7 EMDR Mistakes That Slow Down Healing
Every EMDR therapist remembers those first post-training sessions.
The mixture of excitement and anxiety
The protocol cheat sheet nearby
The hope that this approach will help your clients, combined with the fear of getting something wrong and/or hurting them
If you've ever felt this way, you're in good company.
Even the most skilled EMDR practitioners started somewhere (and most made the same common mistakes along the way).
Today, I want to share the patterns and mistakes I've noticed in consultation with many therapists new to EMDR. Not to criticize, but to normalize these challenges and offer a clear pathway beyond them.
Let’s get started.
Mistake #1: Rushing Through Preparation
The enthusiasm to "get to the good stuff" of processing is understandable.
You've learned this powerful approach and want to see your clients benefit from bilateral stimulation and reprocessing as quickly as possible.
But the thing is…
Rushing the process often leads to abbreviated preparation phases:
minimal resourcing
cursory safe place development
or skipping container exercises because the client "seems stable enough”
Then processing begins, and unexpected emotional flooding or dissociation occurs, leading to outcomes from less-than-desirable to potentially-harmful. Some clients even leave therapy after a session like that. This is why preparation is so important in EMDR.
It’s the foundation for successful processing.
Think of it as building a safety net before walking the high wire:
Thorough assessment of the client's affect tolerance and regulation capacity
Development of robust containment resources
Establishment of clear stop signals
Practice with bilateral stimulation before targeting disturbing material
Using other treatment modalities to support the client's healthy coping strategies, self-awareness, and inner work before they dive deeper is ok too!
Even with seemingly stable clients, proper preparation prevents disruptions later and builds the therapeutic relationship necessary for deep processing work.
I always look for when the client and myself are both confident they can handle internal tension with the skills they’ve developed, and depending on the client that can take weeks to months. And that’s ok.
A prepared client leads to more successful outcomes later.
Mistake #2: Targeting Memories That Are Too Large
"Let's work on your childhood trauma.”
It’s no easy task!
Yet many new EMDR therapists attempt to process generalized experiences, entire relationships, or years-long periods of adversity in a single target. And when the target is too large, processing tends to loop, stall, or scatter across different experiences without resolution.
That’s why specificity is so important.
Instead of "my abusive relationship," target a specific representative incident: "The night he threw the plate at the wall."
Make sure to pay attention to:
First, worst, or most recent incidents
Touchstone memories that represent the broader experience
Moments that carry the strongest emotional or somatic charge
Remember that you can always expand the work to related experiences later. Starting with a clear, specific target creates a focused pathway for adaptive processing.
Mistake #3: Over-Directing the Processing
This pattern typically emerges from anxiety about "doing it right."
New therapists often interrupt processing to ask additional questions, offer interpretations, or redirect the client's attention because what's emerging doesn't seem "relevant" to the target.
Instead, trust your client's brain to lead the processing. Trust in the protocol and the client’s internal healer.
The AIP model tells us that the brain naturally moves toward adaptive resolution when blocks are removed.
Your role is to create the right conditions for their brain to do what it needs:
Maintain dual attention (the connection between past and present)
Notice and respond to signs of dissociation or emotional overwhelm
Support continuation of the process with simple encouragements ("Go with that" or "Notice that")
Use cognitive interweaves only when processing is genuinely stuck
If nothing else, remember this:
The less you interfere with the natural processing, the more profound the shifts tend to be. This requires tolerating your own anxiety about whether processing is "on track."
Mistake #4: Confusing Processing Plateaus with Completion
When SUD levels drop from 9 to 3 or 4, new therapists often feel pressure to wrap up processing and move to installation. This can leave disturbing material partially processed and contribute to incomplete sessions.
Processing plateaus are actually normal!
In fact, these temporary slowdowns often signal that the work is reaching deeper layers rather than concluding.
When intensity decreases but hasn't fully resolved:
Check for feeder memories that might be maintaining the disturbance
Look for body sensations that might still carry emotional charge
Consider whether cognitive interweaves might help address blocks
Explore whether parts of the experience are being avoided
Remember that thorough processing often follows a pattern of intensity reduction, plateau, another processing wave, another plateau, and so on until genuine resolution occurs.
And sometimes a 3-4 reflects a client’s uncertainty about how the resolution they’ve found is going to play out in the future. If you’ve done all of the above and it still remains a 3-4, they might just need some time in the seat living life with this new paradigm. If they’ve already developed positive cognitions around it, future templates can help with this.
Mistake #5: Skipping the Body Scan or Future Templates
After successful desensitization and installation, it's tempting to consider the work complete.
The body scan phase often gets abbreviated or skipped entirely, especially when session time is running short.
The body scan isn't just a procedural checkbox.
It's an important verification step that processing is complete. Residual disturbance often appears somatically even when emotional and cognitive components appear resolved.
When you honor the body scan:
You identify incomplete processing that might otherwise go undetected
You help clients integrate their experience at a somatic level
You teach clients to recognize their body's signals
You ensure more comprehensive and lasting resolution
Which means that ultimately…
Making time for thorough body scanning saves time (not wastes it) by preventing the need to revisit partially processed material.
But what about future templates?
Skipping future templates is actually a more common mistake than skipping body scan. And to be honest, there’s not always time in a session for it. Additionally, there may still be other unprocessed memories with similar negative cognition themes that need to be addressed before future templates are warranted.
But here’s why it’s important to get to future templates with your clients:
You help them rehearse adaptive awareness in future challenges
They strengthen the adaptive impact of positive cognitions in future scenarios
For high-performers, you enable them to visualize performing optimally and free of mental blocks, enhancing their future performance as a result
They have a higher chance of mitigating symptom relapse from future triggers
Don’t skip future templates! It sets a stronger foundation for the client’s future outcomes.
Mistake #6: Inadequate Closure When Processing Is Incomplete
Sometimes processing can't be completed in a single session.
New therapists often struggle with how to close these sessions, leaving clients feeling uncontained or worried about managing until the next appointment. Even seasoned therapists can neglect this sometimes.
Skillful closure is important.
You can do this by:
Assessing key takeaways, then guiding the client through a closing visualization
Being transparent that the work is ongoing
Reinforcing containment resources
Giving specific guidance on managing activation between sessions and normalizing the potential for “continued processing” and how the preparation work they learned can support any disturbance
Clearly planning for how the work will continue next time
Rather than seeing incomplete processing as a problem, frame it as a normal part of the therapeutic process. The client's system may need time to integrate what has already shifted before continuing.
Mistake #7: Forgetting the Importance of the Therapeutic Relationship
It's easy to get lost in the protocol, but as great as EMDR is, study after study has shown the most important predictor of good mental health treatment outcomes is a strong therapeutic relationship.
In the focus on mastering EMDR's technical aspects, some new therapists lose sight of the foundational importance of the therapeutic relationship. They become so protocol-focused that the human connection fades into the background.
But here's the truth:
EMDR is more than just a therapy.
It’s about the ongoing relationship between the therapist and the client. Becoming a masterful EMDR therapist requires technical precision with genuine human connection.
In other words…
The protocol serves the relationship (not the other way around).
"But EMDR is only for trauma, right?"
I hear this question all the time…
“But EMDR is only for trauma, right?”
There's this persistent myth that EMDR is only for PTSD… and that it should only be pulled out for a client with textbook trauma symptoms.
But that’s not entirely true. The truth is…
EMDR's effectiveness extends far beyond the trauma treatment where it first gained recognition. While a lion’s share of the research has indeed been trauma-focused, the EMDR providers on the frontlines doing the work have deepened their understanding of the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model, and discovered how to apply it to a much wider range of human suffering.
And today, I want to explore three powerful special applications of EMDR deeper.
In this newsletter, I'll show you how EMDR can help you effectively address depression, chronic pain, and addiction (with practical steps you can start taking right away).
Rethinking Depression Through the AIP Lens
When a client comes to you with depression, what do you see?
Most traditional approaches focus on neurotransmitter imbalances or distorted thinking patterns. These perspectives aren't wrong.
But they're incomplete.
Through the AIP lens, depression often involves memory networks containing maladaptively stored experiences of loss, failure, rejection, or helplessness. And aside from creating negative thoughts, these networks also organize how your client experiences the present moment.
Think about your depressed clients:
Have you noticed how a minor disappointment can trigger a profound emotional slide? That’s their memory networks activating.
And that’s why EMDR is so useful.
It addresses depression by targeting:
Formative experiences that established negative self-beliefs ("I'm not enough")
Significant losses or disappointments that created templates for hopelessness
Early attachment experiences where emotional needs weren't met
Current triggers that activate these depressive networks
The difference between this approach and traditional CBT?
Rather than just challenging the thought "I'm worthless," EMDR processes the experiences that created and maintains this belief at a neurobiological level.
What makes this particularly powerful is that many depressed clients don't respond to the insight-oriented "I know this isn't rational" approach. Their emotional brain is still running on old programming.
EMDR helps update that programming directly.
Chronic Pain: When the Body Keeps the Score
Chronic pain might seem like the least likely candidate for a psychological intervention.
After all, pain is physical right?
Not entirely.
Pain exists at the intersection of physical sensation and the brain's interpretation of that sensation, or as I like to say, their brain’s relationship with that sensation (which is heavily influenced by memory networks).
Let me give you an example.
Think about a client with persistent back pain following an accident. Aside from current physical sensations, their experience includes:
The terror of the original injury
The helplessness of medical procedures
Perhaps the frustration of not being believed about their pain
The grief of activities lost and identities changed
And when these experiences are maladaptively stored, they amplify pain perception. The brain stays on high alert. It’s like gasoline on a fire. What could just be small embers becomes a roaring blaze.
But with EMDR therapy?
Process the emotional components of the injury and treatment
Target the fear-pain connection that maintains chronic pain
Address the grief and identity loss that accompanies chronic conditions
Use bilateral stimulation to directly modify pain perception
Now the result isn’t only psychological.
EMDR can lead to substantial reductions in pain intensity and improved functioning. The mind-body connection works both ways.
Addiction: Processing What Drives the Dependency
"I know I shouldn't turn to that addictive behavior, but it helps escape the suffering..."
Sound familiar?
Traditional addiction treatment often focuses on behavioral strategies and relapse prevention. But even though these treatments can be valuable…
They sometimes miss the deeper drivers of addiction.
Through the AIP model, substance use can be understood as an attempt to manage distress associated with maladaptively stored experiences. When certain memory networks activate, they trigger overwhelming emotions that substances temporarily relieve.
EMDR addresses addiction by:
Processing experiences that created emotional dysregulation
Targeting the specific memories associated with using behavior
Addressing the shame and self-loathing that often drive continued use
Desensitizing cravings and current triggers that prompt them
Building internal resources for emotional regulation and future templates for successfully regulating without the addictive behavior/substance
Instead of helping clients resist urges, this EMDR approach actually reduces the intensity and frequency of those urges by addressing their source.
Special Applications of EMDR
So unless you’ve been trained in these special applications, you’re probably wondering:
“How exactly do I adapt EMDR for these conditions?”
Here are the key modifications that make EMDR effective beyond PTSD:
Target Selection: Rather than focusing only on capital-T trauma, we identify experiences that contributed to the condition's development. For depression, this might include early experiences of criticism, rejection, or failure. For addiction, initial experiences with substances and what drove those experiences.
Symptom-Focused Processing: Sometimes we directly target current symptoms. With chronic pain, bilateral stimulation can be applied while focusing on the pain sensation itself. With addiction, protocols like FSA or DeTUR target urges and cravings directly.
Resource Development: These conditions often require more extensive resourcing than PTSD. Depression clients may need help accessing positive emotions. Pain clients benefit from developing resources for sensory regulation (or as Mark Grant calls it, “Antidote Imagery”). Addiction clients need resources for tolerating difficult emotions without following maladaptive cravings.
Where to Begin with Special Applications for Depression, Pain, or Addiction
If you're interested in expanding your EMDR practice beyond trauma, here are my recommendations:
Get training in special application protocols.
Depression: DeprEnd protocol.
Pain: Mark Grant’s Pain protocol.
Addiction: Feeling State Addiction (FSA) or DeTUR protocols.
Start with clients who have both PTSD and these conditions. The connection will be clearer, and you'll gain confidence in the approach.
Thoroughly map the development of the condition. When did symptoms begin? What was happening in the client's life? What made things better or worse?
Look for patterns of emotional activation. What triggers depression spirals, pain flares, or strong urges to use?
Begin with clear targets that have obvious emotional charge, then move toward more subtle contributors.
EMDR is a powerful tool for addressing a wide range of clinical presentations beyond PTSD.
By understanding how the AIP model applies to conditions like depression, chronic pain, and addiction, you can help clients who haven't fully responded to traditional approaches.
Have you used EMDR with these special applications?
How has it supported your clients?
Until next week,
Chris
P.S. We’re working hard to build a robust ecosystem supporting therapists in advancing their EMDR practice, marketing to niche clients, and connecting with other providers for support and community. Learn more about the pilot and apply to join the community for free!
When to Modify the EMDR Standard Protocol (And When NOT To)
Helping EMDR therapists determine when to modify the standard protocol and when to stick with it.
A few months ago, a therapist in my consultation group asked a question that gets to the heart of what makes EMDR both powerful and challenging:
"How do I know when I should modify the standard protocol and when I should stick with it?"
It's a question I hear often, and for good reason. We want to be flexible enough to meet our clients' needs, but not so flexible that we drift away from what makes EMDR effective in the first place.
Today, I want to explore this clinical issue and give you a framework for making these decisions confidently.
The Paradox of Protocol Fidelity
Let's start with this:
Francine Shapiro developed the 8-phase protocol for a reason. Research consistently shows that following the standard protocol produces reliable results for many clients.
But the paradox?
Rigid adherence to protocol can sometimes be counterproductive to the very goals the protocol was designed to achieve.
I've observed both extremes in consultation:
The "Protocol Purist" who follows every step exactly as written, even when the client is dissociating, overwhelmed, or clearly not benefiting from the approach.
The "Creative Improviser" who modifies so extensively that what they're doing barely resembles EMDR anymore (thus losing the core mechanisms that make it effective).
The sweet spot lies somewhere in between:
Something we’ll call "principled flexibility".
When Modification Is Clinically Needed
Through years of EMDR supervision and consultation, I've identified several specific scenarios where modification is clinically needed (not just helpful):
1. Significant Dissociative Symptoms
When a client has dissociative tendencies, the standard protocol can sometimes trigger further dissociation and make processing impossible.
Modifications might include:
Shorter processing sets (sometimes as brief as 15-30 seconds)
More frequent check-ins to maintain dual awareness
Greater emphasis on grounding between sets
Starting with peripheral details rather than the most disturbing aspects
Using tactile bilateral stimulation rather than visual
Using the FLASH technique
Struggling to determine which of these situations applies to your case? My EMDR Protocol Modification Decision Tree can help you navigate these complex clinical decisions.
2. Complex Developmental Trauma
Clients with extensive childhood trauma often don't have discrete "worst" memories to target. Their memory networks formed during critical developmental periods and are structured differently.
Helpful modifications include:
Working with "memory clusters" around themes rather than single incidents
Processing emotional states or body sensations rather than narrative memories
Focusing on attachment disruptions that occurred across thousands of interactions
Extended preparation phases to build internal resources
Integrating parts work or ego state interventions with bilateral stimulation
3. Currently Unsafe Life Circumstances
When a client remains in unsafe or highly stressful circumstances, full processing of trauma can sometimes destabilize their functioning when they need it most.
Consider modifications like:
Resource development and installation as a primary focus (an extended preparation phase)
Processing current triggers without addressing historical material until more stability is present
Shorter, more contained processing with clear boundaries
EMD or FLASH to focus on desensitizing
Present-focused safety planning integrated into each session
More emphasis on closure and containment
4. Medical Complications
Clients with conditions like traumatic brain injury, seizure disorders, or severe migraines may need adjustments to the standard bilateral stimulation.
Modifications might include:
Slower eye movements or different bilateral modalities
Shorter processing sets with more breaks
Integrating medical management strategies into the treatment plan
Coordination with medical providers
Helping address their relationship to the medical issues with something like Mark Grants Pain protocol
When to Stick with Standard Protocol
Knowing when to modify the EMDR protocols is important – but just as important to recognize when the standard protocol is likely to be most effective.
Here are four scenarios where I generally recommend sticking with standard protocol:
1. Single-Incident Adult Trauma (in Otherwise Stable Individuals)
For clients with good affect tolerance, minimal dissociation, and discrete traumatic events that occurred in adulthood, the standard protocol often works beautifully.
Modifications may actually slow progress.
2. When Progress Is Obvious (Despite Discomfort)
Sometimes clients experience distress during processing, but the SUD score is decreasing and adaptive information is emerging. This discomfort is part of the processing – and modification might interrupt the natural healing. If they remain in the window of tolerance, keep going.
3. Early in Your EMDR Journey
If you're relatively new to EMDR, mastering the standard protocol before attempting modifications gives you a solid foundation. Many difficulties that seem to require modification actually resolve with proper application of the standard approach.
4. When Previous Modifications Haven't Helped
If you've tried various modifications without success, returning to the standard protocol with careful attention to each element sometimes reveals missed opportunities.
The Decision Framework: Questions to Guide Your Clinical Judgment
When facing the modify-or-not decision with a client, I find these questions helpful for clarifying my thinking:
Is the standard protocol posing a risk to this client? (Safety always comes first)
Is there evidence that this client's information processing system works differently in a way that would benefit from modification?
Will this modification maintain the core elements of EMDR (bilateral stimulation, dual attention, adaptive information processing)?
Is my desire to modify based on the client's needs or my own discomfort with the process?
Have I consulted on this case before making significant modifications?
That last question is especially important.
Consultation provides an essential outside perspective when we're considering departures from standard practice.
If you find yourself regularly wrestling with these questions, you might benefit from a structured approach. I've developed an EMDR Protocol Modification Decision Tree that walks you through this decision-making process step by step.
Ethical Considerations in Protocol Modification
As we adapt our approach to meet client needs, we also need to consider several important ethical aspects of EMDR therapy:
Informed consent: Clients have a right to know when we're modifying standard approaches and why. I explicitly discuss this with clients when making significant changes.
Scope of practice: Modifications should remain within our training and competence. If a client needs an approach we're not trained in, referral, consultation, or pursuit of training is appropriate.
Fidelity to the model: When we modify extensively, are we still doing EMDR? This question matters for both research integrity and honest communication with clients.
Documentation: I document my rationale for modifications, the specific changes made, and the outcomes observed. This creates a clear record of clinical decision-making.
Developing Your Clinical Judgment
Strong clinical judgment around protocol modifications doesn't happen overnight. It develops through intentional practice and ongoing professional development.
Here are four important components of this growth:
Deep understanding of the AIP model: Modifications should serve the core principle of facilitating adaptive information processing
Ongoing consultation: Regular case discussion helps identify blind spots in our clinical reasoning
Continuing education: Advanced training provides structured guidance on evidence-based modifications
Reflective practice: Honest assessment of what's working and what isn't with each modification attempt
Your Clinical Challenge
To deepen your own clinical decision-making, I invite you to reflect on your own practice with these questions:
In which situations do you feel most confident following standard protocol?
When do you find yourself wanting to modify, and what drives that impulse?
How do you balance creativity with fidelity to the model?
What resources do you use to guide your modification decisions?
I'd love to hear your thoughts, too!
In gratitude,
Christopher Brown, LICSW
P.S. If you're looking for more structured guidance on protocol modifications, I've created an EMDR Protocol Modification Decision Tree that many therapists in my consultation groups have found helpful.
AIP Foundations in EMDR
Understanding the foundational AIP framework will empower you to be the best EMDR therapist possible.
Ever found yourself following the EMDR protocol perfectly, yet your client remains stuck?
It’s more common than you think.
In my consultation work, I've noticed something interesting. The difference between adequate and exceptional EMDR outcomes rarely comes down to protocol adherence.
Instead it’s about deeply understanding the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model.
Let me share three helpful perspectives on AIP that can help you navigate even your most challenging cases.
AIP: A Helpful Framework for Information Processing
Your client's symptoms make perfect sense through the AIP lens.
When Francine Shapiro developed this model, she gave us a framework for understanding all psychological functioning.
She created it to explain how our brains process all types of information (i.e emotions, beliefs, physical sensations, etc). But when it comes to practical training, this often gets overlooked.
So what does AIP really mean in practice?
Take depression, for example.
Through the AIP lens, depression isn't a chemical imbalance or cognitive distortion issue. It often reflects memory networks where experiences of helplessness, loss, or failure are maladaptively stored. These networks then organize current perception, emotional responses, and meaning-making.
Or what about anxiety?
We’re not just seeing fear responses.
We're actually dealing with the activation of memory networks containing unprocessed experiences of danger, unpredictability, or overwhelming emotion. When current situations share elements with these stored experiences, the networks activate and create symptoms.
Even personality styles and relationship patterns that seem "just who the person is" connect to memory networks formed during developmental experiences.
The client with people-pleasing tendencies?
Look for early experiences where safety or connection required suppressing needs. These adaptive childhood responses become maladaptive adult patterns when stored in implicit memory networks.
The client who keeps choosing unavailable partners?
Explore networks formed when love was inconsistently available. The familiar pain of longing may feel safer than the unknown territory of consistent connection.
This shift transforms assessment entirely.
When you grasp AIP, everything changes about how you conceptualize cases.
Instead of collecting symptoms to match diagnostic categories, you're mapping memory networks. In other words, identifying experiences that created templates for current functioning and understanding how these networks interconnect.
So try this approach next time.
For each presenting symptom, ask yourself:
"What experiences might have taught the brain to function this way?"
Then look to see how these experiences might be stored and connected. The case conceptualization that emerges will guide treatment more effectively than any diagnosis.
The Protocol Serves the Model (Not Vice Versa)
The standard 8-phase protocol gives us structure.
While you're likely familiar with these phases (history, preparation, assessment, desensitization, installation, body scan, closure, and reevaluation) their purpose goes deeper than procedure.
But remember this:
These 8 phases were designed to serve AIP principles (not the other way around).
What does this mean for clinical decisions?
Consider a client with significant developmental trauma. Standard protocol would have you identify discrete traumatic memories, process them sequentially, and install positive cognitions.
But through the AIP lens, you might recognize that this client's memory networks aren't organized around discrete events. They're actually structured around attachment disruptions that occurred thousands of times across development.
Which means you might need to:
Work with "memory clusters" rather than single incidents
Process emotional states rather than narrative memories
Focus on relational themes across memories
Use the therapeutic relationship itself as a processing resource
Integrate more interweaves addressing developmental needs
With complex dissociation, standard protocol might overwhelm the client's system. The AIP model would guide you to modify by:
Using shorter processing sets (sometimes as brief as 10-15 seconds)
Maintaining dual awareness more actively
Processing "from the periphery" rather than targeting the most disturbing aspects first
Incorporating more grounding between sets
Paying careful attention to window of tolerance throughout
These aren't random adjustments.
They're modifications guided by understanding how that specific client's information processing system functions and what it needs to move toward adaptive resolution.
So the next time you find yourself wondering whether to follow protocol or adapt, ask: "What would best serve this client's natural processing system right now?"
Let AIP guide that decision.
Processing Is Natural When Obstacles Are Removed
Here's the most powerful insight of all:
Processing happens naturally when obstacles are removed.
Think about physical wounds. They heal on their own once impediments are addressed (like removing debris, closing the wound, or providing proper nutrition). This principle completely changes how we approach stalled processing. Instead of adding more interventions or techniques, we identify and address specific obstacles.
What exactly blocks processing?
Here are a few things you should consider:
Unprocessed feeder memories: Sometimes a targeted memory won't process because earlier related experiences are maintaining it. A client processing workplace humiliation might stall until you address childhood experiences of being shamed for mistakes. (Remember the brain processes in networks, not isolated events).
Protective fears: The system may be protecting against perceived dangers of processing. A client might unconsciously believe: "If I let go of this anger, I'll be vulnerable to being hurt again" or "If I process this grief, I'm betraying the person I lost." These fears aren't resistance but rather adaptive protective responses that need to be acknowledged.
Resource deficits: Processing requires internal resources. If the client lacks affect tolerance, self-compassion, or the ability to maintain dual awareness, processing may stall until these capacities are developed.
System overwhelm: Current life stressors, sleep deprivation, substance use, or medical conditions can overwhelm the system's capacity for adaptive processing. Sometimes addressing basic physiological regulation must come before memory processing.
Attachment dynamics: Unaddressed relational themes in the therapeutic relationship can block processing. A client who fears judgment may not fully engage in processing until relational safety is established.
So when processing stalls, make sure you consider these potential obstacles.
Don't just repeat the same intervention hoping for different results. Instead ask "What might be blocking the natural healing process here?"
Then address that specific obstacle.
Integrating AIP Throughout Treatment
When EMDR truly works, it's because AIP principles are woven into every aspect of treatment.
The full power of AIP emerges when it guides every phase of treatment (not just desensitization).
Here's what that integration looks like:
History-taking: Beyond collecting events, you're mapping memory networks (identifying experiences that created templates for current functioning and understanding how these networks interconnect).
Preparation: Resources are developed specifically to address the blocks you anticipate encountering in the client's particular memory networks. Generic containment isn't enough. Preparation must be fitted to the specific processing challenges the client faces.
Assessment: Beyond identifying components, you're activating the memory network sufficiently to access it for processing while maintaining dual awareness.
Desensitization: Your focus shifts to identifying and removing obstacles to the brain's natural healing capacity. Each intervention is designed to support adaptive processing rather than force a particular outcome.
Installation: The positive cognition isn't just installed in one memory. It's integrated throughout interconnected memory networks, creating a new template for processing similar experiences.
Future template: You're deliberately activating the transformed memory network in anticipated future scenarios, strengthening new neural pathways and adaptive responses.
Try approaching your next case with this integrated AIP perspective from the very first session.
Notice how it shifts what you observe, what questions you ask, and how you conceptualize both problems and interventions.
Christopher Brown, LICSW
Founder and CEO, Helicon