This is something I address directly with every client who comes to me for trauma work, because it matters for both your well-being and for the integrity of this work.
Human memory is reconstructive. This is not a limitation of EMDR - it is a fundamental feature of how all memory functions. What EMDR processes is the nervous system's experience of distress. It does not retrieve, verify, or authenticate what happened in the external world. This is especially true of recent, unconsolidated trauma memory and early developmental memory - both of which are more fragmentary and less narrative by nature.
Human memory is reconstructive. This is not a limitation of EMDR - it is a fundamental feature of how all memory functions. What EMDR processes is the nervous system's experience of distress. It does not retrieve, verify, or authenticate what happened in the external world. This is especially true of recent, unconsolidated trauma memory and early developmental memory - both of which are more fragmentary and less narrative by nature.
EMDR therapy does not verify, confirm, authenticate, or establish the occurrence of any external event. A clinician's decision to provide EMDR treatment is based solely on the client's reported symptoms and clinical presentation - not on the clinician's verification of any historical fact. The provision of EMDR therapy by this clinician does not constitute an opinion, finding, or conclusion that any particular event occurred, that any particular person caused harm, or that any particular level of injury exists.
This is stated clearly not to diminish your experience - your experience is real and it is what we are here to work with. It is stated because it is clinically accurate, and because you deserve to understand it before we begin.
If You Are Involved in Legal Proceedings
This comes up more often than people expect, so I address it plainly.
"I want you to know this upfront."
EMDR is a clinical treatment, not a forensic process. If you are involved in or anticipating any legal matter, my records and my involvement cannot be used to prove or support a legal claim, and I will not participate in legal proceedings. If that is something you are hoping to use therapy for, I am not the right fit - and I would rather we both know that now, before records exist and before a therapeutic relationship has formed around a misunderstanding. That is not a rejection. It is honesty - which is the only foundation this work can stand on.
EMDR is a clinical treatment, not a forensic process. If you are involved in or anticipating any legal matter, my records and my involvement cannot be used to prove or support a legal claim, and I will not participate in legal proceedings. If that is something you are hoping to use therapy for, I am not the right fit - and I would rather we both know that now, before records exist and before a therapeutic relationship has formed around a misunderstanding. That is not a rejection. It is honesty - which is the only foundation this work can stand on.
This applies equally to Recent Events Protocol and S.A.F.E. EMDR. The clinical protections are the same regardless of which protocol is used. The recency or developmental origin of trauma does not change its legal status or the nature of the records generated.
This includes personal injury claims, custody proceedings, workers' compensation, disability applications, criminal matters, and any situation where an attorney has suggested that therapy records might be useful to your case.
Receiving EMDR from this practice - in any form - cannot and will not be represented as clinical confirmation of any legal claim. This is stated as a condition of treatment, not a caveat buried in paperwork, but as something said plainly, at the start, to every client. Disclosure simply allows us to be honest with each other about what this relationship is and is not for.
This page describes the clinical and policy framework of this practice. It does not constitute legal advice and is not a substitute for the written intake agreements provided at the start of treatment.