Navigating Political Changes and Complex Situations in EMDR Therapy
Guest Blog Post by Liliana Baylon, LMFT-S, RPT-S and Viviana Urdaneta Melo, LCSW

Liliana Baylon, LMFT-S, RPT-S

Viviana Urdaneta Melo, LCSW
A new year brings different challenges and opportunities for all of us in all areas of our lives, including the shifts in political and social landscapes that impact our personal and professional lives. Understanding these dynamics and navigating their nuances in EMDR therapy requires perception and perspective.
Perception (Zooming In) and Perspective (Zooming Out)
Perception refers to how individuals interpret and understand events, policies, and actions based on personal experiences, values, and circumstances (e.g., how this affects or benefits me). In EMDR therapy, clients and therapists are inevitably influenced and affected by the political and social environments. These experiences can bring rich material for awareness, exploration, and reprocessing.
Perspective on the other hand, involves the ability to step back and view events, policies, and actions within a broader context, such as their impact on or benefit to the community and the wider social narrative. In EMDR therapy, we are encouraged to adopt this broader lens, examining these experiences as part of a larger narrative. This broader view can reduce emotional intensity, foster understanding of our perception, and support reframing the memory’s meaning.
With complex situations and political changes, we are invited to process our perceptions as professionals and keep ourselves grounded in our perspective of systems. We are invited to both Zoom In and Zoom Out.
Insight and Strategies for Zooming In and Zooming Out
- Acknowledge the range of emotions experienced by both clients and therapists. All emotions are valid and welcome in the therapy room. Clients must feel welcome to bring all concerns and challenges and how the environment around them is impacting them. Therapists are the ones responsible for setting the environment and having dual attention. Those could be targets for reprocessing with EMDR therapy. Therapists must create spaces with colleagues and their own therapy to process their feelings outside their role as therapists so they can be grounded and present for their client’s needs.
- Balance short-term and long-term needs. Use EMDR protocols to help clients explore and integrate short-term survival strategies, focusing on their broader goals and values. Support clients in addressing immediate emotional reactions while fostering resilience for long-term adaptations. Consider using EMD techniques and other derived techniques (like early interventions) to help clients regulate their nervous system in the midst of political and societal changes.
- Promote a culture of learning, self-awareness, and adaptation. As a therapist, it is important to constantly ask yourself and your clients how social and political shifts impact thoughts, feelings, and actions. Normalizing the interaction between systemic processes and individual experiences promotes flexibility, resilience, and growth while assisting in acknowledging their impact.
With all of the new possibilities and challenges that come with the new year, EMDR treatment may be an extremely useful tool for navigating both individual and group experiences. Through cultivating perception and perspective, both clients and therapists can progress toward increased resilience, clarity, and healing in the face of uncertainty. Let us approach the political and societal changes with empathy, understanding, and a shared commitment to healing for individuals, families, and communities.
Liliana Baylon, MBA, LMFT-S, specializes in trauma, migration, and multicultural issues through an attachment lens. As an AAMFT, EMDRIA, ICEEFT, and RPT-S supervisor, she offers expert consultation, supervision, and workshops, empowering mental health professionals to address migration and cultural dynamics in therapy with cultural humility.
Viviana Urdaneta Melo, MDiv, LCSW is an EMDRIA member, EMDR Certified Therapist and Consultant. Urdaneta Melo has worked with survivors of trauma, intimate partner violence, and sexual assault for more than 14 years. She uses an intercultural and intentional approach around issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. She works at the EMDR International Association as Deputy Executive Director.
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Date
January 24, 2025
Contributor(s)
Liliana Baylon, Viviana Urdaneta Melo
Practice & Methods
Your EMDR Practice