Hello, I’d like to welcome every self-healer to this healing space. There is a tight link between trauma and addiction. It’s hard just to treat trauma or addiction. These issues are often interconnected. Although not all addiction is caused by trauma, trauma is the common denominator for people struggling with addiction. It’s normal to avoid painful experiences. We develop ways to cope with painful experiences. However, our coping strategies can be healthy or unhealthy.
With this EMDR demonstration, I will be using the DeTUR protocol (The Desensitization of Triggers and Urge Reprocessing). This particular protocol is developed by Arnold J. POPKY, who is one of the pinors of EMDR therapy. As a protocol of EMDR therapy, this method targets the triggers that bring up the uncomfortable feelings leading to urges. The purpose of the protocol is to uncover the core traumas with the goal of decreasing addiction and promoting relapse prevenion. As a result, triggers do not lead to engagement of addictive behaviors. Individuals can engage in new responses and effectively cope and function in life.
Step 1:Identify presenting problems. In this step, you’re going to identity specific addiction or addictive behavior.
Step 2: Access your internal resource state. EMDR is all about desentizing and reprocessing. It’s too much to just reprocess trauma and overwhelming feelings. It’s essential to desentize or down regulate highly sensitive or stimulated feelings.
Step 3: Identify urge triggers: Triggers are certain people, places, images, words, behaviors/actions, smell, tastes, etc.
Step 4: Desenstize triggers
Step 5: Install positive state
Step 6: Test and future check. In step, I’d like to help you prepare for future challenges and triggers. We’re going to do a visualization exercise for possible future scenarios.
Step 7: Closure and self-work
There is no “one size fits all” solutions exists for addiction, therefore this intervention is designed to be very adapative in terms of each individual client’s needs, goals and values. Different people have different core traumatic events/issues that lead to addiction. Again, it’s a demonstration of the DeTUR EMDR therapy. If you’re interested in this work, it’s important to find a therapist trained in this protocol and also willing to understand your unique trauma and addiction history. I hope this video raises your awareness and helps you uncover and process your unresolved feelings and behavioral/thinking patterns. Again, addiction is very common and we all can recover from addiction. Take good care of yourself and do your healing every day.
Here is the link to the EMDR DeTUR protocol: https://compassionworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/DeTUR-WORK-SHEET1.pdf
If you’re interested in therapy, please schedule a 20 minute free consultation