2012 Workshop Archive

The fourth Autumn Workshop was held in Sheffield on Friday 5th October 2012.

The day consisted of 15 workshops and they were as follows:

Keynote presentation: Complex trauma � road to psychiatric dysfunction or path toward posttraumatic growth?

Claudia Herbert

Healthcare service providers, as well as mental health practitioners, frequently associate the suffering of complex trauma with pathology, mental illness, personality disorders and severe psychiatric dysfunction. Clients are perceived as difficult to treat, interventions are guided by the nature of the psychiatric diagnosis and therapy focuses on crisis management and on helping clients to achieve reductions of symptoms that account for the psychiatric diagnosis. Although symptom reduction can be of great value and importance to sufferers, sole focus on this misses the great potential to engage a person in a transformative process that can lead to considerable inner strengthening, alignment and positive growth, as a result and in spite of their early traumatic experiences. This keynote introduced a shift in perspective away from the traditional focus on psychiatric dysfunction toward a model of positive growth for clients suffering from Complex Trauma and Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). It is proposed that development of empathic empowerment of the individual toward greater personal authenticity, honesty, accountability and compassion can open the path toward posttraumatic growth. However, in order to achieve such development specific parameters must be fulfilled. These parameters, which include therapist factors, the nature of the therapeutic relationship, an underlying therapeutic framework for working with complex trauma and the guiding principles and ingredients that nurture growth rather than dysfunction, were outlined and illustrated through the use of client vignettes.

THE CHALLENGES OF INTEGRATING EMDR BASIC TRAINING INTO THE CONTEXT OF YOUR OWN PRACTICE

Liz Royle

This session looked at common challenges faced by therapists when beginning the task of integrating EMDR basic training into their existing practice and skills. It discussed how therapists often react to this challenge (including giving up / protocol drift) and offered suggestions on how to overcome this. The specific difficulties encountered by those with different theoretical backgrounds were highlighted. This session was aimed at novice EMDR therapists who may be feeling apprehensive about applying their new skills.

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DILEMMAS OF USING EMDR IN TIME LIMITED ENVIRONMENTS

Carolyn Stone & Paul Goode

Applying EMDR standard protocol in time limited settings with clients who have experienced multiple traumas, often in childhood and combined with disrupted attachments, poses an ongoing clinical challenge. It is necessary to continue to explore ways in which such clients might benefit from EMDR whilst keeping the client �safe.� This presentation offered some practical EMDR strategies which have been found to be effective with such a client population in these settings, accompanied by case studies.

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A NEW PROTOCOL TO ENHANCE EMDR THERAPY

Art O'Malley

Bilateral Affective Reprocessing of thoughts or BART is a dynamic new model of trauma therapy designed to complement traditional EMDR therapy. Often with early touchstone memories the client has no verbal recall. It is impossible to access negative cognitions. In BART gut feelings are activated and connected to feelings and sensations elsewhere in the body. Ultimately heartfelt sensations link to the cerebral hemispheres and eventually the prefrontal cortex. Examples illustrated combining BART psychotherapy with traditional EMDR.

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TEMPORAL SEQUENCING AS A MULTIPURPOSE AID IN PREPARING FOR AND FACILITATING EMDR WITH COMPLEX TRAUMA OR SEVERE PTSD

Nel Walker

There are various uses of chronological autobiographical memory cues (temporal sequencing) to restore the sense of �continuity of being� disrupted by trauma:

  • To facilitate readiness for EMDR processing when a client is avoidant to accessing memory, or is likely to become hyper-aroused, by creating felt distance in time from the time of the trauma to the present.
  • To securely close an incomplete EMDR session.
  • To improve the clients� present groundedness both in the session, and to improve their general level of groundedness, making them less vulnerable to intrusions and avoidance.
  • To build sufficient ego-strength and empowerment for secure processing and integration of traumatic memory.

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MY MISSION TO TURKEY AND LIBYA

Khaled Sultan

Khaled's presentation was a 'thank you' to the Yorkshire and NE Regions for supporting him on his missions to the Middle East.

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FACILITATING EMDR WITH ERICKSONIAN HYPNOSIS

Fokkina McDonnell

The spirit and principles of Ericksonian Hypnosis work well with other therapies and can be integrated effectively with the eight-phase EMDR protocol. The workshop introduced some key concepts and elements of Ericksonian trance work. Conversational Ericksonian Hypnosis provides an elegant method for using metaphors and doing �parts work�, which can be combined with other interweaves. The application is particularly relevant where avoidance, ambivalence and blocking beliefs are an issue in treatment.

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FLOATING FURTHER BACK

Sue Holden

Sue explained the ability of the body-based floatback to take us further back. She taught the anchoring of a positive memory and use of this anchor to dilute difficult feelings if they become overwhelming during float-back. She also demonstrated and offered practice time to develop a powerful method of float-back, combining body-memory with framed visual backward tracking through the life story � to earliest memory � framed to give some distance, and client stopping and starting backward tracking process, as appropriate.

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IS EMDR A SAFE PLACE PLUS DESENSITISATION? CONSIDERATIONS FOR WHEN, HOW AND WHY TO EMBED EMDR IN OTHER THERAPIES

Manda Holmshaw

Shapiro welcomed clinicians from all theoretical backgrounds in 1989 to learn to practice EMDR. Currently �embedding� EMDR in other treatment approaches is an accreditation requirement. Analysing 700 cases diagnosed with PTSD revealed a variety of approaches to embedding. Severity and complexity of a case, clinician judgement that the client is �stuck�, avoidance and ambivalence about receiving therapy and feeling at a loss from the therapist�s side are typical features of the decision to �embed�. How and why does one �embed�?

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DISSOCIATIVE DISORDERS � DEPERSONALISATION, DEREALISATION AND DISSOCIATION

Susan Darker-Smith

Susan Darker-Smith is an accredited Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist and EMDR Consultant specialising in complex trauma, dissociative disorders, personality difficulties and eating disorders. Susan holds masters-level qualifications in CBT and Human Rights Law. She works mainly within a child & adolescent population in the NHS specialising in complex psychological trauma in children alongside working in private practice.

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FLASH FORWARDS: A SPECIAL TYPE OF FUTURE TEMPLATE

Robin Logie

The �Flashforwards� procedure was explained as a sub category of the existing concept of the �Future Template�. Situations in which the use of Flashforwards might be appropriate were explained. The use of Flashforwards for various disorders in which there is a fear of future events (eg phobia, PTSD, OCD) were outlined together with case examples including video. Participants worked through the Assessment phase of the EMDR protocol for a future feared situation using their own material.

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TECHNIQUES TO KEEP THE DISSOCIATED CLIENT ANCHORED IN THE THERAPY ROOM

Ian Plagaro-Neill

From the initial stages of his EMDR training Ian worked with clients who presented with complex trauma who frequently dissociated. He therefore had to quickly learn how to enable clients to process traumatic memories whilst keeping them anchored in the present moment and in the therapy room. The workshop was a demonstration of a range of techniques Ian has learnt over the years of his EMDR practice.

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MEETING OF THE EMDR UK&I SIG ON POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY AND EMDR

David Blore, EMDR Consultant & Trainer

David led a brief meeting on this subject. He has posted the minutes of the meeting on Linkedin at the following address: LinkedIn You will need to be a member of Linkedin to access these minutes.

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