EMDR and starting with the past

As an EMDR therapist it is not uncommon for a client to ask me why we are going back to their childhood when we are taking a history or identifying target memories to reprocess.

This is a valid question, especially if they are coming into therapy with a more present focused issue (perhaps depression or relational problems). And as an EMDR therapist I have to have a solid understanding of why I am asking them to do this and be able to explain it to my client so they understand and can make an informed choice.

We want to take a history that includes childhood and the attachments our clients had in childhood, because, As Ana Gomez explained in her talk at the recent EMDRIA Summit, “These early relational patterns influence how experiences are organized, how experiences are remembered, and how they are narrated….Attachment does not only influence what is remembered, but how memory is structured, how memory is accessed, how memory is experienced.”

In addition, I explain to clients that those early experiences lay the template, or the foundation for how our clients see themselves, others, and the world. So even if these early experiences don’t feel super disturbing in the present, they shaped how present day triggers are responded to and shaped what adaptations have been developed to manage distress.

I often find that explaining this to my clients is enough for them to buy in and consent to going back to their past, the root of their current patterns.