Large scale trauma counseling using EMDR integrative treatment protocol for children - Preparatory work

This presentation is a part of a large group intervention after the floods of September 2014 in Srinagar, Kashmir, India. The team used ‘EMDR Integrative Group Treatment Protocol for Children (IGTP)’ with Ignacio Jarero’s permission and Dr. Rosalie Thomas’ support. In this study, the aforementioned protocol was used on 3500 schoolchildren affected by the 2014 floods. The present research is aimed at describing the preparation phases of the group trauma counseling work. After receiving permission from the school authorities, the EMDR team built rapport with the children, who were given enough time to share their experiences with the therapist. In the Preparation phase, children were taught self-soothing exercises (abdominal breathing). To show the children different expressions of feeling and get in touch with their emotions, they were introduced to a toy monkey. This was followed by a container exercise post which the therapist taught butterfly hugs to the children to make sure that they are able to follow the procedure. Calm place was installed by doing butterfly hugs and the pictures were drawn on a sheet of paper. A picture of a thermometer was used to measure SUDS from 0 to 10, explaining them that 0 is equivalent to no disturbance and 10 is to maximum disturbance. Their drawings will help to showcase the interactive method of working with children in groups.

Conference

English

Chitra Munshi
Renu Sheth

Munshi, C., & Sheth, R. (2017, April). Large scale trauma counseling using EMDR integrative treatment protocol for children - Preparatory work. In research symposium (Daeho Kim, Chair). Presentation at the 3rd EMDR Asia International Conference, Shanghai, China