{"id":23167,"date":"2014-01-03T09:00:23","date_gmt":"2014-01-03T17:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/?p=23167"},"modified":"2014-01-02T17:50:23","modified_gmt":"2014-01-03T01:50:23","slug":"emdr-and-the-role-of-state-change-skills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/emdr-role-of-state-change-skills-0103144","title":{"rendered":"EMDR and the Role of State-Change Skills"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"butterflyMy work with people often drives me to explore themes that are currently showing up in my counseling practice. If you are a counselor, you know what I mean. You may have many clients or therapist consultees presenting with the same needs, perhaps some who are saying similar things of late. That\u2019s not to say that these issues are the \u201csame,\u201d for they are not. Nevertheless, there are topics that may repeat themselves. I pay attention to these because I believe that there is much to explore and learn by being aware of patterns.<\/p>\n

A pattern I have seen of late is related to eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)<\/a> work, specifically about the process of being \u201cready\u201d to do EMDR. I have had a lot of therapists inquiring about their clients\u2019 readiness to do EMDR. Keep in mind that if you are doing EMDR, you are always doing EMDR; it just depends on the phase you are in. If you are one of my EMDR clients or therapist consultees, you know how much I emphasize this as key to understanding the EMDR therapy model. Keep this in mind: EMDR is a process, a model, and not a technique.<\/p>\n

EMDR\u2019s preparation phase is phase two of the eight phases of EMDR. EMDR therapists look for people to have a minimum of two state-change skills as part of this phase. In phase two we are making sure that the client has the ability to not only tolerate emotion<\/a>, but also to shift into a relaxed state, a para-sympathetic response. In other words, can the person bring up a disturbing event, be \u201cin it,\u201d but then also utilize a relaxation skill or calming technique to then change states if needed?<\/p>\n

Keep in mind that the concept of changing states may be something that sounds easy, but for many it is not. Some folks seeking to utilize EMDR therapy as part of their trauma recovery may need more extensive preparation-phase support. This is especially true in the case of those struggling with dissociation<\/a> and addictions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In its simplest form, a state change means being able to utilize a relaxation skill to settle down one\u2019s system. State-change skills can help the EMDR client to become calmer and more settled while still maintaining \u201cdual attention\u201d\u2014i.e., being present while bringing up traumatic disturbance(s). In contrast, and though it may appear like it, the ability to utilize state-change skills does not mean changing states via dissociation. Certainly, one\u2019s ability to dissociate may appear similar to a state-change skill, and is a survival skill, but dissociation keeps us \u201caway from\u201d traumatic material and from integrating the somatic, visual, emotional, and cognitive aspects of it to then heal.<\/p>\n

For example, dissociation takes one away from the present moment because the past feels as if it is happening now and it feels safer to leave the present. But to be able to heal and integrate the traumatic material requires that state of being present. We just have to learn the dance between feeling the disturbing material and being able to shift into a contrasting, calmer state.<\/p>\n

In exploring the concept of EMDR and state-change skills, addictions can also be explored as an attempt to chemically or behaviorally illicit a state change. I often explain to people that substance abuse is often driven by an ill-fated attempt to chemically dissociate. One can easily become entrenched in the vicious cycle of using addictive substances and behaviors to shift \u201cout\u201d of traumatic material in order to feel something, anything, and everything different from the pain of a traumatic history. And, for many people, addictions have become a way to change states, to feel away from and out of traumatic material.<\/p>\n

The bottom line is that to heal, trauma histories<\/a> beg to be accessed, stimulated, and reprocessed. The challenge can be in our making sure that EMDR clients are fully supported in having the state-change skills in place to be able to come back, to ground, and to stay present first. Therefore, creating and implementing these state-change skills can be the key to supporting EMDR clients in their recovery and throughout EMDR\u2019s eight phases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sarah Jenkins, MC, LPC – The development of state-change skills is an essential element in effective eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[447,31,386,255,226,25,27],"class_list":["post-23167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-addictions-compulsions","tag-psychotherapy-practice","tag-dissociation","tag-eye-movement-desensitization-reprocessing","tag-posttraumatic-stress","tag-psychotherapy-issues","tag-psychotherapy-models"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}