Attachment-Focused EMDR vs Standard EMDR

After I completed training in attachment-focused EMDR, one question I have received from both clients and colleagues is, “how does attachment-focused EMDR differ from the standard EMDR that I have heard about?”

The two approaches are very similar and built on the same scaffolding, with the goal of reprocessing and desensitizing past trauma. The founder of attachment focused EMDR, Laurel Parnell, describes the attachment-focused model as an orientation of EMDR, essentially a particular way of providing the process.

The attachment-focused training adds two emphases to its approach: the therapeutic relationship and repairing past unmet emotional needs.

Emphasizing the therapeutic relationship often means the therapist is closely tracking the client’s experience to see where to implement flexibility to the EMDR steps in order to best meet client’s emotional needs. If we need to shift the series of steps in order for the client to feel most comfortable or more efficiently process, we will. Not only does this aim to support more effective processing, but it aims to help the client feel understood and seen. It honors clients who may need adjustment to the steps in order to increase a sense of attunement and ease.

Meanwhile, repairing past unmet emotional needs often involves not only addressing past painful memories, but also focusing on the essential emotional and developmental needs that the client may not have received in the past. This element adds reparative steps (though visualization and a process we call resourcing) to allow the client to connect to these foundational emotional needs and strengthen them within themselves. This process allows us to effectively address complex trauma (collections of painful moments that occurred overtime or when emotional needs were consistently not met/harmed), as well as attachment trauma (when early disruptions in the foundational connection between the caregiver and child occurred).

For more on what EMDR is, see my blog post What is EMDR

Reach out if you are interested in learning more about attachment-focused EMDR to address complex trauma in Santa Barbara (or remotely through the state of California).