WEBVTT

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EMDR has a standard protocol,

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but that protocol is tailored to the individual person's needs,

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to their, what they're wanting to work on,

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as well as the complexity of their history.

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So everybody goes through the assessment phase

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where we're determining whether or not EMDR is

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an appropriate treatment for the person.

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And then there's some treatment planning.

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We have to identify the specific targets, we call them targets,

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that just means the events that we want to process.

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Part of the process as we get started

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is helping you to build up some coping

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to make sure that you're prepared for this treatment,

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make sure that you're prepared to deal with your trauma.

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Everybody avoids their trauma because it hurts,

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and so facing it is going to be difficult.

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So part of it is preparing for it.

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The other part of it is, in session,

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being able to spend the end of the session bringing you down,

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wrapping things up so that you don't leave

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raw and exposed and feeling unable to tolerate it.

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You'll have to give me a picture of what,

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a picture that represents the worst part of what happened.

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And I'm going to ask you details about that.

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I will ask you about, when you picture this,

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what do you think?

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What do you feel?

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What do you hear?

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What do you smell?

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On the one hand, I'll ask you to think about this picture

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that you've developed and talked a little bit to me about.

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I'll ask you to hold that with the negative belief

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that you have about yourself when you think about the situation,

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along with the feelings and the body sensations.

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And you hold that and you keep that stuff in your head

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while at the same time attending to an external stimulus.

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And so the stimulus can be a lot of different things.

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Some therapists use pulsers, where there's a tone

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that occurs in each of your hands, back and forth.

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Some use auditory tones, some use eye movements.

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You and I will talk about which one you're most comfortable with,

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and we'll come up with whichever one we decide we want to use.

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And so literally the instructions are: let whatever happens.

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So you're going to be paying attention to what's going on

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in your head and you're going to be paying attention

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to the stimulus that's going to kind of go back and forth,

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and you're just going to see what happens.

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We'll go for a set,

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which may last 20 seconds or several minutes,

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and then at the end of that set I'll stop us.

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I'll ask you just to simply report what occurred.

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So that may be new memories, new insights, body sensations,

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feelings, any or all of that, and all you have to do

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is tell me what happened.

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And then I'm going to direct you

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as to what to focus on in the next set.

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So the next set occurs, and you'll focus on what's going on

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inside of your head as well as the stimulus that we're using,

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and we'll just keep processing you out like that

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until the end of the session and/or until that particular

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incident or image no longer makes you upset or distresses you.

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Once things start to shift, once the emotions start to

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de-intensify, once the negative beliefs start to

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shift out of where they are, then we're going to start

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focusing on the positive belief that you want to hold with this.

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And then we're going to shorten the bi-lateral stimulation

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but still have you hold an image of the trauma

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with the belief that you want to hold about yourself

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until it feels real.

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EMDR doesn't change your story.

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Your trauma story is what it is and you can't undo what's been done.

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But what EMDR can do is change the way you experience it,

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the way you make sense of it, so that you can live your life

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more completely without it weighing you down.