In addition to getting a full history and conducting appropriate assessment, the therapist and client work together to identify targets for treatment. Targets include past memories, current triggers and future goals. Preparation

Discusses additional applications, including the treatment of complex trauma, addictions, pain, depression, and moral injury, as well as post-disaster response.During EMDR therapy, clinical observations suggest that an accelerated learning process is stimulated by EMDR’s standardized procedures, which incorporate the use of eye movements and other forms of rhythmic left-right (bilateral) stimulation (e.g., tones or taps). While clients briefly focus on the trauma memory and simultaneously experience bilateral stimulation (BLS), the vividness and emotion of the memory are reduced.

Unlike other treatments that focus on directly altering the emotions, thoughts and responses resulting from traumatic experiences, EMDR therapy focuses directly on the memory, and is intended to change the way that the memory is stored in the brain, thus reducing and eliminating the problematic symptoms. Burke Harris, N. (2019). The deepest well: Healing the long-term effect of childhood adversity. London: Pan McMillan.

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Van Der Kolk, B. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. New York: Viking. The sixth phase of EMDR is the body scan, in which clients are asked to observe their physical response while thinking of the incident and the positive cognition, and identify any residual somatic distress. If the client reports any disturbance, standardized procedures involving the BLS are used to process it. Closure The therapist offers an explanation for the treatment, and introduces the client to the procedures, practicing the eye movement and/or other BLS components. The therapist ensures that the client has adequate resources for affect management, leading the client through the Safe/Calm Place exercise. Assessment The next session starts with phase eight, re-evaluation, during which the therapist evaluates the client's current psychological state, whether treatment effects have maintained, what memories may have emerged since the last session, and works with the client to identify targets for the current session. Marich, J. (2014). Trauma Made Simple: Competencies in assessment, treatment, and working with survivors. PESI Publishing: Eau Claire, WI.

An excellent resource on an important evidence-based treatment for traumatic stress. This book is relevant for all practitioners interested in EMDR therapy, including novices as well as those who already use the approach. The third edition offers a wealth of detail to guide the reader in applying EMDR across a range of clinical presentations. Highly recommended."--David Forbes, PhD, Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne; Director, Phoenix Australia--Centre for Posttraumatic Mental Health Mark C. Russell, PhD, ABPP, is a core faculty member at Antioch University, Seattle, and the establishing director of the Institute of War Stress Injury, Recovery, and Social Justice. As a graduate student, Dr. Russell became Francine Shapiro's research assistant and was primarily responsible for developing the theory underlying EMDR.The fifth phase of EMDR is installation, which strengthens the preferred positive cognition. Body Scan Menakem, R. (2017). My grandmother’s hands: Racialized trauma and the path to mending our hearts and bodies. Las Vegas: Central Recovery Press.