EMDR with couples in the context of family therapy EMDR mit paaren im kontext der familientherapie

The use of both Mony Elkaïm’s systemic model and the AIP model is a new perspective for couples’therapy and for EMDR target plan and further in individual therapy where relational problems are involved. This workshop will teach present a way to do a target plan for relational problem treatment. Focusing on couples’therapy the workshop will show how to do an EMDR case conceptualization integrating the systemic model. It will propose clinical question/answer that will help to decide to use EMDR or not in the couple session, choosing the position of the other member of the couple during the reprocessing phases. It will show the use of individual safe places as a safe place for the couple during the session and at home. What we propose here is that the understanding of Mony Elkaïm’s Systemic model for a couple in crisis guides us to find where to work on the past of each member to heal the couple in the EMDR target plan. We imagine that this understanding can be of help to build a bridge between any 2 parts of a relation: 2friends, 2 colleagues, 2 persons from different culture or religion.
The presentation will illustrate how the systemic model created by Mony Elkaïm for understanding couple crisis can be useful in the EMDR treatment of couples, EMDR case conceptualization and EMDR target plan. This model insists on the double bind in which each member of the couple is torn between his/her Official Program and his/her World View. For example: "I want to be loved" (O.P) and" if someone loves me he will leave me" (W.V.). These world views are creating repetitive cycles which are trapping the members of the couple or of any people in interaction. The aim of the EMDR practitioner is to treat the dysfunctional stored memories connected with these world views and give them flexibility to free the members of the couple from the vicious circle in which they are caught. In this presentation we propose to show how making hypothesis about the World view of each member of the couple and verifying them will guide us to the individual target that will be the Gordian knot in the present problem the couple is dealing with, hence helping the system to evolve from a situation of crisis to a situation of equilibrium. Using EMDR will help to give flexibility to the world view of each member. Using it within Mony Elkaïm’s systemic model will help the couple. Following each phase of the EMDR model eight-phases protocol, we will show how it will be applied to couple therapy with case studies and practice example. We will see how this target plan can apply to any dyad or system in crisis in family therapy, couple therapy and individual therapy. Learning objectives:
•Understand how to use the systemic model, reciprocal double bind, to find the individual targets that are involved in the couple or any relational present problem in an EMDR target plan. •Being able to do the installation of EMDR safe place as a resource for the couple. •Evaluate more clearly whether and when to use EMDR in the couple therapy session. •Knowing specifications of each of the 8 phases EMDR protocol with couple.

Conference

English

Isabelle Meignant

Meignant, I. (2011, June). EMDR with couples in the context of family therapy [EMDR mit paaren im kontext der familientherapie]. Presentation at the 12th EMDR Europe Association Conference, Vienna, Austria