Integral Eye
Movement Therapy (IEMT) is a brief therapy technique that aims to create
emotional change by addressing the experiences by which the person learned to
feel the way they feel. Sessions can be very brief, lasting around 20 minutes,
but for more complex problems 1-3 longer session of around 1-2 hours may be
needed.
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| Eye Movement Therapy |
IEMT is also used to address aspect of a person's identity that may
be troublesome to them. For example in cases where a person of low self esteem “hates
themselves.” In a situation like this, the “I” that hates,
the feeling of hate, the feeling of being hated and the “self” that is the
subject of this emotion hate are all
addressed.
Practitioners are carefully trained to listen for identity
statements within the client's reporting of their experiences, and will pay
particular attention to pronouns (I, me, self, you) in order to discover deeper
and more complex emotional experiences that may be underlying the client's
distress.
Integral Eye Movement Therapy has an inbuilt advantage over many
therapies in that the client is not expected to be able to article their
suffering and distress for the benefit of the therapist. The treatment
algorithms are designed that the client only need feel the feelings associated
with the presenting problem and this is sufficient for the therapist to be able
to go to work resolving the presenting problems. As a result, IEMT is an ideal
therapy for working with communities where discussion of emotional problems is
taboo or inhibited, such as military environments, prisons and working with
young people.
The practice of IEMT is overseen by the Association for IEMT
Practitioners which provides ongoing support and education for licensed
practitioners and a referral network for client's seeking an approved
practitioner.
IEMT creator, Andrew
T. Austin is ever keen to emphasis that IEMT is a specific technique that
can be amazingly effective when applied correctly to problems assessed to be
responsive to such a program. It is not the grand unified theory of therapy,
will not cure everything and other support or therapeutic work may be required
that is outside of the practice of Integral Eye Movement Therapy. IEMT is
particular effective when working with issues of self esteem, traumatic
memories and stressful experiences, PTSD and phobia as well as the consequences
of living with such problems such as guilt, depression, insomnia and anxiety
states.
Integral Eye Movement Therapy has its roots
in Steve and Conniver Andrea's' “Eye Movement Integration” technique, David Grove's “Clean Language” work with
pronouns and Robert Dilts' work in NLP Imprinting.
