What is 'Adaptive Information Processing'?

Francine Shapiro (founder of EMDR therapy) first developed her ‘Adaptive Information Processing’ model in 1931 to explain how dysfunctionally stored memories from traumatic or overwhelming events are ‘held’ in the brain.

Information from these experiences (received from internal or external stimuli) can be either ‘adaptively’ (helpful/constructive) or ‘maladaptively’ (unhelpful/unconstructive) integrated with existing memory networks (i.e. collection of experiences and sensory info).

The three core tenets of the AIP model are explained below:

1. There is an internal system which humans have acquired that processes information from stressful experiences. This system helps to form an understanding of the experience, and aid the processing from short-term to long-term memory. This helps us to ‘make sense’ of and move on from such experiences (for example, realising a childhood bully may be projecting)

2. For traumatic and overwhelming experiences, however, this ability to process and make sense of information is disrupted. The information is therefore held in ‘state-specific’ form (i.e. feels current) and in short-term memory where it is easily re-triggered

3. When a person feels safe to do so, EMDR seeks to ‘activate’ elements of these memories (an image, a sound, a sensation) and utilise bilateral stimulation (BLS) to intentionally ‘distract’ the brain. BLS can be done in many ways (including eye movements or hand tapping), however the speed needs to be sufficient enough to overload the brain in to processing the memory from state-specific (current) to long-term memory. In other words, the brain cannot simultaneously hold on to both, and is forced to ‘let go’ of something.