When There Are No Words – The Challenges of Using EMDR for Early Trauma and Neglect
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Training Description
Dr. Paulsen will review key assessment issues in which EMDR practitioners should be alert. Additionally, the workshop will elaborate on the key phase of stabilization, before ever conducting EMDR for a dissociative client. It will describe ways to increase affect tolerance, (employ somatic resourcing, and other somatic methods, for the second workshop), reconfigure ego states. A key focus is on working directly perpetrator introjects or other “monstrous” disowned or shameful parts, to minimize resistance and internal conflict. Leading Edge methods for resetting affective circuits and clearing very early attachment trauma will be touched upon.
The workshop will highlight how, once readiness for EMDR has been achieved, a clinician can use relevant ego state strategies and imagery to ensure that the client’s self-system is engaged and informed about the process, has sufficient internal resources to process through traumatic material while maintaining dual-attention awareness. The workshop draws on hypnotic tradition for strategies for pacing and fractionating trauma work, and allowing consolidation of gains and synthesis between pieces of work. Dissociative table (conference room) methods are discussed in the context of use within and outside of EMDR. Ego state, (somatic, for the second workshop) and Imaginal Interweaves are suggested for “looping” or stuck EMDR processes. Pseudoseizures, headaches, and mutism are also discussed in terms of ego state work within EMDR. Finally, we’ll touch on EMDR assisted skills building, integration and fusion methods in the later stages of the work.
Trainer Biography
Dr Sandra Paulsen is co-editor of “The Neurobiology & Treatment of Traumatic Dissociation: Toward an Embodied Self” (2014), and author of, “Looking Through the Eyes of Trauma & Dissociation: An Illustrated Guide for EMDR Therapists and Clients.” She is a fellow of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation. She was invited faculty at the First and Third World Congresses of Ego State Therapy in Germany, 2003 and South Africa, 2010, Japan EMDR Conference 2010, Masters Series Lecturer at EMDRIA conference in Toronto, 2004. She wrote chapters in Corsini’s Encyclopedia of Psychology and Handbook of Innovative Psychotherapy, and in Shapiro’s Solutions II, Forgash’s Healing the Heart of Trauma, and Luber’s EMDR Scripted Protocols. She has collaborated with John G. Watkins, originator of ego state therapy. She was Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Hawaii; and Acting Chief Psychologist at Queens Medical Center in Honolulu. She now lives and works on Bainbridge Island, near Seattle, specializing in intensive treatment for early trauma and attachment injuries. Her Curriculum Vitae can be found here.
Learning Objectives
This training is designed to help you:
- Explain why and when to assess every client for degree of dissociation prior to doing EMDR and choose an appropriate protocol
- Utilize a phased approach to therapy, including EMDR when and where appropriate, for complex dissociative clients
- List six tactics of stabilizing clients, prior to doing EMDR for dissociative clients to increase rapport, increase soma tolerance, contain affect, orient to present circumstances, reduce inner conflict, and build coping resources
- Prepare for EMDR processing using ego state and other methods to clarify roles and plan the work
- Explain EMDR session using imagery, ego state interventions (and somatic methods, for the second workshop) for pacing, fractionating and troubleshooting the work
