EMDR with children exposed to chronic abuse and domestic violence

This paper aims to discuss some of the issues of working using EMDR, as a part of the integrated treatment process of children, who have been exposed to chronic abuse and domestic violence. These children are all in the care system and are living with foster parents who know very little about their previous lives. Often the professionals caring for them also have little of the child's history and many details of what they have been exposed to are not known. The children are frequently detached, dissociated and shut down from their past experiences, though their traumatised behaviours continue to blight and dominate their entire lives and present major difficulties in their daily management and future planning. Their emotional and social development appears to be arrested by their chronic multiple traumatisation. They are also kept in transitional placements for long periods of time, whilst their long-term needs are assessed. There is a struggle to identify appropriate long-term placements for such damaged children as their severe multiple traumatisation prevents them from being able to trust or begin to form new attachments or even to develop a sense of safety. There is a nee for early intervention to treat their severely traumatised symptoms and memories, to help rid them of their overwhelming terror and fears of the adult world and to free them to begin to form healthier more appropriate behaviours and attachments. How using EMDR to enable these children to develop and progress emotionally and socially towards a more positive future is described.

Conference

English

Joanne Morris-Smith

Morris-Smith, J. (2001, May). EMDR with children exposed to chronic abuse and domestic violence. Presentation at the 2nd EMDR Europe Association Conference, London, England