MODIFIED EMDR RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
& INSTALLATION PROTOCOL
Janina Fisher, Ph.D.
The Trauma Center, Boston, MA
Center for Integrative Healing, Watertown, MA
[This protocol, adapted from the EMDR Resource Development
and Installation protocol developed by Korn & Leeds (2002),
is intended to facilitate the development of internal resources and
increased affect tolerance in clients with more severe symptomatology
and/or a paucity of positive experiences.]
1. Defining the purpose of the resource:
Ask the client to identify the most distressing issue, feeling or
challenge in current life OR the most distressing part of the current
crisis OR the most difficult feature of an upcoming challenge
For example, “What issue in your life seems to be most distressing on
a day-to-day basis? What part of this issue or situation is the most
overwhelming for you? Where do you usually get defeated by it?”
2. Envisioning a resource that would help:
Ask the client to imagine the type of resource s/he would need to feel
or respond differently: “What inner strength or resource or capacity
would help you to not feel so overwhelmed? So demoralized? So
helpless? So inadequate?”
If that is too abstract, ask, “What feeling or belief would you need to
have to be able to____________________?”
Or ask the client to imagine what resources allow “other people” (i.e.,
the average person) to get through or master such situations
Or ask the client to think of someone known (either personally or
generally) who epitomizes or embodies the resource
Then, ask the client to free-associate about that quality or resource:
“When you think about what it means to have ____________, what
comes to mind?”
3. Imaginatively developing the resource:
Next, ask the client to “imagine what it would feel like” or “what it
would be like” to have that resource already inside the mind and body
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Use evocative images and phrases to access the client’s intuition and
imagination: “If you woke up every morning with that resource by
your side, what would be different? How would you greet the day?”
or “If you had that resource in every cell in your body, what would it
be like?”
Challenge the client’s assertion that it is not possible to envision or
that it could never happen with reminders that the resource is
supposed to be something that seems impossible now, OR that, if s/he
has the ability to imagine bad feelings, she also has the ability to
imagine good ones
4. Elaborating the resource:
Layer and chain together the guided imagery provided by the client:
“Yes, and if you felt more ________, what would follow from that?”
“And if you felt more ________ and you were able therefore to
_____________, what else would follow from that?”
Link these images to bodily sensations, feelings and cognitions: “As
you imagine being able to feel _________ and do___________, notice
what it feels like in the body” “Notice how it feels emotionally . . .”
“Notice how your thinking is different when you have this resource
available to you . . .”
Create “mini-future templates:” “Imagine going to work with this
resource available to you . . .” “Imagine facing [the challenging
situation] now with this resource in every cell of your body . . .”
When the client has elaborated the resource and has positive
sensations and emotions connected to it, that resource can now be
installed. [Caveat: if client is getting intrusions at this point, see
section on “Dealing with intrusive material” at end of the protocol]
5. Installing the resource:
Re-state and re-evoke the most significant images and phrases
associated with the resource: “Once again, imagine yourself with this
resource of _________________ already in every cell of your body,
allowing you to feel more ____________, ___________, and even
____________ . Notice the feeling in your body that goes with
having ______________ within you.”
Connect the word picture of the resource with body sensations
Use short (4-12) sets of bilateral stimulation to install
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Then re-state and re-evoke the words and images before the next set:
“Yes, with ______________ inside you, you feel calmer and more
peaceful as well—go with that.”
Continue installation process until a positive state is consistently
reached or until client experiences intrusive feelings or thoughts
When positive state is installed, then it can be “tested” using Future
Templates of mildly challenging situations
If client instead experiences intrusions, use the procedure below
6. Addressing negative intrusions:
When client reports intrusive feelings, thoughts, sensations, or images,
those intrusions should be welcomed and re-framed as a “challenge”
or “test” of the reliability of the resource
Target the intrusion by re-stating it in the patient’s own words and
locating it in the body
Then ask the client to imagine facing the intrusive material with the
resource available: “What would your ___________ say to that
anxiety?” “Bring your sense of ______________ to the feeling in the
pit of your stomach and notice what you get” “Imagine having your
resource on your side as you face _________________”
Use short (2-8) sets of bilateral stimulation until the client reports
positive benefit: i.e., anxiety is calmed, perspective is regained or
even strengthened, positive images emerge
If negative intrusions persist after several attempts to address them,
stop the bilateral stimulation and provide some psychoeducational
reassurance: need to go slowly, difficulty trusting positive feelings,
need for more than one resource to combat post-traumatic material
Subsequent resource sessions should then be abbreviated so that
installation is stopped before the intrusions become intractable
7. Summary and reinforcement:
Re-state the client’s emotional and somatic experience of what it was
like to imagine having the resource available to her
Ask the client to imagine “a symbol, an image, a word or a mantra
that could help you evoke the resource whenever you needed it in the
course of your day.”
Pair the resource images with the symbol or mantra and install using
short sets of bilateral stimulation
Encourage client to evoke the image or mantra frequently and to use
visual or written cues in her environment to remind her to do so
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8. Strengthening the resource over time:
Follow up on the client’s use of the resource at subsequent sessions:
“How did it go using the image [or mantra] to help you connect to the
resource?” “When that happened, did you try to access your resource
to help you feel less overwhelmed?”
Remember that the less resourced and more affect-intolerant the client
is, the greater the need to “practice” how and when to use a resource
Use Future Templates to “rehearse” the use of resources: starting with
images of mildly challenging situations, have the client imagine using
or just having the resource available, then install the positive results
If the client has difficulty, decrease the amount of challenge OR
increase the amount of resource: add additional new or previously
installed resources to the Future Template situation
Make the resources part and parcel of every therapy session: imagine
them as “therapeutic allies” of both client and therapist
9. Helping the client to generalize use of resources:
For clients who have had few experiences of mastery or safety or
feeling resourced, learning to generalize newly developed resources is
a vital part of treatment
Use psychoeducation to teach the client how, when and where to
utilize resources in the course of daily life: in preparation for stressful
events or daily challenges, when triggered, when anxious or
overwhelmed, at “anniversary times” of day or year
Use Float Back or Float Forward techniques to prospectively or
retrospectively install the use of the resource in these types of
situations: starting with the Future or Past Template, have the client
imagine having the resource “by your side” or “in every cell” or
“available intravenously,” then layer and install the imagined positive
response along with any new positive cognitions.
Intrusions should be anticipated and addressed as in section 6
For highly unstable or affect intolerant clients, the use of continuous
bilateral stimulation is often helpful: because their ability to tolerate
even short sets can be so limited, continuous stimulation provides a
way to install the talking, problem-solving, and psychoeducational
parts of therapy
Copyright 2001 Janina Fisher, PhD
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