Virtual EMDR…It does not have to be complicated. This was perfectly demonstrated to me this week when the logistics of one of my virtual session went off the rails. My camera on my computer quit working, and my client was using his cell phone. Yet we still decided to jump into reprocessing anyway.
I invited the client to pick out two spots on the wall and to use them as anchors. I then had the client move his eyes between them as rapidly as he could comfortably tolerate. We used this process as our BLS/DAS, with me saying “start” and “pause” for each set. The rest was our standard phases three, four, five, six and seven. Because the client was looking slightly up at the spots on the wall, it was effortless to track the eye movements and shifts in affective states. So even though he never could see me, and I was watching him on his cell phone, the session went magically well! 0-7-clear by the end of our time together.
Standard virtual safety standards should always be followed and knowing our client’s ability to navigate online platforms shouldn’t be ignored. But we don’t necessarily need all the bells and whistles of some of those amazing bilateral apps out there in order to practice EMDR online. We simply need to be attuned and collaborative with our clients. The magic still happens.
Go with that!