It rarely announces itself. There is no single session where a clinician decides to stop doing EMDR properly. Instead, the Phase 3 script gets a little looser each month. A blocked processing session ends with a conversation instead of an interweave. A client with a complicated presentation gets something thoughtful, warm, and vaguely EMDR-shaped, because the full protocol feels risky and the workday is long.
If any of that sounds familiar, you are not a lesser clinician. You are a normal one. The pattern is so common that researchers gave it a name more than fifteen years ago, and the most reassuring thing about the literature is how ordinary it turns out to be.
training ends the quiet drift the return Drift is gradual, unintentional, and reversible.Therapist drift is the tendency of clinicians to gradually stop delivering the evidence-based treatment they were trained in, even when they have the necessary tools and skills (Waller, 2009). It was first described in the cognitive behavioral literature, and it has since been documented across psychological therapies broadly. Drift is now considered one of the key reasons that treatments which perform well in research trials often perform worse in routine practice.
The follow-up review is where the findings get genuinely useful. Waller and Turner (2016) examined why well-meaning clinicians drift, and the answer is rarely a knowledge gap. Drift is driven by very human factors: anxiety about causing client distress, beliefs that a particular client is too fragile for the full approach, reliance on clinical experience over structure, and the simple erosion that happens when formal training ends and a full caseload takes over. In other words, drift is not a character flaw. It is what happens to skilled people doing demanding work without ongoing structure.
That distinction matters, because it changes what the fix looks like. If drift were about competence, the answer would be shame. Since it is about structure and avoidance, the answer is support: deliberate practice, honest self-monitoring, and returning to the protocol on purpose.
EMDR gives drift some very recognizable shapes. Most clinicians who have practiced for a few years will recognize at least one of these.
The loosened protocol The abandoned target The avoided client The stabilization-only default Four recognizable shapes of drift in EMDR practice.The loosened protocol. Phases get compressed or skipped, the Phase 3 script becomes an approximation, and treatment planning happens on instinct rather than case conceptualization. Sessions still feel therapeutic, but the eight phases have quietly become three or four.
The abandoned target. Processing blocks, and instead of working the block with interweaves or adjusting the approach, the target gets set aside. Over time, a caseload accumulates half-processed memories, and reprocessing becomes something that only happens with easy targets.
The avoided client. A client shows signs of dissociation, and reprocessing keeps getting postponed. The hesitation is understandable and even responsible when training never covered dissociative presentations, but the result is a client who stays in preparation indefinitely.
The stabilization-only default. A client arrives days or weeks after a traumatic event, and because the standard protocol does not fit the recent event, the work remains supportive rather than reparative, even though early intervention protocols exist for exactly this situation.
None of these patterns comes from laziness. Each one is a reasonable response to a gap: a skill that has gone rusty or a competency that basic training never included. That is precisely why the research is hopeful about reversing it.
Waller and Turner (2016) outline a path back that will feel familiar to any clinician, because it is essentially what we ask of our clients: notice the avoidance, name the beliefs driving it, and take structured action anyway. In practice, that means three things.
First, return to the protocol deliberately. Structured, protocol-anchored continuing education is the most direct counter to drift, because it rebuilds the scaffolding that caseload pressure wears down. For clinicians whose foundations have gone quiet, a comprehensive review of all eight phases in the EMDR Refresher Course does more than refresh knowledge. It restores the confidence that makes fidelity feel safe again.
Second, close the specific gap that drives your avoidance. If blocked processing is where your sessions leave the protocol, the interweave and constricted processing work in Advanced EMDR Skills target that exact moment. If dissociative presentations are what you postpone, training designed to assess and adapt EMDR for dissociation turns hesitation into a plan. If recent events sit outside your toolkit, the protocols in EMDR for Recent Events and Early Interventions fill a gap most basic trainings never touched.
Third, build in self-monitoring. Drift thrives in isolation. Consultation, case review, and even a simple periodic self-check keep the slide visible before it becomes the norm.
Ask yourself these once a quarter. No shame attached to any answer; this is data, not judgment.
If two or more of those answers made you wince, that is not failure. That is the moment the research says drift becomes reversible, because you have noticed it.
Therapist drift is the gradual, usually unintentional tendency of clinicians to stop delivering evidence-based treatments as designed, even when they have the training and tools to do so (Waller, 2009). It is common across all psychological therapies, including EMDR.
No. Flexibility is a deliberate, conceptualization-driven adaptation of a protocol to fit a client. Drift is unexamined movement away from the protocol, usually driven by anxiety, habit, or skill erosion rather than clinical reasoning. The practical test is whether you could explain the deviation as a treatment decision.
Common signs include paraphrasing scripts from memory, routinely abandoning blocked targets, keeping certain clients in indefinite preparation, and feeling anxious at the idea of running the full protocol. The five-question self-check above is a quick way to take a reading. You can also revisit how EMDR works as a baseline.
There is no single mandated interval, but the drift research suggests skills erode without structured reinforcement, so most clinicians benefit from protocol-anchored continuing education every year or two, alongside regular consultation. A refresher is especially useful after a period of low EMDR volume or a stretch of high-acuity caseloads.
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I'm joining the free communityWaller, G. (2009). Evidence-based treatment and therapist drift. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 47(2), 119–127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2008.10.018
Waller, G., & Turner, H. (2016). Therapist drift redux: Why well-meaning clinicians fail to deliver evidence-based therapy, and how to get back on track. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 77, 129–137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2015.12.005