Saturday April 25 2020, 0930-1630
£55 for members of the EMDR Association UK, £60 for non-members.
6 EMDR Association UK CPD Points.
With the Corona Virus shutting things down across the world, this event was held online, exploring not just EMDR for intergenerational trauma, but also the basic principles of delivering EMDR online rather than face-to-face.
Keep an eye on this page for a full report from Ushma Patel on how the day went, and note that Caroline van Diest will be speaking at our next regional day, very probably online again, on EMDR with clients on the Autistic Spectrum.
As well as exploring intergenerational EMDR in the second half of the workshop (including smaller group discussions and time for questions and answers as the Zoom platform enables this facility), Mark started out with a discussion on how to do EMDR online.
Given the current situation and the need to continue to support both our current as well as future clients, being confident in delivering EMDR online is increasingly becoming an essential skill.
The timings and plan for the day were as follows (with breaks between the sets):
- 9:30-10:30 Delivering EMDR online training
- 11:00-12:30 Intergenerational trauma training
- 13:30-14:30 Intergenerational trauma training
- 15:00 – 15:45 Small group discussions in Zoom breakout rooms.
- 15:45-16:30 Plenary discussion and wrap.
If you would like more information about using Zoom, here is a link to their Frequently Asked Questions:
Building on the use of bridging/floatback for EMDR target identification, with active resourcing and creative imagination, this was a unique opportunity to explore how the powerful tools of Attachment-Informed EMDR can be brought to bear on what in the language of psychodynamics might be termed family and parental introjects.
Mark took colleagues through the principles of Intergenerational EMDR as presented to the annual conference of the Parnell Institute in San Francisco in October 2019.
Put simply, the IG-EMDR protocol uses the client’s and the therapist’s shared imagination to take EMDR back up the generational line to work on the dysfunctional mother or father (or grandparent, sibling or other key figures in the attachment history) internalised by the client in their early childhood development.
The idea of trauma being handed down from parents to children is of itself nothing new. In Exodus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, the Bible notes that God visits the “iniquity of the fathers upon the sons to the third and fourth generation (of those that hate him.)”
What is new is how neuroscience is observing and also seeking to explain how those traumatising patterns are actually transmitted, through attachment patterning and culture, and also it’s now understood to some extent through the genes. Dr Rachel Yehuda in NY has confirmed for example how a sensitivity to PTSD can be transmitted epigenetically down the family line.
In classic EMDR terminology, these patterns can be understood as dysfunctionally-linked memory networks. In psychodynamic theory, this is about the parental introject. In John Bowlby’s model of early attachment patterning, we can describe the target as the client’s internal working model. Followers of Richard Schwartz would recognise this as client’s internal family system.
Mark’s workshop focused on the practical application of Intergenerational EMDR to case conceptualisation, target identification and bridging, and then Phase Four processing.
With videos of a generational EMDR session and interactive discussion, Mark explored how attendees can use attachment-informed EMDR with marginal adaptation and extension, identifying and creatively working with (usually) parental introjects, clearing and reprocessing handed-down scenes and stories that continue to drive client’s dysfunctions in the present.
And now, some details on how best to prepare for using Zoom….
- We’ll be using Zoom, so please take a bit of time to familiarise yourself with this online platform. This is the link we will be using, and the Zoom browser page will tell you what to do.
- Please if at all possible make sure you join using quality headphones, with attached microphone.I use Logitech H340, costing £27.10 and well worth the investment.
- It is in my experience much better not to rely on the mic and speakers in your laptop, as this can generate extraneous noise during calls that involve more than two people.
- Make sure to check microphone input and headphone output through the Mic icon on the bottom left of the Zoom screen. Make sure that zoom has access to both mic and camera.
- Especially if you’re using Apple products, which can be more difficult to manage on a group call than Windows. If you’re using Apple or iPhone, you will probably need to enter your password to enable sound.
- Mark will be recording this, so anyone who can’t make the discussion in person will be able to tune in afterwards to catch up. Taking part will be understood as agreement to share this recording, password-protected, with colleagues who register interest.
- Ensure that your laptop/PC camera is positioned as high as necessary (e.g. on books) to allow you to look into the camera more or less at eye level. Otherwise we get to look up your nostrils.
- Make sure you are in a space where you won’t be disturbed, with closed doors, and no lights or windows behind you. Where there are the latter, position the laptop between yourself and the source of the light.
- Ideally please download first onto your smartphone the app BSDR Player. Take a look also at a YouTube video here which can be used to generate both tones and EMs.
- Please before the call read the documents on Mark’s website summarising previous such discussions about EMDR online. This will oil the wheels nicely so we can move things forward.