EMDR and beyond: Using bodily interventions in combination with EMDR for (young) children and adolescents

Whereas reading body signs during EMDR sessions is general practice, designing experiments whilst keeping using the EMDR protocols is not yet very much done. In this workshop we propose ways to integrate sensorimotor work in EMDR procedures. We choose to do so since children, especially young children, express themselves often rather in movement, facial expression and gestures than in words, writing or thoughts. In our experience during EMDR sessions many of those bodily signs can come up, especially when working with complex and early (preverbal) childhood trauma as we find in children that are (intercountry) adopted or are placed in foster care. Movement, touch and contact can help process trauma: whilst the child was alone in the traumatic experience, in the processing he or she can rely on the therapist to keep him or her safe. The relational container is key to the processing. Keeping the child safe, but at the borders of the window of tolerance so they can process the trauma in a safe way, thereby enabling integration. In this workshop we will share our work showing how focussing on these bodily changes whilst applying EMDR succesfully processes trauma on not only a cognitive but on a bodily level as well. This is consistent with the work on trauma treatment by for instance Ogden, Siegel, Porges, Van de Kolk. This approach has greatly enriched our clinical work.

Confernece

English

Anneke Vinke
Fieke Klein Wassink

Vinke, A., & Wassink, F. K. (2016, June). EMDR and beyond: Using bodily interventions in combination with EMDR for (young) children and adolescents. In Children track - Trauma and the Body (Birgit Schulz, Chair). Presentation at the at the 17th EMDR Europe Association Conference, The Hague