Hey there,

Ever found yourself following the EMDR protocol perfectly, yet your client remains stuck?

It’s more common than you think!

In my consultation work, I've noticed something interesting. The difference between adequate and exceptional EMDR outcomes rarely comes down to protocol adherence.

Instead it’s about deeply understanding the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model.

Let me share three helpful perspectives on AIP that can help you navigate even your most challenging cases.
​

AIP: A Helpful Framework for Information Processing

Your client's symptoms make perfect sense through the AIP lens.

When Francine Shapiro developed this model, she gave us a framework for understanding all psychological functioning.

She created it to explain how our brains process all types of information (i.e emotions, beliefs, physical sensations, etc). But when it comes to practical training, this often gets overlooked.

So what does AIP really mean in practice?

Take depression, for example.

Through the AIP lens, depression isn't a chemical imbalance or cognitive distortion issue. It often reflects memory networks where experiences of helplessness, loss, or failure are maladaptively stored. These networks then organize current perception, emotional responses, and meaning-making.

Or what about anxiety?

We’re not just seeing fear responses.

We're actually dealing with the activation of memory networks containing unprocessed experiences of danger, unpredictability, or overwhelming emotion. When current situations share elements with these stored experiences, the networks activate and create symptoms.

Even personality styles and relationship patterns that seem "just who the person is" connect to memory networks formed during developmental experiences.

The client with people-pleasing tendencies?

Look for early experiences where safety or connection required suppressing needs. These adaptive childhood responses become maladaptive adult patterns when stored in implicit memory networks.

The client who keeps choosing unavailable partners?

Explore networks formed when love was inconsistently available. The familiar pain of longing may feel safer than the unknown territory of consistent connection.

This shift transforms assessment entirely.

When you grasp AIP, everything changes about how you conceptualize cases.

Instead of collecting symptoms to match diagnostic categories, you're mapping memory networks. In other words, identifying experiences that created templates for current functioning and understanding how these networks interconnect.

So try this approach next time.

For each presenting symptom, ask yourself:

"What experiences might have taught the brain to function this way?"

Then look to see how these experiences might be stored and connected. The case conceptualization that emerges will guide treatment more effectively than any diagnosis.
​

The Protocol Serves the Model (Not Vice Versa)

The standard 8-phase protocol gives us structure.

While you're likely familiar with these phases (history, preparation, assessment, desensitization, installation, body scan, closure, and reevaluation) their purpose goes deeper than procedure.

But remember this:

These 8 phases were designed to serve AIP principles (not the other way around).

What does this mean for clinical decisions?

Consider a client with significant developmental trauma. Standard protocol would have you identify discrete traumatic memories, process them sequentially, and install positive cognitions.

But through the AIP lens, you might recognize that this client's memory networks aren't organized around discrete events. They're actually structured around attachment disruptions that occurred thousands of times across development.
​

Which means you might need to:

1. Work with "memory clusters" rather than single incidents
2. Process emotional states rather than narrative memories
3. Focus on relational themes across memories
4. Use the therapeutic relationship itself as a processing resource
5. Integrate more interweaves addressing developmental needs

With complex dissociation, standard protocol might overwhelm the client's system. The AIP model would guide you to modify by:

1. Using shorter processing sets (sometimes as brief as 10-15 seconds)
2. Maintaining dual awareness more actively
3. Processing "from the periphery" rather than targeting the most disturbing aspects first
4. Incorporating more grounding between sets
5. Paying careful attention to window of tolerance throughout

These aren't random adjustments.

They're modifications guided by understanding how that specific client's information processing system functions and what it needs to move toward adaptive resolution.

So the next time you find yourself wondering whether to follow protocol or adapt, ask: "What would best serve this client's natural processing system right now?"

Let AIP guide that decision.

Processing Is Natural When Obstacles Are Removed

Here's the most powerful insight of all:

Processing happens naturally when obstacles are removed.

Think about physical wounds. They heal on their own once impediments are addressed (like removing debris, closing the wound, or providing proper nutrition). This principle completely changes how we approach stalled processing. Instead of adding more interventions or techniques, we identify and address specific obstacles.

What exactly blocks processing?

Here are a few things you should consider:

Unprocessed feeder memories: Sometimes a targeted memory won't process because earlier related experiences are maintaining it. A client processing workplace humiliation might stall until you address childhood experiences of being shamed for mistakes. (Remember the brain processes in networks, not isolated events).

Protective fears: The system may be protecting against perceived dangers of processing. A client might unconsciously believe: "If I let go of this anger, I'll be vulnerable to being hurt again" or "If I process this grief, I'm betraying the person I lost." These fears aren't resistance but rather adaptive protective responses that need to be acknowledged.

Resource deficits: Processing requires internal resources. If the client lacks affect tolerance, self-compassion, or the ability to maintain dual awareness, processing may stall until these capacities are developed.

System overwhelm: Current life stressors, sleep deprivation, substance use, or medical conditions can overwhelm the system's capacity for adaptive processing. Sometimes addressing basic physiological regulation must come before memory processing.

Attachment dynamics: Unaddressed relational themes in the therapeutic relationship can block processing. A client who fears judgment may not fully engage in processing until relational safety is established.

So when processing stalls, make sure you consider these potential obstacles.

Don't just repeat the same intervention hoping for different results. Instead ask "What might be blocking the natural healing process here?"

Then address that specific obstacle.

Integrating AIP Throughout Treatment

When EMDR truly works, it's because AIP principles are woven into every aspect of treatment.

The full power of AIP emerges when it guides every phase of treatment (not just desensitization).

Here's what that integration looks like:

History-taking: Beyond collecting events, you're mapping memory networks (identifying experiences that created templates for current functioning and understanding how these networks interconnect).

Preparation: Resources are developed specifically to address the blocks you anticipate encountering in the client's particular memory networks. Generic containment isn't enough. Preparation must be fitted to the specific processing challenges the client faces.

Assessment: Beyond identifying components, you're activating the memory network sufficiently to access it for processing while maintaining dual awareness.

Desensitization: Your focus shifts to identifying and removing obstacles to the brain's natural healing capacity. Each intervention is designed to support adaptive processing rather than force a particular outcome.

Installation: The positive cognition isn't just installed in one memory. It's integrated throughout interconnected memory networks, creating a new template for processing similar experiences.

Future template: You're deliberately activating the transformed memory network in anticipated future scenarios, strengthening new neural pathways and adaptive responses.

Try approaching your next case with this integrated AIP perspective from the very first session.

Notice how it shifts what you observe, what questions you ask, and how you conceptualize both problems and interventions.

I'd love to hear what you find.

Which aspects of AIP have had the most impact on your clients? What questions are you still wrestling with in your practice?

I’d love to hear from you. Just reply to this email!

Until next week,

Chris
​

Thanks for reading Helicon's EMDR Therapist Weekly, where we aim to provide a weekly dose of insights, tools, and opportunities for EMDR therapists; designed to support your growth, sharpen your practice, and connect you with what's next.

​
​If you're not already subscribed, subscribe here. You can also click here to learn about what Helicon is building, or apply to join our pilot if you're an EMDR provider and want to connect with others on the same path.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article is for informational purposes only. This is not legal or clinical advice and we make no guarantees about the outcomes or results from information shared in this document. Proceed at your own risk and discretion.

​
​
​