In this project Mara Palena visually explores all the protocol’s phases of the EMDR therapy - "Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing" - through photographic images that crystallise incisive passages.
In the collages presented here, the third phase of the therapeutic protocol is explored, where during the assessment, activates the memory that is being targeted in the session, by identifying and assessing each of the memory components: image, cognition, affect and body sensation.
The goal of the project is to promote the exploration of EMDR, supporting various scientific research that affirms the effectiveness of this therapy in the treatment of psychological problems, such as phobias, dyspareunia, depression, anxiety and eating disorders.
Mara Palena lays bare the most intimate psychic mechanisms of her unconscious that emerged during EMDR therapy, without neglecting the traumatic events of her experience. All the emotional stages of the journey are thus retraced together with the user of the works. Once again the artist reprocesses her individual experience to open it to a collective feeling, with the aim of sensitising the other towards help therapies.
All archival material used comes from the public library of The Prelinger Archives, San Francisco.
