ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the author's work with a woman named Sheila, during the progress of which, a number of characteristics that emerged as they proceeded led to the author's decision to introduce some modifications of treatment, based on Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) technique to their regular sessions. Sheila does not have an in-depth understanding of her emotional life. In addition, she perceives the many contradictory allegiances that have kept her relations split as necessary in her effort to maintain the image of perfection intact. At the beginning of their work, Sheila's emotions arose almost exclusively out of her tactile associations to her childhood pleasures. The author decided to use the EMDR technique with Sheila to help her find a physical grounding base that she could turn to. The goal of EMDR is to help develop that positive body representation and also to turn it internally so that other less-positive parts of the self can refer back to it.
