10 Challenges EMDR Therapists Encounter Without Systemic Integration

EMDR is a powerful modality but when we don’t consider the client's environment, family system, and cultural context, we may only treat symptoms without understanding their roots.

Here are 10 common challenges therapists fall into when EMDR is practiced in isolation from systemic thinking.

1. Treating the Trauma as Solely Internal

Without a systemic lens, we can pathologise clients by assuming their distress originates within them, rather than as a response to their environment or relational field

Ask, “Who else is holding this trauma?”

2. Skipping the Family or Cultural Narrative

Overlooking intergenerational trauma, loyalty conflicts, or cultural legacies can lead to poor target selection and blocked processing.

Include genograms or legacy burdens in history taking.

3. Neglecting the Client’s Relational Field

Processing trauma while the client is still embedded in unsafe or invalidating systems can limit the effectiveness of EMDR.

Assess current dynamics, home, work, partnerships before deep trauma processing.

4. Over-Relying on Protocol, Under-Relying on Perspective

EMDR phases can become mechanical when applied without curiosity about the bigger picture.

Use Phase 1 to explore relational cycles, attachment styles, and systemic roles.

5. Misreading "Blocked Processing"

What looks like resistance may be systemic loyalty, role confusion, or cultural prohibitions against expression.

Ask, “What system might this block be protecting?”

6. Over-Isolating the Client from Their Story

Without systemic insight, clients may feel over-individualised or disconnected from the social or family systems that shaped their experience.

Reinforce connection to identity, lineage, and support networks.

7. Ignoring Therapist Activation

The therapist’s own family system, trauma history, or systemic roles can unconsciously shape the EMDR process.

Reflect on how your own system might be showing up in the room.

8. Focusing Solely on pathologising Memories

Clients may also carry trauma that is ambient, collective, or passed down non-verbally and not always event based.

Target systemic experiences like emotional roles, inherited shame, or cultural silence.

9. Overlooking the "Client-as-Container" Role

Some clients carry trauma on behalf of a family member, sibling, or parent.

Explore parts or targets related to "carrying burdens for others."

10. Missing Integration with Other Modalities

EMDR doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Without systemic integration, we risk losing opportunities for insight, re-patterning, and narrative healing.

Blend EMDR with family systems, parts work, and culturally attuned dialogue.

Sources:

Shapiro, F., & Laliotis, D. (2010). EMDR and the Adaptive Information Processing Model: Integrating EMDR into clinical practice. Journal of EMDR Practice and Research, 4(4), 264–278.

Bowen, M. (1978). Family Therapy in Clinical Practice.

Parnell, L. (2007). A Therapist’s Guide to EMDR: Tools and Techniques for Successful Treatment.