EMDR for Developmental Trauma in the Attachment Period
Modifications, Preparations and Temporal Integration
Saturday 25 March 2023
A live webinar with Dr Sandra Paulsen
CPD Credits: 3.5 hours
- Includes a subtitled recording of the event and a transcript, with access for a year (14 days post the event)
- Bookings close at 9:00am GMT Wednesday 22 March
EMDR is a well-established treatment for PTSD and traumatic sequelae, and has been so for over three decades. Being highly effective and time efficient, EMDR also requires modification for success with complex cases.
READ MORE...These may include complex PTSD/dissociative disorders, very early trauma held in implicit memory, and alexithymia or somatic dissociation from early trauma and or neglect. Dr Sandra Paulsen has spent over three decades articulating the modifications of EMDR Therapy required to address these complex cases. The first session will introduce the basics of standard EMDR including targeting and applications. The second will explain the preparation methods needed to ensure that more complex traumatic sequelae can be safely addressed. The third will introduce how developmental trauma can be targeted with EMDR using temporal integration, and processed to an adaptive resolution. With the more complex cases, assessment for presence and degree of structural or somatic dissociation is key to appropriate case formulation and treatment planning. This seminar offers an introduction to a more in-depth training.
FULL PROGRAMME
14.00 GMT
Introductions
14.05
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR): An Efficacious and Efficient Treatment for Traumatic Sequelae
Since the late 1980s, EMDR has been proven to be a highly efficacious treatment for PTSD and other traumatic sequelae, with endorsement by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UK National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE). With fewer dropouts than exposure therapy, EMDR offers a protocol for activating neuro networks that hold the unresolved traumatic affect, cognition, and body sensations. It enables trauma symptoms to be resolved using the brains information processing system. This session will provide an overview of EMDR applications and targeting, as well as cautions regarding complex cases of dissociative disorders (Paulsen, 2009).
15.00
Break
15.15
Considerations and Preparation for Processing Developmental Trauma: When There Are No Words
When trauma and neglect occurs in the preverbal or attachment period of life, developmental milestones are often unmet. Therefore, using EMDR for early trauma requires modification, including preparation methods. Very early trauma has no pictures and little narrative, so to feel safe during processing, client capacities are critical including: a) ability to maintain dual attention awareness (simultaneous then and now), b) to discern and tolerate affect and body sensation, and c) to contain incomplete processing between sessions. These are addressed in preparation methods including the Pankseppian basic emotions (Paulsen, 2017, and O’Shea and Paulsen, 2007) for availability during emotional processing.
16.00
Q&A
16.15
Break
16.30
Temporal Integration: EMDR in the Preverbal and Attachment Period to Repair Unmet Developmental Milestones
Once preparations ensure clients can tolerate and discern the affect and nuances of processing very early trauma, EMDR is modified in several ways. Instead of targeting remembered trauma, one targets using a novel strategy called temporal integration. This targets by time period from the beginning of life, repairing impinged developmental milestones using client imagination. Negative cognitions are captured as they emerge during processing and positive cognitions installed with the repairs. Each milestone builds on the prior foundational successes. Symptoms are understood to be shrines to the child’s untold story, and remit once fully heard, owned and repaired in imagination.
17.15
Q&A
18.00
End