Ep 80 - EMDR as a rigid protocol or creative adventure?
Hello, and welcome to the EMDR Doctor Podcast. This is episode 80.
Love a round number and 8 has always been one of my favourites, so I’m enjoying the episode - funny how we get pleasure from tiny things!
This week I have had a bit of fun in my garden - it is a beautiful spring in Melbourne this year, and a while back I planted some veggies, so this week I proudly harvested broccoli! It is so nice when your creative endeavours actually give you something to put on the plate, I do love a bit of edible gardening, but usually I am thwart but eh four legged creatures who also enjoy my garden, so the broccoli was a bit special.
Today I want to talk a little bit about creativity in the therapy room - I was inspired to have a think about this recently, when I heard a criticism of EMDR as being very rigid and protocol driven. Which actually shocked me for a moment, until I remembered my early days, just after having done the training, when I had my script on my lap and would literally read from the book as we were doing the sessions. Which is not abnormal - everyone does this to begin with, and I have to tell you, if you are used to more normal, talk therapy, reading from a script feels very odd! If you are an EMDR therapist, you might remember how clunky and rigid it felt in the early days. If you have just done your training, know that it does get easier! If you are a client, Some of you listening may have been part of your therapists early journey with EMDR , and recognise the discomfort from the point of view of the couch. Either way, hopefully you experienced some of the beautiful results of EMDR that we get to see, even at the beginning when we have to follow the script so carefully.
Nowadays however, things in my therapy room look very different.
EMDR can be so so creative, and sometimes, really needs to be creative.
I have talked about creative adventures in EMDR in one of my earlier podcasts, Episode 49 if you want to have a listen to that one, I speak about the attachment focussed use of imagery and creativity. So I won’t go in to that so much today, but I want to talk about three things - about the creative delivery of EMDR, and also the creative use of EMDR, and creative things we do inside of the EMDR session.
So what it looks like in the therapy room, need not be how we learn it in the beginning. Just imagining the therapist and the client seated opposite each other, with the therapist waving their fingers to do the eye movements. Well the does of course happen, but also, just as regularly, I do get up out of the chair, use movement as the bilateral stimulation, like stepping or walking, or tapping, or punching the air, or patacake, you know how kids do those clapping games, or sometimes the client likes to lie on the floor or sit in the corner of the room on a cushion, using clickers or buzzies or slinkies. Sometimes I have had clients use my blanket to cover their heads to concentrate better, or use crayons to draw from side to side to do the eye movements. So there are a million ways to adapt EMDR to make it more accessible and just right for each particular client. If as a client you are thinking right now that you would like to use some of these ideas, please feel free to mention it to your therapist, or even suggest that they listen to this podcast to give them some ideas, or just permission or encouragement, to get a bit off the beaten track.
Now what we use EMDR for, can also be so creative. Far from the original intended use of EMDR just for PTSD in returned veterans. We can use EMDR for all sorts of trauma, big and little, for habits like eating, procrastination, for addictions, personality disorders, OCD, emotional states that don’t seem to have an origin, success or mindset blocks, triggers, intrusive images which may have imagined origins, or images from nightmares or movies, intergenerational trauma, preverbal trauma, grief. Actually grief is one of my favourite things to work on and can be so incredibly creative and a really spiritual experience.
And while we are deep in the work, if the trauma is intolerable and we need to work quickly, some of my favourite ways of resolving the awfulness is by using some imagination, either with some 2.0 strategies, or combining EMDR with Schema imagery rescripting or attachment focussed work, bringing in those imagined figures like the loving or protective or wise figures that I spoke about in episode 49. Most of my clients really love this work and find it is really helpful, and I so enjoy doing it, as it keeps me creatively inspired and a little bit on my toes.
And so I really hope it's been helpful for you. If you have been watching on YouTube please drop a comment below, maybe you have used a creative technique that I haven’t mentioned, I would love to hear how others have incorporated creativity in their EMDR experience. I love to hear comments from my listeners and please feel free to reach out. And if you have a subject that you would like me to talk about or something you're curious about, or maybe I've said something that's a bit confusing, please feel free to reach out, and I would love to address your questions in my next podcast.
All right. I hope this has been helpful. Take good care. I will speak to you next week. Bye for now.
