Formulating & delivering effective EMDR for survivors of grooming & sexual exploitation

Grooming and sexual expolitation are on the rise globally. Increasingly, we are seeing young people and adults who have experienced being trafficked both nationally and internationally. This presentation explores the role of grooming and sexual exploitation from the perspective of attachment wounding and trauma bonds. For some clients who have been groomed in the precipitatory phase of sexual exploitation, they may have a trauma bond to their abuser, meaning disclosure and acknowledgement of traumatic experiences are blocked. As therapists working with survivors of grooming and / or sexual exploitation, we sometimes may need to be willing to work on somatic only memories, until the client is able to recognise the context. Knowing where clients are in the grooming cycle helps the therapist to know where to begin and which wounds need addressing first. This presentation will explore the main categories or forms of grooming (i.e. older adult, peer etc), the current statistics into grooming and exploitation and why we cannot expect clients who have been groomed and / or exploited to present with obvious signs of PTSD. This presentation will teach attendees how to recognise the different forms of grooming, how to formulate the precipitary wound, which may be acting as a block to processing and how we can safeguard future generations from being vulnerable to being groomed.

Journal

English

Susan Darker-Smith

Darker-Smith, S. (2024, August). Formulating & delivering effective EMDR for survivors of grooming & sexual exploitation. Presentation at the HAP Conference, Philadelphia, PA