Power, Threat, Meaning Framework informed EMDR for psychosis: Identifying and accessing trauma memories underlying psychotic experiences

Clinicians attempting to use EMDR with clients who experience psychosis may struggle to identify and access the trauma memories underlying the psychotic experiences. This may be due, in part, to the prevailing illness model and the traditional exclusion of psychosis from trials of EMDR. This paper aims to provide suggestions and guidance for clinicians developing their EMDR practice with psychosis. The paper describes five methods that may be useful clinically to identify the trauma memories. In order to support case conceptualisation, a mapping template is introduced and described. As dissociation and avoidance may complicate accessing trauma memories for reprocessing, techniques to work with these in psychosis are described. Future directions for both clinical and research work are considered.