Present and Future Prongs in the Three-Stage Model

Successfully completing a three-prong treatment plan in EMDR therapy is often a struggle for EMDR practitioners, especially when working with clients who have an extensive history of traumatic events, relationships, and related experiences. Many circumstances can contribute to this. This chapter will explore how the Present and Future prongs of EMDR can be incorporated into a broader framework, including models and theories of dissociation, ego state therapy, and the three-stage model of treatment for complex trauma and dissociative disorders. By embedding EMDR therapy within this layered framework, practitioners can draw from its phases and protocols to achieve a variety of therapeutic goals, including and beyond the standard objective of sequentially processing a memory network from Past prong to Present to Future.