The ISSTD (International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation) endorses EMDR as an adjunctive treatment in their Guidelines for Treating Dissociative Identity Disorder in Adults (2011). They recommend that EMDR is not used as a standalone treatment but as part of an overall treatment plan. Early use of EMDR with dissociative clients, however, resulted in a number of difficulties, including ‘unintended breaches of dissociative barriers, flooding, abrupt emergence of undiagnosed alternate personalities, and rapid destabilisation’ (ISSTD, 2011). The ISSTD therefore recommend that adjustments be made to the standard EMDR protocols when working with dissociative survivors, and various safeguards put in place. So what are some treatments that you incorporate EMDR with when working on complex trauma and dissociative clients? This is a place to get together and share ideas, practices and grow together!
