EMDR Therapy and Thorny Topics In the EMDR Therapy Room Go With That Magazine® Issue
We invited several authors to write about polarization and thorny topics in the EMDR therapy room in the Spring 2025 Go With That Magazine® issue. We are sharing Deany Laliotis’ and Katie Quinlan’s article here, and EMDRIA members can access all other articles and issues in the Go With That Magazine®.
Difficult Conversations in the Therapy Room
By: Deany Laliotis, LICSW & Katie Quinlan, CMHC
Excerpt: “We want our clients to feel safe and connected with us. We tend to believe that we should offer unconditional positive regard and support our clients no matter what they’re doing or not doing, because their problems are often rooted in unresolved developmental trauma. We want to be present and attuned, authentic and relational. But this stance can be challenging to maintain with some of our clients or in complicated clinical situations. What about the client who is a fundraiser for the opposing political party, and it’s all you can do to sit on your hands and maintain your professional composure when you realize it? Or what about the client who grew up in a high-demand, high-control religion and adamantly defends the caregivers who neglected them? What about a client who identifies as Black and who is coming in for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to their sibling being shot by White police officers and you’re keenly aware of your own whiteness? What about when the client that you’ve been working with for a while begins to act out with you the way they do with others, and you’re blindsided by it? We have all experienced these scenarios and have responded in different ways. But how do we determine whether it’s a conversation to be had with our client, or instead, it’s an attitude adjustment on our part? Where is the line between being non-judgmental and making a judgment? Regardless of how we handle it, the nonverbal information is already in the room. The question is, what do we do about it? There are consequences to the choices we make, whether we avoid the issue or address it in some way, either with our clients or ourselves. The authors want to qualify that these vignettes are being shared with you, our fellow colleagues, not as counsel or advice but as an invitation to be mindful of the implicit conversations we’re having with our clients. There are always multiple people and conversations going on in the therapy room. Many of those people are invisible to us, and the conversations we’re having with them, and they’re having with us, are taking place largely outside our conscious awareness. So, while we’ll never have a handle on all those conversations, at least we can be in charge of the ones we are having with our clients. ….”
Continue Reading Laliotis’ & Quinlan’s Full Article Here
This issue also includes the following articles:
- On Being a Therapist in a Divided World by Michael Bowers
- Therapeutic Neutrality in an Age of Polarization: A Buddhist-Informed Approach by Rotem Brayer
- Thorny Topics: Addressing Oppression and Oppression Trauma as Difference in the Room by Roshni Chabra
- Self-Care Strategies for Navigating Difficult Conversations by Jennifer L. Fee, Psy.D., Viviana Urdaneta Melo, LCSW, & Susanna Kaufman, LPC Associate, NCC
- Community Voices: Cultural Background, Racial Identity, or Political Beliefs
- Counselor’s Corner: Clients with Aphantasia
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Additional Resources
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- Learn more about EMDR therapy at the EMDRIA™ Library
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- Check out our EMDR Training FAQ
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