But what do we do when these approaches don't work? As therapists we've all had "difficult" clients who don't respond to our usual approaches. What makes these clients difficult? Sometimes it's a personality disorder that we didn't immediately diagnose. Often the "difficult" part, whatever the diagnosis, involves a place where they seem "stuck." These stuck places often involve their emotions in complex ways. My initial reading of affect theory and script theory suggests to me that we are working with an area where the client has "scripts" which are not working for them at that point. These dysfunctional scripts bind them emotionally and limit their choices.

The recent alliance between the pioneers of affect theory and the pioneers of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) provides us with some powerful tools to help clients get unstuck. These tools (such as EMDR) can work quickly for people who are stuck because of a fairly focused trauma in their life. They can also be used as an adjunct to psychotherapy for clients who require longer term work.

At the latest Colloquium for the Tomkins Institute there were numerous presentations by therapists who use EMDR as well as by theoreticians who are trying to understand EMDR in terms of affect theory and script theory. EMDR is seen as a "de-scripting device" which frees people of dysfunctional scripts which they are stuck in.

This theory is in contrast with Francine Shapiro's understanding of EMDR as a form of accelerated information processing. In an earlier feature I presented one alternative explanation for EMDR. Nathanson and his colleagues seem to be closer to this alternative explanation than to Shapiro's original theory. You can participate in discussions with these two professionals at Behavior Online. Francine Shapiro leads the discussion on EMDR and Donald Nathanson leads the discussion on Shame and Affect Theory.