Thomas Zimmerman, Ms.Ed., LPCC, offers EMDR Foundational Training in Cleveland, Ohio, and online. We can also train your whole agency. See: EMDRCleveland.com
You are technically correct, quoting Dr. Shapiro in EMDR Therapy when you say that a SUDs of one can be ecological if it “sounds right.” Shapiro's example of an Uncle who died. Shapiro worked with really healthy people and what’s in a one with her clients may be different than what’s in a one or a two with clients with really complex trauma. With really healthy people, you can go to installation if the SUDs is a one if it “sounds right” and the debris will likely get cleared up in Phases Five and Six.
You may be tempted to say that because I’m working with a complex client, a two is pretty good. Especially if we are starting at an eight to ten SUDs. And it is. Yes, we don’t want to make the perfect the enemy of the good.
However, a lot can be hiding in that one or two with a client with complex trauma.
If I had $5 every time the client said that the SUDs was a one, two, or three and it wasn’t going to go lower and it immediately went lower once they noticed it, I’d be able to go on a nice vacation. Out of the country. It’s simply good practice to identify what makes it that one, two, or three and ask the client to notice it a few rounds. And you know what happens, 97%+ of the time? It goes lower within a few sets of the client saying that it isn’t going to go lower. And yes, there are ways to do this respectfully what the client says to you, but also lets them fully and adaptively resolve that memory.
Really good things happen when clients fully and adaptive resolve memories. Generalization occurs. Installation isn’t junky. Body scan isn’t leaving debris. A one or a two may also be an ember that may ignite other things between sessions.
Don’t want to run the marathon and then sit in the lawn chair within sight of the finish line. If we can, finish it. Get your time. Get that race in the books. Whatever it is that makes it a one, two, or three, or whatever it is that makes the Validity of Cognition a five or six, notice that and it is highly to movie in a positive direction… unless it’s about something in the future or about other things from the past. That’s not your target. We’re in the business of resolving memories, not whole themes all at once and we don’t work in the past and the future at the same time. We have the future prong and future template for that.
What is it that makes it a two? Notice that. If it doesn’t go lower, that’s okay. But it’s also okay to notice whatever that two is a few rounds before you assume that it’s good enough for this client on this day.