Marbles in the elbow and other stories: Using EMDR in treatment resistant pain

Persistent pain is common in people who have experienced trauma; and persistent pain also leads to trauma responses, and between 10- 50% of those experiencing chronic pain meet criteria for PTSD. There are many people experiencing current, persistent pain in the general population, and many people referred for EMDR treatment will have pain, whether or not this is the primary reason for the referral. Current approaches to treating persistent pain include medical and bio-psycho-social interventions. People with chronic pain have often tried multiple specialist treatments for their pain, including medication, surgery, physiotherapy and alternative treatments. The best available evidence suggests that a combination of medical, physiotherapy and psychological interventions is needed, with improved quality of life depending more on management of the emotional impact of pain than necessarily on pain reduction. An increasing body of evidence suggests that using EMDR for pain can be effective in three main ways: for reducing the experience of pain; targeting pain memories and overcoming the impact of pain on the individual. There will be a brief overview of research evidence and current clinical experience, and practical applications. This will include working with imagery in specific ways relevant to working with people in pain; and discussion of case examples.

Conference

English

Helen MacDonald

MacDonald, H. (2011, October). Marbles in the elbow and other stories: Using EMDR in treatment resistant pain. Keynote presented at the 3rd annual EMDR Autumn Workshop Conference, Durham, England