Observed and Experiential Integration (OEI)

1. Introduction

Version followed: Bradshaw, Cook & McDonald (2011), Observed & Experiential Integration (OEI): Discovery and development of a new set of trauma therapy techniques (J. Psychotherapy Integration 21(2), 104–171; copy hosted on the official OEI site), plus the three-session Switching protocol of Bradshaw et al. (2014) and the developers' "Why is it called OEI?" page. OEI training manuals are not drawn on; anything beyond these sources is marked.

What it is. OEI is a set of eye-based trauma therapy techniques. Audrey Cook originated the core techniques, starting in 1993 after EMDR training: she noticed that some clients with early complex trauma could not track smoothly, or found EMDR too intense, so she began working "one eye at a time". Richard (Rick) Bradshaw, a Canadian psychologist (formerly Senior Psychologist and Director of Training at Simon Fraser University Counselling Service), joined later and built the theory. Marvin McDonald contributed research and theory. The developers present OEI as a distinct psychotherapy, not a variant of EMDR, Educational Kinesiology, Focusing or Dual Brain Psychology. They list five technique sets: Switching, Sweeping, Glitch Massaging, Glitch Holding and Releasing (Release Points). [source: Bradshaw, Cook & McDonald 2011; sightpsych.com "Why is it called OEI?"; CPA 2023 event notice]

How change happens, as the authors describe it. Client and therapist both watch second by second what happens in the client's eyes, face, body and perceptions while one eye, then the other, is covered or the eyes are guided across the visual field. The therapist reflects these shifts back, and the client experiences them. The authors propose that this joint observing and "microattunement" (they call it neuroactivation and microattunement, NAMA), together with very brief, titrated contact with conditioned trauma responses (often 1–5 seconds), lets disturbing emotions, body sensations and visual distortions "integrate": they equalise across the two eyes and dissipate. On this account, negative beliefs shift without direct cognitive work once the intense affect has resolved. The neurobiological explanations (hemispheric, polyvagal, ocular proprioception, bilateral stimulation) are the authors' hypotheses; they themselves say the neural correlates of "integration" are unclear. [source: Bradshaw, Cook & McDonald 2011]

Scope. The authors report use for PTSD and complex trauma, dissociative symptoms, panic, phobias, transference distortions, and applications with couples, families, children, addictions and eating disorders, alongside body therapy and qEEG neurotherapy. Do not confuse OEI with Brainspotting (David Grand), a separate eye-position method with its own patent. One practitioner page claims Brainspotting grew out of OEI; this is unverified. [source: Bradshaw, Cook & McDonald 2011; Grand patent US 2006/0052675; myholisticselfcounselling.com] [uncertain]

2. Framework

OEI is not published as a fixed phase protocol. The 2011 paper gives a sequencing logic, and the 2014 trial gives one short manualised format. Both are set out below, then a phase structure that applies trauma-safety rules. The phase structure is [synthesis].

A. Sequencing logic in the developers' paper [source: Bradshaw, Cook & McDonald 2011]

• Processing starts from what is present: traumatic material, a current trigger, or a physical or perceptual symptom. Clients do not have to tell the full story.
• Switching first: it titrates intensity, equalises experience across the eyes, and clears dissociative "artifacts" and transference distortions.
• Sweeping next if headaches, dizziness, drowsiness or visual artifacts still distract, typically with residual distress of about 3/10 or more after Switching.
• Glitch work (Tracking, Massaging, Tracking-to-Target, proximal–distal movements, Glitch Holding) for complex, resistant or specific multisensory material. The authors call this the hardest set to master; it needs training and supervision.
• Home use: clients use Switching, and Release Points, between sessions only once they are "sufficiently safe and stabilized".
• A move from hypoarousal (numbing, freeze) to hyperarousal after OEI is read as progress, not deterioration: frozen clients cannot heal until they thaw.

B. Short research format (Bradshaw et al. 2014)

• Three individual 1-hour sessions of OEI Switching, using script-driven symptom provocation, with mixed-trauma adults with PTSD (n = 10). Clients were taught Switching for affect regulation during and between sessions. [source: Bradshaw et al. 2014, abstract] The script-construction procedure and session-by-session content are not drawn on. [uncertain]

C. Working phase structure for routine practice [synthesis]

Within sessions, contact with the more intense eye stays brief (about 1–5 seconds; about half a second when nausea, faintness or breathing difficulty signal severe shutdown), then the client switches. [source: Bradshaw, Cook & McDonald 2011]

Readiness for memory-focused work [synthesis, applying trauma-safety rules]: the client can notice and report sensations; Switching brings intensity down in session; there is a stop signal and a grounding routine; there is no current crisis, active suicidality or unmanaged substance withdrawal; and for dissociative disorders, a stabilisation plan exists with a clinician competent in dissociation.

3. Guiding principles

Source for each item: Bradshaw, Cook & McDonald 2011, unless marked otherwise.

• Observe continuously. Watch eyes, face, breathing, voice and posture second by second. In practice, the micro-shift is your next instruction.
• Report what you see. Reflect observed shifts aloud, as observation or tentative question. In practice, say what you notice, such as rising sadness or anger, and let the client confirm or correct.
• The client observes too. The client compares experience with each eye covered and so cannot easily dismiss either view as a distortion. In practice, ask what differs between the two eyes. [source: sightpsych.com]
• Attunement as mechanism. Relationship and presence are treated as the active ingredient (NAMA), not as background. In practice, stay embodied, unhurried and facially responsive.
• Titrate within the window of tolerance. Exposure to the intense eye is seconds, not minutes. In practice, switch before distress peaks; shorten exposures if shutdown appears.
• Responsive, not mechanical. Never apply techniques "perfunctorily". In practice, change technique, pace, direction or distance as soon as the client's responses change.
• Work from symptoms and perceptions, not narrative. Body sensations, inner voices, smells and visual distortions are valid entry points. In practice, the client need not recount the trauma. [source: 2011; myholisticselfcounselling.com]
• Integration as the target. The aim is for disparate experiences across the eyes to combine, equalise or dissipate. In practice, keep going until both eyes give a similar, tolerable experience.
• Cognitions follow affect. No explicit cognitive restructuring is required. In practice, check beliefs after intensity drops rather than disputing them first.
• Thawing is progress. Hypo- to hyperarousal is an expected, positive sequence. In practice, prepare clients that feeling more can come before feeling better.
• Transference as conditioned perception. Distortions of the therapist's face or presence are worked with directly. In practice, invite the client to look at you while switching.
• Client agency. In Tracking-to-Target the client signals peak intensity, and home tools build self-regulation. In practice, the client steers when and where.
• Self-administration only with ego strength. Home and self-guided techniques are for clients with good affect regulation. In practice, gate home practice on demonstrated in-session regulation.
• Cultural fit. Expression styles differ; in Indonesia the team framed the work in local idiom. In practice, adapt the rationale and allow body-based routes.
• Training and supervision for glitch work. In practice, start with Switching; do not improvise glitch massaging without supervised training.
• Memories are the client's experience [synthesis, per brief]: material emerging during eye work is processed as experience, never confirmed as historical fact, and OEI is never used to search for or "recover" memories.

4. Intervention inventory

The 2011 paper names the techniques and the parameters given below (timings, distances, repetitions, indications). Step-by-step sequencing, wording and checks that the paper does not spell out are marked [synthesis]. Example language is illustrative unless quoted and cited.

4.1 Preparation, consent and the observing stance

• Purpose: Set up the joint-observation frame that every OEI technique relies on. [source: 2011; sightpsych.com]
• Steps [synthesis, except as cited]: (1) Explain that you will ask the client to cover one eye, then the other, and sometimes follow your hand with their eyes, and that both of you will watch what changes. (2) Get consent for eye work and for the therapist moving a hand near the face. (3) Agree a stop signal and a 0–10 SUD scale. (4) Ask about eye conditions, recent eye surgery, contact lens discomfort, vertigo or vestibular problems, seizures, and current dissociative episodes. (5) Seat yourself at the client's eye level.
• Example language (illustrative): "We'll do this in small pieces. I'll tell you what I see in your face, and you tell me what you notice inside. You can stop at any point by raising your hand."
• Watch for: Shame about being looked at closely. Offer partial eye contact or a slight angle.

4.2 Eye-dominance and intensity check

• Purpose: Find which eye, when open, carries more distress. The dominant eye often does. [source: 2011, citing Hannaford 1997 for a dominance procedure]
• Steps: (1) With mild material in mind, the client covers the left eye and rates SUD, then the right. (2) Note where in the body, what kind and how intense the sensation is with each eye. (3) The eye that gives the higher rating when open is the "intense" eye for titration. [steps: synthesis built on 2011]
• Example language (illustrative): "Cover this eye with your palm. What's the number? Now the other one. Which side feels heavier?"
• Watch for: Clients who report no difference may be numbed or dissociated. Observe the face as well as the self-report.

4.3 Switching for core trauma symptoms

• Purpose: Titrate and reduce somatic and affective distress such as throat or chest constriction, stomach upset, nausea and hyperventilation. This is the primary and first-line technique. [source: 2011; 2014]
• Steps: (1) The client brings up the material, trigger or symptom. (2) The client covers one eye completely with a hand, usually the less intense eye first. (3) The client reports the location, type and SUD of what they feel. (4) The client switches to cover the other eye. Contact with the intense eye lasts about 1–5 seconds during high distress, and about half a second if signs of severe shutdown appear (nausea, faintness, breathing difficulty). (5) The client keeps alternating while the therapist reflects observed changes. (6) Continue until intensity drops and the experience is similar with either eye covered. [source: 2011]
• Example language: observations like "I'm seeing some deep sadness coming up there" [quoted, 2011]. Illustrative: "Switch now. What changed? Where is it now, and what number?"
• Watch for / working signs: Falling SUD; sensations moving or softening; tears appearing in a previously "dry" eye; the client describing the change from a stance of observing it. Not working: SUD climbing on both eyes. Shorten exposures and add grounding (see 5).

4.4 Switching for dissociative artifacts

• Purpose: Clear headache, numbness, tingling, lightheadedness, drowsiness or visual distortion that block processing. [source: 2011]
• Steps: (1) Shift the client's attention from the trauma content to the artifact itself. (2) Switch while the client attends to it. (3) Continue until it fades. If it persists, go to Sweeping (4.9). [source: 2011]
• Example language (illustrative): "Let the memory sit to one side for now. Just notice the fog in your head, and switch."
• Watch for: Drooping eyelids and drowsiness mark a point of intensity, not boredom. [source: 2011]

4.5 Switching for transference and perceptual distortions of people

• Purpose: Dissolve distorted perceptions of the therapist, a partner, a child or the self. Examples: a face looks different, threatening, distant or like an abuser depending on which eye is covered. [source: 2011]
• Steps: (1) The client looks at the therapist's face (or a partner's or child's in conjoint sessions, or their own in a mirror). (2) The client switches eyes and describes how the face looks with each. (3) Keep switching until the two perceptions converge. (4) Then explore the feelings linked to the distortion. [source: 2011; step 4 synthesis]
• Example language (illustrative): "Look at my face with this eye covered. Now the other. Does anything about me change?"
• Watch for: Working: the client reports the face "looks like you again" and engagement eases. The paper reports a BPD group member who saw a leader as her abusive sister through one eye. After Switching she joined the group. [source: 2011]

4.6 Switching for conflicting emotions, emotional awareness and mentalizing

• Purpose: Bring split perceptions together, for example anger and fear toward a partner through one eye and "but he loves me" through the other. Aims to build emotional awareness and a reflective stance. [source: 2011; sightpsych.com]
• Steps: (1) Hold the relationship or situation in mind. (2) Switch and name what each eye "believes" or feels. (3) Continue until the client can hold both views at once. (4) Invite the client to step back and comment on the two sides. [steps 1–3 source: 2011; step 4 synthesis based on sightpsych.com "mentalizing"]
• Example language (illustrative): "With this eye, what do you know about him? And with the other? Can you see both at the same time?"
• Watch for: Lability. For emotionally labile clients, standing back to reflect may be new. Go slowly. [source: sightpsych.com]

4.7 Script-driven symptom provocation with Switching (research format)

• Purpose: A short, structured PTSD treatment in which a trauma script activates symptoms and Switching regulates and resolves them. Three 1-hour sessions. [source: Bradshaw et al. 2014]
• Steps: How the script is built and read was not available in the abstract. [uncertain] A general clinical template [synthesis]: (1) Co-write a brief, present-tense description of the index event with the client. (2) Read it aloud or have the client hold it in mind until SUD rises moderately. (3) Switch as in 4.3 until SUD falls. (4) Re-read and repeat. (5) End with grounding and teach home Switching.
• Watch for: As in 4.3. Apply the exposure contraindications and the stop signal.

4.8 Home Switching for affect regulation

• Purpose: Self-regulation between sessions. [source: 2011; 2014]
• Steps: Teach only once the client is "sufficiently safe and stabilized" [source: 2011]. (1) When triggered, cover one eye and notice. (2) Switch. (3) Keep it brief and stop if intensity rises. (4) Bring notes to the next session. [steps: synthesis]
• Example language (illustrative): "If a wave hits this week, try a few switches, the same as here. If it climbs instead of settling, stop and use your grounding plan."
• Watch for: Clients using it to dig into material alone. Keep home use for regulation, not processing. [synthesis]

4.9 Sweeping

• Purpose: Reduce headaches, dizziness, drowsiness and visual artifacts that remain after Switching, typically with residual SUD around 3/10 or more. Adapted from Brain Gym's "lazy eights" without that system's learning theory. [source: 2011]
• Steps: (1) The client covers one eye. (2) Sit at the client's eye level. Hold a finger, pencil or wand about 9–12 inches from the side of the client's head, beside the ear. (3) Move it in an arc across the client's face to the far side of the nose, while the client follows it with the open eye. (4) Alternate sides (switch the covered eye). (5) Repeat about 10–12 times, or until the symptom no longer distracts from processing. [source: 2011]
• Example language (illustrative): "Follow my finger from your ear across to your nose… and again from the other side."
• Watch for: Eye strain or nausea. Slow down or pause. Working sign: the artifact recedes so that trauma processing can continue.

4.10 Glitch Tracking

• Purpose: Find "glitches": a hold, hesitation, skip or spontaneous redirection of the eye(s) while following a stimulus, often with a blink. The authors treat glitches as markers of conditioned trauma links. [source: 2011]
• Steps: (1) The client follows a stimulus (hand, face, body or gaze) with the eyes, one eye or both as indicated. (2) Move it vertically, horizontally, diagonally and elliptically through the visual field. (3) Note where the eye skips, holds, redirects or blinks, and any face or body response at that spot. (4) Tell the client what you see as it happens. [source: 2011; step 4 per the 2011 instruction to share observations moment by moment]
• Example language (illustrative): "Your eye just jumped there and you blinked. What came up?"
• Watch for: Multisensory reactivation at a glitch (sounds, smells, startle). In the paper, a robbery victim's glitch sat where the gunman had stood. [source: 2011]

4.11 Glitch Massaging

• Purpose: Resolve glitches by guiding the eyes into, over or through them. Depending on the client's state, this either activates numbed material or dissipates overwhelming intensity. The most complex OEI skill; requires training and supervision. [source: 2011]
• Steps: (1) Return the stimulus to the glitch. (2) Guide the eye repeatedly across it, using vertical, horizontal, diagonal or elliptical paths. (3) Use arcing hand movements that follow the curve of the eye to reduce strain (credited to Lene Tonnisen). (4) Adjust pace and direction to the response: work closer to the glitch to activate a numbed client, more lightly to release intensity in an overwhelmed one. (5) Continue until tracking passes smoothly and the response settles. [source: 2011; step 5 synthesis]
• Example language (illustrative): "Stay with my hand. We'll go back over that spot slowly, a few times."
• Watch for: Abreaction; drowsiness or drooping lids (a point of intensity). Working sign: smooth tracking through the former glitch with a calm face.

4.12 Proximal–distal massage and the distal pull

• Purpose: Work glitches that appear at particular distances from the eyes. The paper links these to the spatial layout of trauma, such as distances at which people stood or left. Credited to Michael Mariano. [source: 2011]
• Steps: (1) Move the stimulus toward and away from the client's eyes. (2) For a distal pull, the therapist walks backward while the client follows the therapist's hand. (3) Note distances where blinking, lid change, drowsiness or emotion appear. (4) Massage at those distances as in 4.11. [source: 2011]
• Example: A woman hospitalised in a body cast as a child sobbed at the distance of the doorway her parents left through. Her adult attachment was reported to become more secure. [source: 2011]
• Watch for: The authors note this work can provoke strong dissociation ("numbing out") or intense abreaction. Keep the room and pace safe. Prepare a grounding plan before a distal pull. [source: 2011; grounding plan synthesis]

4.13 Working the edges of a visual distortion

• Purpose: Resolve distortions in which part of the visual field, or a person in it, blurs or vanishes. One client said "You just disappeared!" when the therapist was about eight feet away. [source: 2011]
• Steps: (1) Find the edge of the distorted area. (2) Guide the eyes to the edge, then back into clear space. (3) Repeat, gradually closing in. In the case above, the therapist also moved back within the client's tolerated distance. [source: 2011]
• Example language (illustrative): "Tell me where I start to fade… now come back to where you can see me clearly."
• Watch for: Fear surges. Return to clear space and switch.

4.14 Tracking-to-Target

• Purpose: The client, rather than the therapist, locates the point to work: where a symptom peaks along the visual path. Used for physical pain, paresthesias, speech impairment, harsh inner voices and visual distortions. [source: 2011]
• Steps: (1) Track slowly as in 4.10. (2) The client signals when the symptom is at its most intense. For an inner voice, ask them to signal "when that voice gets the loudest, the most believable, or the most disturbing" [quoted, 2011]. (3) Massage the glitch at that point (4.11). (4) Repeat until the symptom fades. [source: 2011]
• Watch for: Working sign: the voice fades or becomes unintelligible. In one case a shoulder twitch led to a remembered childhood scene; both the statement and the sensation then dissipated. [source: 2011] Treat such emergent images as the client's experience, not as verified history. [synthesis]

4.15 Glitch Holding with bilateral stimulation

• Purpose: Resolve rare "visual splitting" (double vision) during tracking with both eyes open. Can also be used wherever strong somatic or affective intensity appears. [source: 2011]
• Steps: (1) Hold the stimulus still at the point where splitting appears. (2) Add bilateral stimulation: alternating audio tones, or alternating left and right shoulder taps. (3) Optionally, the client stands on a balance board. (4) Continue until the splitting resolves. Clients with good affect regulation can self-administer, guided by their own responses. [source: 2011] Cook demonstrated objectively and subjectively administered versions at a 1999 EMDRIA conference. [source: 2011]
• Example language (illustrative): "Keep your eyes right here on my finger while the taps alternate. Tell me when the two images come together."
• Watch for: Visual splitting that persists after the session, or new visual symptoms. Refer for optometric or medical review. [synthesis]

4.16 Release Points (Releasing)

• Purpose: A self-help technique taught early for home use, for example to head off panic attacks. A woman with lifelong panic learned Release Points in her first session and reported control over her symptoms by the second. [source: 2011; sightpsych.com; myholisticselfcounselling.com]
• Steps: The sources name the technique but do not describe where or how it is applied. [uncertain] Learn it in OEI training; do not improvise it.

4.17 Adjunctive grounding and activation tools

• Balance board: The client stands on a wobble board during processing. A wobble signals dissociation, and the client must ground in the body to stay balanced. [source: 2011] Screen for falls risk and vestibular problems first, and stand within reach. [synthesis]
• Fragrances: Smells with negative associations can trigger states and so can be used to titrate them. Floral or citrus scents help clients move out of dissociation into grounded states. [source: 2011] Check for allergies and smell triggers first. [synthesis]
• Acupressure: Used selectively for symptoms, without adopting Qi or organ theory. No procedure was given in the sources. [source: 2011] [uncertain]
• Combined methods: Gestalt empty chair, dual chair and psychodrama, body therapy and qEEG neurotherapy are used to activate emotion, which OEI techniques then process. Use these only within your own training. [source: 2011]

4.18 Conjoint, family and child applications

• Purpose: The paper reports extending OEI to couples, families and children, for example Switching while looking at a partner's or child's face to dissolve distorted perceptions. [source: 2011]
• Steps: Beyond face-directed Switching (4.5), no conjoint protocol was found. [uncertain] In practice: prepare each person separately; agree that whatever one person perceives through either eye is that person's experience, not a verdict on the other; keep exposures brief. [synthesis]

4.19 Cultural framing of the rationale

• Purpose: Make the method acceptable where emotional language is constrained. In Indonesia, men often voiced only anger and physical pain. [source: 2011]
• Steps: Offer the rationale in local idiom. The team told clients the work would "massage your brain, using your eyes, to lift your heavy heart" [quoted, 2011]. The authors suggest body therapy or neurotherapy may help where expression is limited. [source: 2011]

5. Handling problems

The 2011 paper addresses several difficulties directly; these are cited. The rest is [synthesis] and follows standard phase-oriented trauma practice.

Overwhelm or severe shutdown (nausea, faintness, breathing difficulty, collapse). Cut contact with the intense eye to about half a second, then switch to the less intense eye. [source: 2011] If it continues: cover the intense eye and leave it covered; stop eye movement; orient to the room (name objects, feet on floor, temperature of hands); offer a floral or citrus scent [scent: source 2011; the rest synthesis]. Resume only when SUD is below about 4 and the client chooses to. [synthesis]

Dissociation during processing (drowsiness, drooping lids, glazed gaze, "fog", numbness). Treat drowsiness as a marker of intensity. Switch to attend to the artifact itself (4.4), then Sweep (4.9) if it persists; use a balance board or scent for grounding. [source: 2011] If the client cannot report present-moment sensations, end processing for the session and return to stabilisation. [synthesis] For clients with dissociative disorders: the developers describe integrating alternate identities as a goal [source: sightpsych.com]. Do this only within a phase-oriented plan and with dissociation-specific competence. [synthesis]

Numb or "nothing happening" clients. Expect hypoarousal first. Glitch massaging closer to the glitch, or proximal–distal work, may activate numbed material. A later shift into hyperarousal is a positive sign, so prepare the client for it. [source: 2011] If nothing shifts after two or three sessions, check for a hidden safety concern, medication sedation, or a target that is not personally relevant. [synthesis]

Stuck SUD (stays high on both eyes). In order: shorten exposures; switch attention from content to the body artifact; Sweep; Track-to-Target the peak point; consider Glitch Holding with bilateral stimulation (if trained). [source: 2011, sequence synthesis] If still stuck, look for an unprocessed feeder memory or a current threat that keeps the response realistic, and work on the present situation first. [synthesis]

Persistent harsh inner voice. Use Tracking-to-Target, asking for the point where the voice is loudest, most believable or most disturbing, and massage there. [source: 2011] If the voice sounds like a command hallucination, stop and assess for psychosis. [synthesis]

Transference rupture (the therapist suddenly looks threatening, cold or far away). Make it the work: the client switches while looking at your face until the perceptions converge, and you move back within the client's tolerated distance. [source: 2011] Then repair verbally: acknowledge what the client saw, and ask what about you or the session may have prompted it. [synthesis]

Discomfort at being watched, or at hand movements near the face. Name the observing stance and invite feedback. Let the client cover their own eye (Switching needs only the client's hand). Begin with Switching, which needs no therapist movement, before any tracking. Increase distance, slow down, and offer a pen or wand instead of your hand. [synthesis; self-covering source: 2011]

Visual splitting, eye strain, headache after sessions. Splitting in session: Glitch Holding (4.15). [source: 2011] Strain: use arcing movements that follow the curve of the eye [source: 2011], and add breaks. Persistent visual symptoms between sessions: stop eye-movement work and refer for optometric or medical review. [synthesis]

Contraindications and medical screening. A practitioner page refers to an "OEI Contraindications Consult" physician authorisation form; its contents were not available. [source: myholisticselfcounselling.com] [uncertain] Added cautions [synthesis]: recent eye surgery or eye disease; seizure disorders; vestibular disorders or falls risk (balance board); pregnancy or cardiac conditions where strong abreaction is a concern (get medical advice); active psychosis; acute suicidality; intoxication; and unstable living or ongoing abuse, where stabilisation and safety planning come first. Run standard suicide risk assessment and safety planning if risk emerges.

Emergent memories or images. Case reports describe remembered scenes surfacing during tracking. [source: 2011] Do not interpret these as proof of past events. Do not use eye work to search for unremembered abuse. Do not ask leading questions. Record the client's words, and if legal proceedings are possible, take advice before memory-focused work. [synthesis]

Non-adherence or misuse of home practice. Check that home Switching was taught only after in-session regulation was shown. [source: 2011] Shrink the home task (for example, a few switches when triggered), review it in session, and stop home use if clients are deliberately raising material alone. [synthesis]

Limited emotional vocabulary or cultural constraints. Use local idiom for the rationale and accept somatic reports (pain, heaviness) as valid targets. Body therapy routes may help. [source: 2011]

Between-session destabilisation. Close every processing session with Switching until SUD is low, then a grounding step and a check of plans for the next 24 hours. Offer a brief contact route. Slow the pace in the next session. [synthesis]

Online sessions. One practitioner reports slower pacing and shorter sequences for virtual OEI. [source: myholisticselfcounselling.com] Switching works remotely. Glitch work by video is harder to observe reliably, so use it cautiously and have a local emergency plan. [synthesis]

Competence. The developers state that glitch work requires training and supervision. Start with Switching, the technique they describe as easy to teach clients, and seek OEI training before using the glitch set. [source: 2011; 2014]

Sources

Sources:

• Observed & Experiential Integration (OEI): Discovery and development of a new set of trauma therapy techniques (PDF, oeitherapy.com): primary source (2011). The Release Points description, if present, is not drawn on.
• A randomized clinical trial of Observed and Experiential Integration (OEI) (Ovid, Traumatology): abstract only.
• Why is it Called OEI? – Sight Psych Seminars: developers' training site.
• Rick Bradshaw, CPA Black Psychology Section event notice, 2023 (PDF): biographical details.
• OEI – My Holistic Self Counselling: practitioner page, secondary.
• About Observed Experiential Integration (OEI) – First Session: directory page, secondary.
• US patent application 2006/0052675 (David Grand) – Justia: opened to tell OEI apart from Brainspotting; not an OEI source.

Books and papers cited:

• Bradshaw, R. A., Cook, A., & McDonald, M. J. (2011). Observed & Experiential Integration (OEI): Discovery and development of a new set of trauma therapy techniques. Journal of Psychotherapy Integration, 21(2), 104–171. doi:10.1037/a0023966
• Bradshaw, R. A., McDonald, M. J., Grace, R., Detwiler, L., & Austin, K. (2014). A randomized clinical trial of Observed and Experiential Integration (OEI): A simple, innovative intervention for affect regulation in clients with PTSD. Traumatology, 20(3), 161–171. doi:10.1037/h0099401
• Hannaford, C. (1997). The Dominance Factor (cited in Bradshaw et al. 2011 for eye-dominance testing). [uncertain]