The Distancing Technique: OCD and Anxiety Disorders, How to Treat with EMDR

The Distancing Technique was initially developed using EMDR targets that had an over-importance of thoughts, the need to control thoughts, and the thought-action fusion. It also targets the misinterpretation of sensation as predictive of future catastrophe. The goal of this technique is for the client to become a detached observer to his/her thoughts, sensations, images, and/or urges. For example, to understand that the obsession is a thought and not real, to gain distance from the thought, and put it aside. The anxiety disorders that the Distancing Technique can be applied to include OCD, panic disorders, and phobias. Interweaves, which come from the client’s own words as expressed in the Preparation Phase, are used, when necessary, in the Standard Protocol to process the initial, worst, most recent and current triggers (including the Pandemic).