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Dr. David Blore PhD Research symposium: 13 th EMDR Europe Conference: Madrid 2012

Plasticity of Meaning:  A proposed AIP theory extension to explain the totality of psychological change in EMDR. Dr. David Blore PhD Research symposium: 13 th EMDR Europe Conference: Madrid 2012. This presentation on an AIP ‘theory extension’ was

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Dr. David Blore PhD Research symposium: 13 th EMDR Europe Conference: Madrid 2012

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  1. Plasticity of Meaning: A proposed AIP theory extension to explain the totality of psychological change in EMDR Dr. David Blore PhD Research symposium: 13th EMDR Europe Conference: Madrid 2012

  2. This presentation on an AIP ‘theory extension’ was derived from a study (Blore 2012a; 2012b & c awaiting publication) which aimed to investigate Positive Psychological Change (PPC) (including post traumatic growth) amongst road traffic accident survivors who had subsequently undergone EMDR. A Poster presentation expands on this presentation

  3. EMDR is proven. AIP is the hypothesis of psychological change handicapped by a recognised lack of knowledge • AIP is not a model of the totality of psychological change • (Blore 2012a, pp.43-45)…rather AIP explains psychological change process with a heavy emphasis on the reduction of negative psychological changes (rNPC) • Why? • Creation of evidence base • Evidence base requires focus on rNPC • AIP and the ‘Maslovian Trap’ (Blore 2012c awaiting publication) Is Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) useful? (Greenwald & Shapiro 2010)

  4. “The science of psychology has been far more successful on the negative than on the positive side. It has revealed to us much about man’s shortcomings, his illness, his sins, but little about his potentialities, his virtues, his achievable aspirations, or his full psychological height. It is as if psychology has voluntarily restricted itself to only half its rightful jurisdiction, and that, the darker, meaner half.” (Maslow 1954 p.354)

  5. Positive psychological change • “…something positively new that signifies a kind of surplus compared to precrisis level…” (Zöellner & Maercker 2006 p.334) • rNPC ¹ PPC • rNPC + PPC = totality of psychological change • Why is an understanding of the totality • of psychological change so important? • So as not to underestimate the full potential of EMDR • So as to ‘open up’ new fields of research e.g. • ‘Intentional’ change (performance enhancement) • ‘Unintentional’ growth (positive psychology)

  6. Not a lot! The current position… what does AIP have to say about PPC? “…forging new associations within and between memory networks.”(Shapiro 1995,2001; ‘Item 11’ Dworkin 2005, p.224) “…metabolised… …digested….”(Solomon & Shapiro 2008 p316) “what is useful is… made available to guide the person in the future(Ibid, Shapiro 1995; 2001) strengthening positive cognitions until they can be strengthened no more(Shapiro 2001) …but nothing about what happens when you do…

  7. We don’t have the money in Europe to fund research • It is not relevant? • EMDR has proved its ‘negative-reducing’ credentials – so we don’t need to know? • Is PPC occurs well after the client’s discharge and probably therefore well after the therapist has lost contact with the client? …yet the basic the EMDR protocol incorporates, as standard, Installation of a positive cognition (see also McKelvey 2009) So why isn’t AIP more explicit about PPC? Crucially, what does it say that we don’t know?

  8. What do we know about the totality of psychological change following trauma and EMDR? Not a lot!

  9. Methodology in a nutshell… • A cross sectional, post treatment IPA study… 4/52 RTA EMDR 9+ years • Semi-structured interview schedule • ‘Snowball’ sampling of n=12 participants (survivors of RTAs) • Participants recruited over 26/12 via their treating clinicians (all of whom were Accredited EMDR Consultants in the UK) • Participants interviewed by researcher, • Interviews transcribed manually so as to avoid 3rd party bias in IPA process • Final themes and their phenomenologically-grounded text extracts were selected randomly for independent blind reviewer process

  10. Results Psychological ‘change’ after trauma is not a unitary phenomenon Evidence-based chronological psychological change prediction: T: NPC: RxEMDR: rNPC=min Instead, the study demonstrated a consistent psychological change process: T: NPC+PPC: RxEMDR: NPC↓ PPC↑: NPC=min,PPC=max What does not kill me, makes me stronger. Friedrich Nietzsche(Twilight of the Idols, 1888)German philosopher (1844 – 1900)

  11. Navigation Struggle (=NPC) Assumptive world and struggle with assumptions Spirituality to resolve struggle Hankering Secondary traumatic experiences and iatrogenesis Struggles to cope with NPC and to gain control of readjustment Network Growth (=PPC) Hindsighting Paradox (NB comments on giggling: van der Kolk 2012) Foresighting Development of success heuristic Expansion of social network Personal and Spiritual development Appreciation of life and Gratitude Aspirations Themes of totality of psychological change

  12. 346 instances of FLU were identified, of which 89 (25.7%) utilised RTA/driving-related metaphors, similes, synecdoche and other forms of FLU and at least 15 (almost 17%) were directly attributable to the road traffic accident experienced by the participant who used FLU “FLU(figurative language use – not Spanish) A third theme!Neither NPC nor PPC…

  13. An IPA The frequency of FLU throughout the interviews

  14. If ‘agent of change’ in EMDR (Shapiro 2007)= ‘Reconsolidation of Memory Theory’ (Cahill & McGaugh 1998)which in turn is founded on Synaptic Plasticity(Frey & Morris 1997)…is it possible that a Plasticity of Meaning – observable through FLU - is an indication of acquisition of wisdom and thus networks connecting?Assuming wisdom (the first three themes in PPC) relate to ‘making connections’ is PoM an indication of rNPC and PPC being generated?In essence, is PoM the missing piece in the AIP ‘jigsaw’? “Neurons that fire together wire together” (Lakoff & Johnson 1980/2003, p.256)

  15. Microanalysis of FLU…to illustrate PoM(see poster at this conference for detailed explanations ) “It’s almost like somebody puts a pair of spectacles on you and you go from this half blurred vision and knowing that people are there, to some sort of clarity… I think I’ve become much more focussed.”(‘Robert’: lines 261-3, 279) • Robert is talking about his family, but keeps referring to ‘vision metaphors’ • Something about ‘vision’ is important to help Robert explain himself • The poster shows why Robert may have had to resort to explaining things figuratively • Why did Robert select ‘vision’? • After EMDR, Robert’s hobby of archery had became a serious competitive sport. The sport - in Robert’s opinion - needs excellent eyesight • EMDR for Robert’s memories of the RTA had inadvertently created a winning archer! • PoM is an explanation of how words, associated with one network, become used in an altered form by another network and PPC results…

  16. Summary of PoM • PoM is built on and is consistent with the foundations of AIP • PoM predicts individuals are driven to find meaning and to express that meaning • Expressive difficulties are stored in the body (the ‘expressive default’) • Expressive defaults trigger concept/word searches • The network requiring words is the ‘consumer’ network • The located network with a literally held word is the ‘supplier network’ • ‘Trading’ words requires a word to be shared between the supplier network (literal usage) and the consumer network (figurative usage) – the result is a plasticity of meaning and linking of networks – the observable result is FLU • The ‘rules’ of trading are governed by idiosyncratic usage

  17. Finally… (to preempt two questions)… • AIP only uses metaphors such as “metabolised” and “digested”. Doesn’t PoM merely cover up lack of knowledge further by using a further jungle of metaphors? • No to cover up • Jungle of metaphors yes • Needs sorting out! Could be a much better metaphor • Does this mean that all previous EMDR research needs redoing to capture the totality of change? • Logically - yes • In practice - doubtful

  18. Thank you for listeningDr. David Blore can be contacted via:www.linkedin.com (Positive Psychology & EMDR group) ordavid.blore@btinternet.comAcademic acknowledgements: Professor C. Clifford, Dr. D. Farrell Other acknowledgements:Charles Burdett, Dr. A. Button, Dr. W. Carswell OBE, Dr. M. Holmshaw, Dr. A. Linley, Lynne Mackay, Fokkina McDonnell, Ian Plagaro-Neill, Professor D. Richards, Prof. Martin Seligman, Dr. F. Shapirio, Professor R. Tedeschi, Dr. S. Timsonand not forgetting the research participants

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