotions (you have healthier choices “on board” and are using them).

You have a safety plan in place and are using it when stressed.

6. You have been able to create a container and calm place (we will do this in session) and can use these tools to calm yourself down when you are upset.

7. We have ruled out dissociation as a concern.

8. We have enough trust in each other that you will “stay with me” until we reach the calmer

side of the “EMDR wave”.

List borrowed from: Kirsten Ferguson (MSW, RCSW) - Joy Rising Counselling Services (Jan 2024), https://joyrising.ca

Assessment

Incident’s worst part

Core negative belief &

adaptive positive belief

How true do those words (positive cognition) feel? (VoC; 1-7)

Emotions, Subjective Units of Distress (SUDS; 0-10)

Body location

Coming Soon

More information coming

Resource Page