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Understanding the AIP Model: The Boat Metaphor and the Mount Everest Metaphor

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Home / Resources / Understanding the AIP Model: The Boat Metaphor and the Mount Everest Metaphor

Understanding the AIP Model: The Boat Metaphor and the Mount Everest Metaphor

This video by Thomas Zimmerman, Ms.Ed., LPCC explains the AIP model with The Boat Metaphor and the Mount Everest Metaphor. 


Video Description

“Almost everything on the EMDR Podcast located on EMDR’s Third Weekend is organized around the Dip Your Toe In metaphor. So often with new trainees, it feels like as we move to Phase Three and beyond that we are walking clients to the end of a tall diving board and asking them to jump in, without us knowing if the client is over a pool, or if they can—for certain—swim. This whole project shows you how you can dip your toe into any of the eight phases, including the reprocessing phases.
…

The Boat and the Whale Metaphor

The boat is the amount of the needed adaptive information that is have accessible right now. The fish that you want to hook and land is the trauma. You cannot land a fish bigger than your boat. However, you can get a bigger boat by catching smaller fish. You can also build a bigger boat through developing relationships—including the therapeutic relationship, through parts work, through resourcing, by expanding the window of tolerance, through psychoeducation [particularly psychoeducation about what it means to be born human], and through a wide assortment of other means.

…

The Mount Everest Metaphor

Shapiro says that if we tackle the mountains of memory first, everything after that will feel like a small hill. And, she is right if you have adaptive information the size of mountains. Again, clients with complex trauma have very little adaptive information. You cannot metabolize a trauma the size of Mount Everest into adaptive information the size of a walnut. You simply can’t do it.

…”

—Description from publisher

Video Access

Open Access

Zimmerman, T. (2022). Understanding the AIP model: The boat metaphor and the Mount Everest metaphor. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJIBfTB0JTg

About the Publisher

“Thomas Zimmerman, Ms.Ed., LPCC, offers EMDR Foundational Training in Cleveland, Ohio, and online.”

—Description from publisher

View the Resource
Basic Info Collapse

Date
November 10, 2022

Creator(s)
Thomas Zimmerman

Practice & Methods
AIP

More Info Collapse

Extent
16 minutes

Publisher
Thomas Zimmerman

APA Citation
Zimmerman, T. (2022). Understanding the AIP model: The boat metaphor and the Mount Everest metaphor. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJIBfTB0JTg

Audience
EMDR Therapists

Language
English

Content Type
Video

Access Type
External Resource, Open Access

Related Resources

Editorial: EMDR and the AIP model: Healing the scars of trauma (Frontiers in Psychiatry)

Read More

What is AIP? The Adaptive Information Processing model and how to use it in a therapy setting (Mirabilis Health Institute)

Read More

The AIP model of EMDR therapy and pathogenic memories (Frontiers in Psychology)

Read More

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