Plateau

A plateau is our way of visualizing how a state of mind can be quickly activated and shape the totality of the sense of reality, the sense of self, in that moment. A plateau filters which types of peaks can arise

Siegel defines the plateau as a topographic metaphor in his three-P model, arguing that it constitutes an activated state of mind that constrains the entire range of emotional, perceptual, and memorial experience accessible to the self in that moment.

Siegel, Daniel J., The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are, 2020thesis

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we view each progressive stage of reprocessing as a plateau where images, thoughts, and emotions complete a shift in their progress toward greater therapeutic resolution.

Shapiro formally introduces the plateau as the unit of progressive change within EMDR’s information-processing model, designating each stage at which the traumatic material reaches a temporarily stabilized configuration before further reprocessing.

Shapiro, Francine, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR): Basic Principles, Protocols, and Procedures, 2001thesis

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These verbalizations only manifest, or describe, the immediate plateau; they indicate the current state of the processed information. These interim nonadaptive statements may tempt the clinician to challenge the client verbally

Shapiro argues that a client’s statements during EMDR processing reflect only the current plateau—an intermediate, not yet fully adaptive state—and that clinician intervention at this point risks interrupting the self-healing trajectory.

Shapiro, Francine, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR): Basic Principles, Protocols, and Procedures, 2001thesis

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Until the end of the EMDR treatment, each statement will be less than fully adaptive but will set the stage for the next plateau.

Shapiro clarifies the sequential logic of plateaus in EMDR: each stage is preparatory to the next, and full adaptive integration is achieved only when the final plateau is reached at treatment completion.

Shapiro, Francine, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR): Basic Principles, Protocols, and Procedures, 2001supporting

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The therapist uses cognitive interweave to reinforce further the third plateau of the client now having the ability to choose.

Shapiro illustrates how cognitive interweave is deployed to consolidate a specific plateau—here, the client’s emergent recognition of adult agency—demonstrating that plateaus are clinically identifiable and targetable stages of processing.

Shapiro, Francine, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR): Basic Principles, Protocols, and Procedures, 2001supporting

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The wild goose gradually draws near the plateau. The man goes forth and does not return.

Wilhelm’s rendering of the I Ching’s Hexagram 53 employs the plateau as a stage in the wild goose’s gradual ascent, figuring it as a level of achievement in an ordered developmental progression toward higher realization.

Wilhelm, Richard, The I Ching or Book of Changes, 1950supporting

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The wild goose gradually draws near the plateau. The man goes forth and does not return. The woman carrie

The Richard Wilhelm/Baynes translation echoes the same image of gradual approach to a plateau as an intermediate station in the symbolism of steady, proper advancement.

Richard Wilhelm, Cary F. Baynes, The I Ching or Book of Changes, 1950supporting

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a swan from the water approaching the shore, the cliff, the plateau, the tree, the hill. Eventually it flies high in the sky

Alfred Huang’s translation situates the plateau within an ascending sequence of natural stations—shore, cliff, plateau, tree, hill, sky—presenting it as one discrete level in an emblematic series of gradual spiritual and developmental progress.

Alfred Huang, The Complete I Ching: The Definitive Translation, 1998supporting

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The accelerator in EMDR treatment is the eye movement (or other form of stimulation), which seems to speed up the processing of the information.

Shapiro’s tunnel and train metaphors for EMDR processing provide the conceptual context within which plateaus are understood as stages that can be passed through more or less rapidly depending on the maintenance of bilateral stimulation.

Shapiro, Francine, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR): Basic Principles, Protocols, and Procedures, 2001aside

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