During EMDR history taking, clinicians sometimes encounter portions of a client's history that are difficult to organize. A client may remember that a period of childhood was difficult but recall few specific events, know that something happened without remembering the sequence clearly, or struggle to place memories on a chronological timeline. Another client may describe something different: periods of missing time, conversations they don't remember having, or evidence of actions they don't remember taking.
Those experiences raise different clinical questions. Incomplete autobiographical recall does not by itself establish pathological dissociation, while disruptions in the continuity of current memory and awareness may warrant closer assessment. For EMDR clinicians, the task is to clarify what kind of memory difficulty is occurring and then determine how that information should influence history taking, preparation, target selection, and the treatment plan.
A complete chronological trauma history is not always available at the beginning of EMDR treatment. Clinicians can develop a working treatment plan from the information the client can currently access while documenting areas that remain unclear. When memory gaps appear to be part of a broader dissociative presentation, the plan may also need to account for additional assessment and preparation before reprocessing begins.
What Kind of Memory Gap Is the Client Describing?
“I don't remember” can refer to several different experiences. Some clients cannot remember the exact age when an event occurred, have limited detail for early childhood experiences, or remember several events without knowing their sequence. Others describe current periods of time they cannot account for or learn from other people that they participated in conversations or activities they do not remember.
Clarifying the experience helps determine the next assessment question. Clinicians can ask whether the difficulty involves remote autobiographical memory, recent memory, periods of missing time, behavior without recall, or uncertainty about the source of a memory. It can also be useful to determine whether the memory difficulty occurs independently or alongside depersonalization, derealization, changes in present orientation, self-state shifts, or other dissociative experiences:
If the client remembers an event but cannot identify the exact age, sequence, or details → Continue gathering the available history without assuming that limited detail indicates pathological dissociation.
If the client has limited autobiographical recall for portions of childhood or another period of life → Document what is known and assess the broader pattern before assigning a reason for the missing information.
If the client reports periods of missing time or learns about actions or conversations they cannot remember → Clarify the circumstances and assess more closely for disruption in memory continuity.
If the client is uncertain whether an experience occurred, was imagined, or was dreamed → Explore the difficulty with memory monitoring without assuming the source or accuracy of the memory.
If memory gaps occur alongside changes in awareness, depersonalization, derealization, or self-state shifts → Consider whether broader dissociation assessment is indicated before deciding how the finding should affect EMDR preparation and reprocessing.
Clarify Memory Discontinuity Before Interpreting It
Reports of memory discontinuity warrant follow-up questions because several explanations may need consideration. A client might describe being told about something they don't remember doing, finding an object they don't remember purchasing, discovering something they wrote without remembering writing it, or realizing they cannot account for a period of time. These reports provide information for assessment, but they do not establish their cause on their own.
Clinicians can ask what was happening around the episode and whether substances, medications, sleep-related behavior, medical conditions, or other factors could have contributed. The timing and recurrence of the episodes can also provide useful information. A repeated pattern of unexplained time loss or behavior without recall presents a different clinical picture from an isolated episode that occurred while the client was intoxicated or taking a medication associated with unusual behavior.
The same caution applies when clients are uncertain whether an experience occurred in waking life, imagination, or dreaming. The clinician can document the uncertainty and explore the pattern without confirming an event that the client cannot confirm. Preserving the distinction between what the client remembers, what the client has been told, and what remains unknown allows the history to stay clinically useful without filling in missing information.
When Do Memory Gaps Suggest Further Dissociation Assessment?
The pattern surrounding the memory gap provides information about whether broader dissociation assessment may be appropriate. Repeated gaps in memory or time, discovering actions or conversations without recall, and memory discontinuity that occurs alongside changes in perception, identity, body awareness, or present orientation deserve closer attention. Current disruptions in memory continuity are especially useful to distinguish from difficulty recalling details from remote periods of the client's life.
A dissociation screener can contribute information at this stage, but screening and assessment serve different purposes. A screening measure such as the DES-II can help identify dissociative experiences that warrant further exploration. A screening result should not be treated as a diagnosis or as a complete assessment of the client's dissociative presentation.
When the client's history or screening suggests a more clinically significant dissociative presentation, further assessment can help clarify how the client experiences dissociation. The purpose extends beyond determining whether dissociation is present. Clinicians are also trying to understand whether the pattern affects memory continuity, present orientation, access to traumatic material, internal communication, or capacities the client will need during trauma reprocessing, which I discuss more fully in Assessing Dissociation Before EMDR Trauma Processing.
Tracking the Pattern of Dissociation
Memory disruption becomes easier to interpret when it is considered alongside the client's other dissociative experiences. A client who occasionally realizes they completed a familiar routine without actively remembering each step presents differently from a client who repeatedly discovers actions, conversations, or periods of time for which there is no recall. Frequency, context, continuity of awareness, and what happens during emotional activation all contribute to the clinical picture.
The pattern may also become clearer over several sessions. Some clients report memory difficulties during the initial history but remain consistently oriented and connected during preparation. Others begin to show additional disconnection when trauma-related material is approached, including loss of present orientation, difficulty maintaining dual attention, or increased gaps in awareness.
The Dissociation Pattern Tracker & Clinical Guide is designed to help clinicians organize these observations across memory continuity, perception, identity or self-state shifts, internal experiences, and body awareness. It can be useful when the initial question is whether a client's memory difficulty fits within a broader pattern of dissociation and whether that pattern suggests a need for additional assessment or preparation.
→ Dissociation Pattern Tracker & Clinical Guide
Gathering an EMDR History When Recall Is Incomplete
An incomplete history does not need to be converted into a complete one before treatment planning can begin. Clinicians can document the memories the client can access, periods of life the client describes only generally, and areas where recall remains limited or uncertain. This allows the treatment plan to reflect the client's current access to autobiographical information without treating unknown portions of the history as established facts.
For example, a client may say that middle school was frightening but be unable to identify many specific experiences from that period. Another client may know from family members that certain events occurred but have no personal memory of them. Those pieces of information can be recorded differently so that the clinician maintains a distinction between remembered experience, information obtained from others, and periods for which the history remains unclear.
Current symptoms can provide additional information even when earlier memories are unavailable. Present triggers, recurring negative beliefs, emotional responses, body sensations, known traumatic experiences, and repeated themes may begin to show how the client's difficulties are organized. The clinician can use those observations to develop a provisional conceptualization while remaining open to changes as additional information becomes available.
Selecting EMDR Targets Without a Complete Timeline
A chronological timeline can be useful for organizing EMDR targets, but some clients cannot provide one with enough detail to make it the primary method of target identification. Clients with dissociation may initially identify incomplete target networks, and some may have difficulty with autobiographical recall or become overwhelmed by chronological history gathering. In those cases, target selection may require greater flexibility.
Other target-selection methods can begin with information that is currently accessible. A clinician might start with a current symptom or trigger, identify a negative belief connected with recurring experiences, or use other target-identification procedures consistent with the clinician's EMDR training and the client's current capacity. Memories that emerge through these methods may initially be fragmented or unclear, particularly when dissociation is present.
The EMDR Target Selection Clinician Guide provides several approaches to identifying potential targets, including symptom and trauma-history questions, timeline mapping, negative-belief approaches, floatback, and affect scan. It also includes clinical considerations for choosing among those approaches when dissociation, limited autobiographical recall, affect tolerance, or other factors influence the history-taking process.
→ EMDR Target Selection Clinician Guide
The treatment plan can remain provisional as this work continues. New memories may emerge, relationships among targets may become clearer, or the clinician may learn that a symptom initially attributed to one memory network appears connected with another. The goal during early treatment planning is to organize the information that is currently available without requiring the initial target map to account for every memory that may later become relevant.
When Memory Discontinuity Changes the Preparation Plan
Some memory gaps primarily complicate history gathering. Other patterns provide information about how the client responds when activation increases. Repeated time loss, gaps related to therapy or daily functioning, loss of orientation during trauma discussion, or dissociation that continues despite grounding may indicate that preparation needs further development before reprocessing proceeds.
At that point, the clinical question shifts from reconstructing the history to assessing capacities needed during trauma processing. Can the client remain oriented to the therapy room while traumatic material is active? Can the client maintain awareness of both the memory and the present, recognize when dissociation is occurring, communicate what is happening, and return to the present with grounding support?
The answers can guide preparation more directly than the mere presence of a memory gap. A client with incomplete childhood recall may still demonstrate consistent present orientation and dual attention, while another client with ongoing memory discontinuity may lose awareness as activation increases. How Dissociation Affects EMDR Preparation and Stabilization provides a broader discussion of how dissociative patterns can influence preparation, while Dual Attention in EMDR: How to Assess It Before and During Trauma Processing addresses the specific question of maintaining connection with the present while trauma-related material is active.
Integrating Dissociation Findings Into the Larger Preparation Plan
Memory discontinuity rarely needs to be considered in isolation when it is part of a broader dissociative presentation. The clinician may also be assessing emotional regulation, distress tolerance, grounding, dual attention, self-state responses, internal cooperation, and between-session stability. Looking across these capacities can help determine which areas need further development before a particular target is approached.
The Dissociation-Informed EMDR Preparation: Clinical Decision Toolkit brings the Dissociation Pattern Tracker & Clinical Guide together with additional tools for deciding how dissociative patterns affect preparation. Once clinicians have identified and tracked a pattern, the broader toolkit supports decisions about stabilization, pacing, present orientation, and readiness for trauma processing. It extends the earlier assessment work into a more comprehensive preparation plan based on the client's specific presentation.
→ Dissociation-Informed EMDR Preparation: Clinical Decision Toolkit
Developing Clinical Judgment About Memory Gaps
Memory gaps often require clinicians to work with incomplete information for a period of time. We may know that a client's recall is limited without knowing why a particular memory is unavailable, or identify a pattern that warrants further assessment before understanding its full clinical significance. Treatment planning can proceed with those uncertainties documented rather than resolved prematurely.
The clinical picture may also change over time. A client who initially reports vague childhood recall may later describe current time loss or other dissociative experiences that lead to additional assessment. Another client may have substantial gaps in remote autobiographical memory while remaining consistently oriented, maintaining continuity in current functioning, and demonstrating the preparation capacities needed for the next phase of treatment.
For clinicians who want a more comprehensive review of dissociation, stabilization, grounding, dual attention, and readiness decisions during EMDR preparation, EMDR Phase 2: Preparation, Stabilization, and Readiness for Trauma Processing explores these areas in greater depth. The course provides 4 CE credits through Cannon Psychology, an APA-approved sponsor of continuing education for psychologists, and 4 EMDRIA credits.
→ EMDR Phase 2: Preparation, Stabilization, and Readiness for Trauma Processing
EMDR Preparation and Stabilization Resources
Memory discontinuity is one of several presentations clinicians may encounter while assessing EMDR preparation. Questions about dissociation often overlap with questions about grounding, resource access, dual attention, stabilization, parts or self-state responses, and readiness for reprocessing. Clinicians may therefore need resources that address several areas of preparation as the treatment plan develops.
The EMDR Preparation & Stabilization Hub brings together clinician education, clinical tools, and continuing education related to these areas. It can serve as the broader resource pathway when the clinical question extends beyond memory continuity or when several preparation capacities need to be considered together.
→ EMDR Preparation & Stabilization Hub
Conclusion
Memory gaps can leave clinicians with uncertainty about both the client's history and the treatment plan. That uncertainty can remain part of the case conceptualization while we continue distinguishing what the client remembers, what remains unavailable, and whether there is evidence of a broader disruption in memory continuity. The treatment plan can then be revised as the clinical picture becomes clearer.
For EMDR clinicians, incomplete recall does not necessarily prevent useful treatment planning. Accessible memories, current symptoms, triggers, beliefs, emotional responses, and emerging themes may provide enough information to begin organizing possible targets, while dissociative patterns can indicate where further assessment or preparation is needed. This allows the clinician to proceed from the information that is actually available without requiring certainty about portions of the history the client cannot currently access.
Research References
Bernstein, E. M., & Putnam, F. W. (1986). Development, reliability, and validity of a dissociation scale. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 174(12), 727–735. https://doi.org/10.1097/00005053-198612000-00004
Leeds, A. M., Madere, J., & Coy, D. (2022). Beyond the DES-II: Screening for dissociative disorders in EMDR therapy. Journal of EMDR Practice and Research, 16(3), 123–138. https://doi.org/10.1891/EMDR-2022-0014
Shapiro, F. (2018). Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy: Basic principles, protocols, and procedures (3rd ed.). Guilford Press.
