EMDR case formulation symposium

The focus of this symposium will be on intermediate and advanced topics in EMDR case formulation in more challenging cases. The presentation will include how affect and schema theories can help organize and guide treatment planing and selection of protocols, targets and cognitions. Time will be allowed to discuss problem cases. The symposium will begin with an overview of the EMDR theoretical model and the role of metacognitions in the accelerated information processing paradigm. Guideposts to application will include principles such as: good enough cognitions and warning indicators fiom cognitions and the history taking of potential blocked responses. A model of EMDR case formulation issues will be presented involving treatment planning and selection of protocols, targets and cognitions. A fundamental issue in case formulation will be proposed as the extent to which the case involves simple adult trauma with a good premorbid history or is a more complex case conceptualized as involving some degree of neglect or pervasive failure of the early environment to provide healthy models of self-other interaction. Alternate treatment protocols will be offered for more complex cases presentations where there are insufficient healthy resources present to permit the successfull use of standard EMDR protocols even with creative application of cognitive interweave strategies. Protocols will be offered for "practice" EMDR sessions and for building up healthy internal resources in advance of targeting disturbing memories. Affect theory as developed by Silvan S. Tomkins and reviewed in Donald Nathanson's (1992) Shame and Pride, Affect Sex, and the Birth of the Self, W. W. Norton & Co, New York, and its relationship to EMDR will be considered. Emphasis will be on the biological theory of emotions, the nine innate affects, the central and unique role of shame in human development, and how affect theory supports EMDR theory and application. For example, EMDR theory emphasizes the central role of physiological and emotional responses and views cognitions as "distallations of experience" (Francine Shapiro, 1995, Eve Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, Basic Principles, Protocols, and Procedures, Guilford Press, NY). Shame and its attendant distorted self concepts is a central problem in PTSD and other pervasive traumageric disorders. Aspects of this case formulation approach have been influenced by members of the EMDR facilitator staff most notably Landry Wildwind's speciality and conference presentations on working with chronic depression and personal communications with Marguerite McCorkle. Case examples will be given in which alternate EMDR protocols were used to successfully work through unresolved developmental issues and massive layers of shame that had blocked previous treatment efforts. A large portion of the symposium will be devoted to a case conference round table where these issues will be explored through a discussion of problem cases offered by participants.

Conference

English

Andrew M. Leeds

Leeds, A. M. (1995, June). EMDR case formulation symposium. Symposium conducted at the EMDR Network Conference, Santa Monica, CA