As a Jazz musician I learned how much variety lives with that word, “Jazz.” Perhaps because I love Jazz, which is a “living in the moment” art, I tend to see the “living in the moment” in any endeavor that I choose to focus on. Jazz taught me to see what is happening and how I should react to that particular moment, moments that have nothing to do with music. Perhaps Jazz is the best example of a living-in-the-moment art; beat by beat, one must listen to determine what to play or not play based on the environment one is playing in. Not playing is just as important as playing, perhaps more so. It was said of Miles Davis, “Miles played the most beautiful rests.” Often, the most beautiful thing you can do for someone is nothing. 

This applies not only to music but also to art. I had a friend who painted watercolors. He was excellent at his art. I asked him what the most difficult thing about watercolors was. His answer surprised me. He said, “Knowing when the painting is finished. You have to know when to stop painting. That is the hardest thing for me, but I’m getting better at knowing when to stop.”

 I remember writing my first book. I didn’t have a plan; I just started writing, and when I wrote the last sentence, it was a bit of a shock. I said to myself, “Shit, I think it’s done; I think that was the last sentence,” and so it was. “Finally, after fifty-eight years of searching, now I know; I am nothing more and nothing less than a trash collector for the soul.” That was it. The end. I did not know where that line came from, nor did I have any thought after that line. I knew this living in the moment focus on the book had end with a line from beyond me.

So, what does all of this have to do with EMDR? I first learned and used EMDR in 1998. Dr. Richard Elmore, Jr., trained me and Francine Shapiro trained him. I used EMDR during my graduate training under Richard’s tutelage. Upon graduating, I officially trained with William Zangwill, Ph.D., who Francine Shapiro also trained. I mention these two men because they were very psychoanalytic in their approach. Their hands-off method was extreme. It took me some time to get used to this hands-off method, but they both insisted, and over time, I learned they were absolutely correct. They taught me to trust the process of EMDR, trust the unconscious mind and the self healing power that lives within each of us. They were both adamant saying, You have no idea what is causing the issue for the client, and neither does the client, but EMDR will show you both. The beauty of EMDR is that it will show the client their truth. I just had to learn to shut up and stay out of the way. That is not as easy as it sounds.

 EMDR is a psychoanalytic form of psychotherapy. (Leeds, 2016). This hands-off method is transformative for the client. The power they experience by figuring things out without the therapist’s help is enormous. If the therapist reveals the solution in advance, they have cheated the client out of their own internal experience of figuring it out for themselves. The most powerful way for people to change is to have an internal experience. If the therapist deprives them of this, then the therapist does not understand the basic premise of effective therapy, which is that people change because they have an internal experience that causes change. Not because a therapist said some magic words that aren’t magic at all. 

 In a way, Transformational EMDR™ is a road back to the future. This style of EMDR is where EMDR began. These days, the standard protocol is so quickly disposed of, with other models being thrown into a process unnecessarily. The problem is that most therapists have no idea what psychoanalytic language sounds or looks like these days. Some clinicians do not understand the basic psychoanalytic premise that the unconscious behaves like an adversary or an ally, depending on whether the client is avoiding and resisting or compliant and bravely working on the material that needs to be worked on.

What does this mean, that unconscious functions as an ally or adversary? Understanding how these opposing processes manifest during EMDR takes more time than is available in this introduction. Suffice it to say, the unconscious as an ally works in the service of healing 24/7. The client will have helpful dreams, and the events the client reports to the therapist that might seem silly or unimportant are words directly from the unconscious to assist in the self-healing process of EMDR. My clients would often say, “I had EMDR before, but it was never like this.” When the unconscious is your ally, there is nothing like it. The entire universe assists. Synchronistic events start to happen, and the client feels like they are not alone. 

The ultimate client-centered approach is to follow the unconscious and recognize it as an ally. We often say the work is client-centered when, in reality, it is not client-centered at all. 

The therapist has a plan and an agenda. Perhaps they learn some cool IFS, SE, Poly Vagal, or ego state tricks they want to start using, so they unnecessarily impose their new tool on a session. In these cases, the therapist is not following the client. In her Principles, Protocols, and Procedures textbook, Shapiro says dozens of times that the therapist should stay out of the way. They should not have an agenda; indeed, they should never have a preconceived idea of what will happen in a session (Shapiro, 2018). The only way to lead the client to their truth is for the therapist to follow where the client is taking them to an extreme, an extreme that makes you uncomfortable. An extreme so you will see the self-healing happen in front of your eyes, and all you have to do is let the process unfold and wait, watch, and listen.

Do not get me wrong. I am a fan of learning everything you can, but these other models and all this education is for problem solving. Let EMDR do what it does and stay out of the way. If there is a problem, that is the time to be creative to help the client out of a loop or block. Otherwise, keep your knowledge to yourself.

EMDR is like Jazz. There are many forms of Jazz. For me, I love the world of the Jazz Standards. (Standards are a collection of great songs every jazz musician must know.) These songs are where it began, including the blues and gospel. I don’t need synthesizers and computers, just a piano, bass player, and drummer. This is the essence of that art. All the other endless types of Jazz improvised music start with the standards. 

So, it is with EMDR. My style honors the standard protocol, in fact, I practically worship it. It’s where all the music comes from when we let it. Transformational EMDR™ may not be for everyone. Some people are uncomfortable without a strict plan that they must follow. Some people rigidly follow every statement they hear in their fundamental training. Some people read scripts to their clients in the service of fidelity to the model. Reading scripts to your clients should never be done. That is like seeing a play with the actors holding the script in their hands at the performance. 

In my style of Transformational EMDR™, we go back to the future, back to where and how it all began, reminding people that the best way to heal your client is to get them in the chair starting phase four as quickly and as safely as possible. Any model integration that delays this harms the client. Please do not harm your clients by withholding or delaying EMDR therapy. With Transformational EMDR™, the first directive is to get the client into phase four as quickly as possible to bring relief as soon as possible.

Ready to start your Transformational EMDR™ journey? Visit our advanced EMDR training calendar for opportunities.