Childhood trauma has the potential to overwhelm the coping ability of children and can create developmental changes in brain structure and function. These changes to the developing mind allow for short term survival and sacrifice long term effective functioning. Adolescence is a time when these changes have the potential for both becoming more deeply embedded or largely rectified as the person moves toward adulthood.

The "Progressive Approach" (Gonzalez & Mosquera, 2012) was introduced in 2010, as a proposal to use of EMDR with Dissociative Disorders in safe way. After many early cautions about the potential dangers of using EMDR with individuals suffering from dissociative disorders, EMDR is still considered by many clinicians as offering interventions that are limited to the treatment of traumatic memories in high functioning clients, and only after a long preparation phase. But this is only one of the ways EMDR can be used with this population.

​​​​​​​Complex trauma is… well, complex.  Complex trauma is the combined impacts of chronic or multiple traumas and disrupted attachment in early childhood. Often presenting with multiple diagnoses, multiple treatment failures, placement breakdowns, emotional or behavioral dysregulation, and dissociation, these young clients often get lost in the system.