EMDR with attachment disorder

Our capacity and desire to form emotionally healthy relationships begins in infancy and is dependent on the quality and consistency of care we receive from others, most often, our parents. The experience of such care in childhood is associated with positive outcomes in adulthood in terms of physical and emotional wellbeing. Conversely, the absence of such experiences in childhood and the experience of early attachment disruptions is associated with poor physical and emotional outcomes for children and adults.

Sandi Richman will discuss attachment theory and research, illustrating core attachment concepts with case studies illustrating how early attachment disruptions adversely affect development and relationships throughout an individual’s life. Possible difficulties created by attachment problems in implementing the EMDR protocol will be discussed, as well as ways in which the eight phases of the EMDR protocol have to be adjusted to accommodate different attachment styles. The link of attachment trauma to dissociative symptoms will be discussed and attention will be given as to how the Adaptive Information Processing Model addresses the impact of attachment trauma.

Conference

English

Sandi Richman

Richman, S. (2014, June). EMDR with attachment disorder. In EMDR clinical practice symposium (Bruna Maccarrone, Chair). Symposium presented at the 15th EMDR Europe Association Conference, Edinburgh, Scotland