Phase Four: When to Stay Out of the Way and When to Guide Reprocessing

EMDR trained clinicians are taught to stay out of the way and allow the patient’s brain to guide the process. Yet spontaneous reprocessing can become unproductive or even disruptive to patient stability. Clinicians can remain overly passive or become overly active redirecting patients too frequently back to target or offering randomly selected interventions. Participants will be invited to discuss transcripts of EMDR reprocessing sessions that illustrate both skillful interventions and common clinical errors. Transcripts will present key choice points, varieties of interweaves, ways of addressing dysregulated states and advanced interventions such as targeting dissociative phobias and avoidance defenses.