ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 considers the extant literature on utilizing EMDR within family systems therapy as well as the studies integrating the use of EMDR with specific family therapy models that address the couple subsystem. It focuses on enhancing the effectiveness of the neurologically-based EMDR protocol by integrating it with the Metaframeworks perspective, a carefully crafted family systems therapy model (which integration, as far as I am aware, has not been researched or utilized from a clinical perspective). This chapter will summarize the major concepts and assumptions of the Metaframeworks perspective, including the six constraints in the biopsychosocial system (i.e., biology, person, relationship, family, community, and society) and the six constraints within the Metaframeworks / domains (i.e., organizations, sequences, mind, development, gender, and culture), and its blueprint for therapy. Throughout my discussion of the Metaframeworks perspective, my readers will find segments of my sessions with one couple that demonstrate how I use this integrated approach with internal and external family systems in my practice.
