Humans, as social mammals, are on a quest for safety. The need to feel safe is the prepotent survival related motivator impacting on all aspects of human experience by biasing thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Threat reactions not only disrupt…
Mentalization involves a state of mind in which an individual can observe and reflect upon the internal state of self and others with flexibility and lack of judgement. Mentalization naturally enhances clients’ capacity to utilize therapy, including…
Resilience is more than the ability to bounce back from adversity. It is a transformative process that reveals our inherent nobility, a rite of passage from pieces to peace. Resilient people face reality head-on, take action, find deeper meaning in…
The Art of EMDR is the dance between client and therapist involving attunement, synchrony, and resonance. It is expressed through optimal dual attention stimulation (DAS) and understanding clinical choice points that maximize processing. This…
This plenary will be divided into two parts. During the first past of the morning, we will examine the impact of early neglect, abuse, and attachment disruption on the development, functioning, and identity of an individual. We will review the range…
Many are struck by the similarities between EMDR and mindfulness practice. Today's workshops explore various ways in which EMDR and mindfulness can be employed in our efforts to help people recover from suffering. In this plenary presentation,…
Research focused on EMDR has dramatically grown and neuroimaging represents a powerful tool to investigate its neurobiological correlates. The impact of EMDR on cortical and sub-cortical brain regions involved in PTSD has been proven by several…
Four dimensions of consciousness, including time, thought, body, and emotion often become drastically altered as a result of traumatic experience. Even though such alterations in consciousness can be adaptive during the encounter of traumatic events,…
Given the heavy global burden of trauma and its far-reaching consequences for individuals and societies, why has not more been done about it? Recent innovations, growing awareness and existing health infrastructures open up new possibilities for…
Clinical practice and treatment guidelines have been published or are under development for PTSD and its complex and dissociative variants. These are based on best research evidence, clinical consensus, and client preference and values. This keynote…
Over the last decade, several theories have been put forward to explain the mechanism of action of EMDR, including Shapiro’s Accelerated Information Processing (AIP) model as well as models built around the concepts of working memory, de-arousal, the…
The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study is a long term, in-depth, epidemiologic analysis of over 17,000 middle-aged, middle-class Americans, matching their current health status against 10 categories of adverse childhood experiences that…
The most important determinant of physical health is mental health. Adverse childhood experiences set the stage for chronic illness, substance abuse, and trauma later in life through epigenetic changes, neurochemistry, immune function and brain…
When clinicians understand how dissociation works and how to manage it, the considerable benefits of EMDR therapy can be provided to clients with complex posttraumatic disorders. This presentation is designed to help clinicians manage dissociative…
EMDR therapy directly addresses the physiologically stored memory networks that underlie both psychological problems and mental health. This adaptive information processing orientation to both case conceptualization and clinical application will be…
Dr. Ross will present data on the links between trauma, dissociation and attachment. He will then describe the problem of attachment to the perpetrator, one of the core principles of his Trauma Model Therapy. He will go on from there to explain why…
Most persons who develop PTSD in the aftermath of exposure recover from trauma-related symptoms, but remain at risk for a recrudescence of symptoms. This suggests that there are aspects of the response to high magnitude trauma that are long-lasting,…
In a project carried out by Trauma Aid-HAP Germany between 2007 and 2009 and sponsored by Terre des Hommes and the German Official Development Assistance more than 3200 adult and child clients were treated for mental disorders related to traumatic…
Clients with a dissociative personality structure can be very vulnerable to dissociative abreaction – i.e. “reliving” the trauma with intense disturbance while experiencing a loss of present orientation and safety. In addition, a client who has…
The session will: explain four different meanings of the word “dissociation" and clarify which ones are relevant to the psychobiology of dissociation; review the structural model of dissociation and how it unifies the dissociative disorders and PTSD;…
EMDR treatment of complex trauma-related disorders may benefit from a clear understanding of the dissociative nature of these disorders. Dissociation is an undue division of the personality among two or more psychobiological systems or “dissociative…
Lo status attuale dell’EMDR nel mondo della psicoterapia è sempre in evoluzione, nonostante gli sviluppi positivi degli ultimi 10 anni. Le sfide arrivano dal campo del trattamento del trauma sia nell’ambito dell’EMDR che dal mondo accademico della…
Molti studi di Risonanza Magnetica (RM) hanno mostrato che in pazienti con Disturbo Post-Traumatico da Stress (DPTS) è presente un volume ippocampale più piccolo se confrontato con i controlli sani. Allo stesso tempo altre indagini hanno mostrato che…
Questa relazione descrive l’applicazione dell’EMDR come trattamento precoce focalizzato sul trauma rivolto a bambini coinvolti in diastri collettivi (disastri naturali, incidenti e provocato in modo intenzionale dalla mano dell’uomo). Il trattamento…
Dr. Schore will discuss current models of the neurobiology of attachment, detailing the enduring positive and negative impact of interactively regulated and dysregulated bodily-based affective transactions on the organization of the infant’s…
The panel reviews EMDR research, explains the strengths and weaknesses of its current status, and discusses possible future research in the next 5 to 10 years. The panel begins with a discussion of the meaning of “evidence-based” designations, and…
In 1989, the seminal randomized controlled study on EMD appeared in the Journal of Traumatic Stress. However, by the time the first trainings began in the US in 1990, the principles now known as the Adaptive Information Processing model were guiding…
This seminar will describe particular means to strengthen the somatic component of the EMDR Protocol for clients that have the following characteristics: dissociation from the body, ungrounded, unable to feel somatic sensations and impulses, lack of…
The use of EMDR is often complicated with traumatized clients who cannot modulate arousal, stay present rather than dissociating, tolerate positive or negative affect, or differentiate past and present. Beset with an array of baffling, intense…
Attachment theory has identified adults with a secure attachment style as more resilient to stress and trauma than insecurely attached adults. The secure adult tends to have supportive relationships which buffer him from stress (Bowlby, 1988), and he…
Mindful awareness has been scientifically proven to promote social, emotional and physical well-being and is an effective part of psychotherapy practice. Research has demonstrated that mindful awareness is useful in the prevention of relapse of drug…
Disagreements regarding the efficacy and effectiveness of interventions to prevent and treat post traumatic disorders have caused divisions within the traumatic stress field and had a negative impact on its image to the outside world. The emergence…
Until recently we had little knowledge how to help people integrate such disintegrated traumatic imprints. Traditionally, before the advent of contemporary methods of treatment outcome evaluation, many clinicians, from Pierre Janet to Milton Erikson…
Despite a large number of well-controlled studies there continues to be considerable skepticism about the specificity of EMDR's usefulness at a treatment of PTSD. It therefore was gratifying that the National institutes of Mental Health in the USA…
In 2004, fifteen years after Dr. Shapiro first published on EMDR, the role of eye movements (and other stimulation) in EMDR continues to be a subject of much debate. An overview of what practitioners need to know to understand the research that…
EMDR stimulates the body to heal the mind. Progress in neuroscience and recent clinical studies are shedding light on how mind and body affect each other. The central mechanism of healing is homeostasis: the body's ability to return to balance when…
