Re: Is this typical?
Your question is interesting, and the answer must be complex.
The process you are describing is not EMDR as it is properly defined. It may be a variation that uses bilateral stimulation and some variation of resources, but it is not EMDR UNLESS, and this is a big one, unless the recipient of the procedure is highly dissociation, and the memory must be fractionated, and sandwiched between resources.
There are some other procedures that are not EMDR, and for which there is no controlled research of which I am aware, that may use a procedure similar to that described here.
for individuals who are NOT highly dissociative, the standard protocol produces the best results.
For individuals who are highly dissociative, the therapist would likely need to make that fact and diagnosis quite clear ahead of processing, so that the client could indeed have an informed consent.
for highly dissociative individuals, there is a lot of preparation necessary for doing EMDR. when the time is right, doing a piece at a time with support of resource ego states would indeed be the way to go. for such clients, there might be considerabl processing after the fact.
Numbness during or after EMDR would sometimes, maybe usually, be a sign that some part of self is blocking the process. those internal dynamics would need to be detangled for emdr to go smoothly, even a fractionated one.
As you have said, the comments here may or may not apply to a given individual, and we don't have enough info to comment on a specific case. In general talking these things over candidly with ones therapist is the best course, and taking a print out of this page along with may facilitate a discussion.
I see my caps key is iffy today. good luck!
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