EMDR & the Art of Psychotherapy With Children

        This workshop is based on the book by the same name EMDR and the Art of Psychotherapy with Children: Infants to Adolescents (Adler-Tapia & Settle, 2017). The workshop teaches therapists to take basic training in EMDR therapy to a new level. Participants learn to use EMDR therapy with children from infants to adolescents. The training takes participants step-by-step through each phase of EMDR therapy with even the youngest clients.  Therapists are also taught to use EMDR therapy with children with different diagnoses including Trauma and Stress-Related Disorders such as PTSD, ADHD, Individuals with I/DD, and with children on the Autism Spectrum.   This workshop includes basic and advanced skills for using EMDR therapy with every age client.

Healing the Origins of Trauma:

Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR) Psychotherapy with Children & Families Exposed to Violence & Abuse

        Children exposed to abuse, neglect, and trauma often display a myriad of behavioral, physiological, and psychological symptoms that follow them into adulthood and parenthood.  With Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), the opportunity to access the maladaptively stored information and reprocess it through to adaptive resolution is the ultimate goal of case conceptualization.  Children not only learn to cope, but heal from traumatic life events offering the child the opportunity to return to the potential with which they were born with a health trajectory for the future. Through lecture and video, therapists gain valuable insight into the efficacy of this psychotherapy.  EMDR therapy integrates play therapy, family systems therapy, and all other types of psychotherapy commonly used in treatment with children within a psychosocial developmental framework.  Therapists learn to integrate clinical skills into a comprehensive eight-phase model.  When treating children with sexual abuse and trauma, the therapist is provided an integrative approach with which to conceptualize treatment that includes goals and objectives that can be understood by children and their caregivers, as well as, by child welfare, law enforcement, and medical professionals. With research to support EMDR therapy as evidence-based practice, the use of EMDR  therapy in the treatment of children with sexual abuse and trauma presents a comprehensive psychotherapy that provides children with the opportunity for healing while sustaining the work product to be admissible and solid in court.

EMDR Psychotherapy Case Conceptualization with a Reverse Protocol

        Dr. Adler-Tapia created the Reverse Protocol when working with children in the child welfare system and with clients dealing with anticipatory anxiety from medical interventions. This workshop will focus on a unique EMDR therapy approach to address the foreshortened sense of future that is often the symptom of depression and PTSD, experienced by many clients. Those struggling with complex trauma, and/or those who are severely dysregulated may have great difficulty managing the phases of EMDR therapy. This protocol offers an alternative to extended resourcing or avoidance of EMDR treatment altogether. By using the EMDR psychotherapy Reverse Protocol to address the client’s negative beliefs about his or her future, it can help to elicit hope and direction for therapy. The negative beliefs about the future are reprocessed. Then, current triggers and past events are reprocessed either by using EMD or EMDR psychotherapy, with all 8 phases of the standard 3-pronged approach of EMDR therapy conceptualized through the three-pronged approach in reverse order. The EMDR Psychotherapy Reverse Protocol has been presented at international conferences and many venues across the country and was discussed by Dr. Shapiro at the EMDRIA Conference. Currently, there is a research study being conducted on the EMDR Therapy Reverse Protocol with teens in the Juvenile Justice System.

Haunted:

Trauma Treatment with EMDR Therapy for First Responders & Professionals in the Trenches

        This workshop will focus on basic and advanced skills in adhering to the EMDR protocol in the treatment of first responders exposed to trauma in the line of duty. The practice of caring for the emotional and physical needs of professionals exposed to life and death situations and the most difficult of human suffering takes its toll on those in the trenches. In these inimitable circumstances, the exposure can lead to direct traumas and/or vicarious trauma for the professional. By working in law enforcement, fire sciences, emergency services, 911 operators, emergency room staff (including doctors and nurses), child welfare workers, and even psychotherapists, these professionals experience direct or secondary trauma from their work environment. Case conceptualization will be presented through the lens of the Adaptive Information Processing Model (AIP) adhering to the EMDR 8 phase protocol. Participants will learn how to develop a comprehensive treatment plan with methods for Resource Development Installation (RDI) and Cognitive Interweaves specific to first responders. This interactive workshop includes videos, and didactic material, to deepen participants’ understanding of how to implement EMDR and enhance their skills in working with first responders.

Treatment of Attachment Trauma & The Dissociative Sequelae Through the Lifespan:

Case Conceptualization With EMDR Therapy

        When the earliest relationships are traumatic, attachment injuries can significantly change the trajectory of one’s life. Bonding and attachment are neurobiologically driven survival mechanisms. But when these basic requirements are not met, individuals can experience extreme distress leading to mental health disorders and physical disease. Although these conditions begin in infancy, if untreated they can endure a lifetime. It is essential that attachment disruptions be addressed in both children and adults experiencing complex trauma reactions. The impact of early trauma is highly evident in the child welfare system with both children and adults who often have high ACES scores. In order to prevent transgenerational trauma with repeated acute stress in the lives of both children and adults, treatment of attachment and trauma must be offered in the Child Welfare system. EMDR therapy provides a comprehensive, integrative, and effective approach to the treatment of attachment and the dissociative sequelae.

Processing Speed, Mentalizing, & Case Conceptualization with EMDR Therapy

        Through the 8 phases and three-pronged approach of EMDR therapy, the individual client's unique competencies that include processing speed, short-term memory, working memory, emotional intelligence, intellectual level, and mentalizing proficiencies – all impact the treatment progression.  This workshop will focus on enhancing the therapist’s conceptualization of each phase of EMDR therapy treatment with consideration of how the client’s processing speed may change the flow of therapy; how the client's level of intelligence and memory impact treatment; and finally, how mentalizing impacts trauma reprocessing. Furthermore, the client’s level of developmental mastery, attachment experiences, and Adverse Child Experiences influence how the phases of treatment unfold.   This workshop is consistent with standard EMDR therapy superimposed with contemporary developmental theory considerations for integrative treatment.  This is an advanced workshop for therapists to expand their EMDR therapy skills.