Demystifying and Humanizing Dissociation in EMDR Therapy Practice

A great deal of fear still abounds about working with clients who dissociate. To address this fear, EMDR therapists are challenged to move beyond the technicalities of theoretical models like structural dissociation and to develop a more person-centered, humanistic understanding of the dissociative experience. Participants are oriented to both classical and real-life insights about dissociation and are then guided to normalize it by attuning to the ways in which dissociation and parts structures manifest in their own lives. Approaching the material from this angle will improve participants’ abilities to conceptualize complex cases in EMDR therapy and more effectively.