Through lecture with PowerPoint slides, case examples, video clips, brief large group exercises, live demonstration, and Q & A, Bruce will present an in-depth overview of the overlap of IFS and EMDR focusing on the underlying natural organic healing process, the nature of Dual Attention, and how IFS and Coherence Therapy's clinical model of memory reconsolidation align to bridge a gap in the EMDR Standard Protocol where protectors (defenses) are encountered, and provide a larger systemic ego state context for guidance throughout the Standard Protocol.

Using IFS concepts as organizing principles in EMDR Phases One and Two, allows for the organic development of a treatment plan that identifies the most appropriate current target and provides the therapist and client a clearer path to essential Assessment Phase target information by understanding the importance of gathering each component element from a specified internal source.

Redefining the AIP network and targeted network as conscious relational entities engaged in a dynamic energetic healing relationship we can call Functional Dual Attention supports the initial construction and subsequent maintenance of dual attention throughout processing.

A Discovery process, named after a similar phase in Coherence Therapy, is outlined as a useful intermediate form of EMDR processing which combines resourcing and indirect trauma processing within the Preparation Phase at the doorstep of a conventional Assessment Phase. This method of working with protectors (defenses) using bilateral stimulation, is applied when the lack of Functional Dual Attention precludes a complete Assessment Phase and therefore, desensitization.

The role of the hippocampus in a possible mechanism of action of EMDR which accesses, enhances, and supports Functional Dual Attention is suggested and its relevance to both EMDR and IFS is explained.