EMDR for early trauma and neglect
what is the early trauma protocol?
The Early Trauma Protocol is an EMDR approach used for early trauma and neglect held in implicit memory. It follows EMDR’s phase-based structure, while adapting the work for preverbal, felt-sense material by processing in developmental time frames and using tactile bilateral stimulation, such as ankle or knee tapping, rather than standard eye movements.
Early experiences are often held more in implicit memory than in explicit narrative memory. This means the material may show up as body sensations, emotions, impulses, and felt sense rather than clear stories or images.
One common experience is an emotional flashback: a sudden shift into fear, shame, panic, collapse, or urgency, often without pictures, that can feel as though it is happening in the present.
Early trauma and neglect may include experiences such as traumatic pregnancy or delivery, early surgeries or hospitalisations, early medical illness, failure to thrive, and other forms of early disruption.
The Four Steps of the Early Trauma Protocol
The following is a brief overview. There is substantially more involved in the treatment than can be covered here.
Containment
A reliable method is developed for setting aside material that is not being worked on in the moment. This helps the work stay within the window of tolerance and supports sessions ending with as little activation as possible.
Establishing a felt sense of safety
A felt sense of safety is strengthened as the starting point for processing, often by identifying and reinforcing a naturally occurring safe state in the body. The first two steps usually require consistent practice between sessions to support regulation and stabilisation.
Resetting the Affective Circuits
This phase focuses on clearing and resetting the affective circuits so core emotions can function more as intended, rather than remaining organized around early fear, inhibition, or maladaptive learning about emotions. This part of the protocol draws on Jaak Panksepp’s affective neuroscience model of subcortical emotional systems.
For more complex trauma histories or marked emotional dysregulation, this phase may require additional preparation. This often includes ego state work, psychoeducation about healthy emotion and trauma, and at times somatic work.
Clearing the early trauma by time frame
Rather than targeting a single event, processing takes place in small developmental periods using fractionation to keep the work manageable. It begins with conception, then moves through gestation, birth, and the first three years of life
Assessment and readiness
Before processing early developmental material, we assess whether this approach is appropriate and whether there is enough readiness and stability for the work.
This includes taking a brief history, understanding present-day safety and stability, assessing capacity to tolerate emotions and body sensation, identifying internal conflicts that may interfere with processing, and considering relevant medical or substance-use concerns.
If there is evidence of significant dissociation, such as going blank, losing time, or feeling unreal, that usually means more preparation and stabilisation are needed before processing begins. That is not a delay. It is part of the work.
How the work is done
Early experiences in infancy are often held more as felt experience than as narrative memory. For this reason, the processing focuses less on adult cognitive understanding and more on the baby’s story as it is carried in the body.
The felt sense becomes an important entry point for working with early, emotionally overwhelming experiences, so it can be reprocessed more adaptively.
In the Early Trauma Protocol, reprocessing is often facilitated through gentle ankle tapping while you are reclined in a comfortable chair. At times, knee tapping or handheld tactile tappers may be used instead, depending on what feels most comfortable and supportive.
Intensive or Week-by-Week Treatment
The practice offers 2–4-hour intensive sessions for early trauma reprocessing. Longer blocks make it easier to settle into a safe state, do the reprocessing, and close carefully with minimal disruptions.
Week-by-week treatment remains an option when one wants to use their insurance coverage, intensives are not feasible, longer stabilization is required, or when a steadier pace or long-term work is preferred. In that format, it is common for the clearing process to take months, depending on the extent of early trauma or neglect and the protective learning that developed in response.
Is the Early trauma protocol right for you?
This format can be appropriate if:
- You have difficulty identifying target memories for the standard protocol, or float-back consistently points to very early experiences.
- You present with early attachment disruption, early medical trauma, early neglect, adoption or multiple placements, traumatic pregnancy or delivery, frightening or unsafe caregiving, or other early adverse conditions.
- You can maintain regulation and dual attention with adequate preparation, and the work is clinically indicated.
- You are willing/ comfortable to commit time and resources to complete the process.
This approach is deep developmental work, and it is not linear or performative. Many clients notice a gradual embodied shift towards increased stability, greater affect tolerance, and a steadier relationship to self and others.
FAQ
Do I need to remember my early life?
No. Most people do not have conscious recall from the first three years of life, but early experience can still be held in implicit memory and show up through body and emotion.
What if I dissociate or "go blank"?
That is important clinical information, not failure. It usually means we slow down and prioritise stabilisation, resourcing, and pacing before attempting deeper processing.
How long will it take?
It is not always possible to predict in advance how much time will be needed to clear early disturbance. The required duration varies based on how much trauma or neglect occurred, and how strongly those early experiences shaped protective patterns.