Clients dealing with trauma aren’t always receptive to the therapeutic process. And using treatment techniques that repeatedly confront clients with the horrific details of the traumas that haunt them can cause them to be avoidant, reactionary, or completely withdrawn. It’s painful for clients and clinician alike, and it doesn’t feel like healing.

Watch this 2-Day EMDR session and discover how this powerful, evidence-based treatment has helped thousands of clients safely and rapidly process their traumas without the need to focus on explicit details! You’ll learn:

• How EMDR can be used to overcome avoidance in clients
• How EMDR techniques can help clients resolve traumatic memories
• When and with which clients EMDR should be used
• How to emphasize safety during sessions
• How the 8-phase model is used in treatment

Demonstrations and brief practice opportunities will give attendees an opportunity to see how EMDR is used and give them a chance to experience it themselves.

Sign up today and discover how EMDR can help clients find relief from trauma and reclaim their lives!

This training is not affiliated with EMDRIA and does NOT qualify towards EMDRIA credits, training or certification.

Objectives

1. Describe the role of the autonomic nervous system in trauma symptomology.
2. Articulate the clinical implications of the freeze response in trauma treatment.
3. Characterize the potential neurobiological mechanisms of change in the EMDR approach.
4. Demonstrate EMDR techniques can build dual awareness in clients to treat the avoidance that makes trauma treatment challenging.
5. Demonstrate the 8 Phases of the EMDR protocol.
6. Assess clients to determine the appropriateness and potential risks of using EMDR.
7. Analyze resourcing strategies from EMDR to facilitate the processing of trauma.
8. Utilize EMDR techniques to reinforce and activate positive neural networks.
9. Modify EMDR to work with complex/developmental trauma to directly treat traumatic memories.
10. Evaluate strategies to foster the critical connection between client and therapist in EMDR therapy.
11. Articulate the research limitations and potential risks associated with EMDR.
12. Establish the order of operations for attachment-based EMDR treatment to resolve relational trauma.

Outline Trauma and Neuroscience

• Key brain areas involved in trauma
• Polyvagal Theory, and types of freeze responses
• Trauma and insecure attachment
• The neuroscience of developmental trauma
• Clinical implications of the freeze response

How the EMDR Approach Works

• The neuroscience of exposure therapy and cognitive therapy
• The neuroscience of relaxation exercises
• EMDR and other “transformative therapies”
• Why EMDR works so well from a brain perspective

Trauma Symptoms and Assessment Tools

• Traumatic memories and intrusive thoughts
• Phobias and anxiety: Insula hyperactivation
• Emotional hijackings and implicit memory
• Avoidance cluster of symptoms
• Why treating avoidance in trauma is critical
• DSM-5® symptoms in a nutshell
• Connecting to a diagnosis
  • Simple vs. complex trauma
  • Intergenerational trauma
  • Symptom clusters and physical manifestations
  • CAPS-5 and PCL-5
  • Primary Care PTSD Screen
  • Dual diagnosis

Overcome Avoidance with EMDR

• Dual awareness
• What you are thinking about is the network you’re in
• Activate networks for change
• Neurons that fire together, wire together (Hebb’s Rule)
• EMDR as neuroentrainment

When to Use EMDR in Treatment

• Demonstrations and experiential exercises
• Single event trauma
• Anxiety disorders involving imaginal exposure

EMDR Trauma Treatment: The Original 8-Phase Model

• Client history and treatment planning
• How to resource: Create a safe space
• Assessment: Choose a target, SUDS, connect with the image/emotions/thought
• Desensitization: Tactile vs. auditory vs. eye movement
• How to use touchpoints, Theratapper, CDs
• Positive Cognition Installation: Likert scale 1-7
• Body Scan: Locate tension and distress in the body
• Closure: Close the neural network and the 6-hour window
• Re-evaluation

Demonstration of Original 8-Phase Model

• Presenter demonstration
• Attendee dyad practice of the 8-phase model

EMDR Techniques to Resolve Traumatic Memories

• Modifications for Complex/Developmental Trauma
• Do not use standard protocol – Rationale for modifications
• Resourcing strategies
• Techniques to reinforce and activate positive neural networks
• Relevance of Polyvagal Theory, early trauma, and EMDR
• Sensory motor modifications and somatic approaches
• How to build Dual Awareness
• EMDR techniques to bring traumatic memories from the limbic system into the prefrontal cortex

Attachment-Based EMDR: Strategies to Treat Relational Trauma

• Strategies to foster the critical connection between client and therapist
• Mirror neuron activation
• How to emphasize safety during sessions
• Guidance on order of operations

Research Limitations and Potential Risks
Target Audience This seminar is intended for masters- and doctoral-level clinicians experienced in working with trauma, such as:

• Counselors
• Psychotherapists
• Social Workers
• Psychologists
• Addiction Counselors
• Marriage & Family Therapists
• Case Managers
• Nurses
• Other Mental Health Professionals