Overcoming Blocks to Treatment

Name: Overcoming Blocks to Treatment
Uploaded: 2026-03-13T04:40:01.000Z
Description: Deborah Korn explains how to manage client panic when positive beliefs emerge using interweaves and identifying treatment blocks with EMDR therapy.

Deborah Korn explains how to manage client panic when positive beliefs emerge using interweaves and identifying treatment blocks with EMDR therapy.

From the course

EMDR for Complex Trauma

You may encounter situations where your client moves into a positive realm. They're embracing beliefs like I deserve to be happy, I'm a good person, I'm capable and can move forward in my life. And all of a sudden they panic, they get scared and you're hearing something like, what was I thinking? I don't deserve this, I'm not capable of this. And you you get a meltdown. What do you do in situations like that? You try to understand what's gotten triggered, what the block is. You bring in interweaves to help them. You normalize that we're talking about really turning a corner in their life, really starting to see themselves and their world in a very different light and it's not unusual to get some kickback from that. And if you need to, you explore those blocks. Where are they coming from? Is there a part of you that is just trying to protect you by making sure that you don't have expectations where you're going to be disappointed? Are there other old memories that somehow we missed, that we didn't cover, that we need to return to, we need to float back to? Are they hearing the voice of a perpetrator? Are they hearing the voice of an attachment figure? Let's reevaluate and see if there's something else that we need to address that'll allow them to clear the debris from the tracks and move forward. I would encourage you to really try to get through to installation in every session with a client. Will you be able to do that? No. But I want you to aim and using this idea of a gradual cognition, using a question like what's the most important thing you learned today will help you in arriving at some kind of positive cognition at the end of that session. It'll allow the client to end the session with a sense of accomplishment, a sense of triumph, like they're moving in the right direction. And that very very important in terms of maintaining motivation. And if you're finding that it's taking multiple sessions to get to installation and to get up to a seven, I'd encourage you to really step back and take a look at what you can do in terms of identifying blocking beliefs, blocks to treatment and creatively using clinical interweaves to get your client moving and to that finish line.