EMDR with grief and mourning

The death of a loved one confronts people with particularly complicated challenges at a time of often unparalleled distress. This workshop will focus on integrating EMDR into the treatment of grief and mourning. Understanding grief and mourning in terms of the Adaptive Information Processing model will be presented and illustrated by case presentations and videos of EMDR sessions. EMDR does not shorten the phases the mourner has to go through for adaptive assimilation and accommodation of the loss, but processes the factors that can complicate the mourning. The processes the mourner has to go through for assimilation and accommodation of the loss, and how EMDR facilitates movement through them, will be presented. Particular attention will be paid to how EMDR facilitates the emergence of adaptive inner representations. We do not lose attachments to loved ones that die, they are transformed. We move from loving in presence to loving in absence. Memories of the deceased often emerge during EMDR treatment. It is the emergence of memories of the deceased that let us know and acknowledge the meaning of the relationship, the person’s role in our lives and identity, and enable us to carry the basic security of having loved and been loved into the future. We can go forward in a world without the deceased, because we have an adaptive inner representation to take with us. Content includes: · Overview of AIP model and how it applies to grief and mourning · Acute grief as a form of traumatic stress · Common responses to loss · The six “R” processes of mourning · High-risk factors predisposing to complicated mourning · General principles of EMDR treatment in grief and mourning

Conference

English

Roger M. Solomon

Solomon, R. M. (2008, June). EMDR with grief and mourning. Presentation at the 9th EMDR Europe Association Conference, London, England