The day drew 90 attendees from East Anglia, which on this occasion extended as far as Ireland and Scotland.
Justin Havens, EMDR consultant and trainer, made time on his birthday (!) to take us through his passions, the Dream Completion Technique and the Flash Technique and the iterations they have been through to make them potent tools within the 8-Phase framework of EMDR.
As Justin says: start with sorting out nightmares, use flash to take off worst distress…. clean up with EMDR processing! All within the EMDR framework.
After all, dreaming is EMDR! When clients fix their nightmares, they get 2 hours free EMDR every night.
The EMDR Association’s East Anglia Regional Group were delighted on Saturday 24th April 2021 to welcome internationally renowned and legendary EMDR Consultant and Trainer Ana Gomez to take us on a journey on parts and inner systems to explore complex trauma.
Ana is a psychotherapist, author of several books, chapters and articles, and a lecturer internationally known for her innovative work with children and adolescents.
She is an EMDRIA approved consultant, an EMDRIA advanced training provider, an EMDR Institute and EMDR-IBA trainer and a trainer of trainers. Ana has worked with children, adolescents, adults and families affected by trauma and adversity for over 25 years, presenting in more than 40 cities in the USA as well as 30 cities in four continents.
Over 600 delegates signed up to Ana’s workshop, with many attending on the day online and others chossing to watch the recording at a later date. Every delegate received the handouts, recording and certificate for six EMDR UK Association CPD points.
Ana presented to us from across the pond in Phoenix, Arizona, meaning a very early start for her and an afternoon 2pm start for us.
The plan for the day was to explore her theoretical framework along with specific, practical and creative tools and strategies to work with entrenched maladaptive forms of self-protection using parts work.
Justin will join us for the first half of the morning, after which will have the opportunity to break into smaller groups to consider how to apply the learning to our individual practice.
After lunch, when we’ll hold our annual AGM, Mike Rivers will present a case study where he used attachment-informed EMDR to work with a client presenting with decades of debilitating multiple-chemical sensitivity.
This case study provides a foundation for discussion and learning around working with the raft of symptoms that often come under the heading of medically unexplained symptoms (MUS).
Mark Brayne will then present the findings of our research project with Sheffield University exploring therapist and client experiences of online EMDR, after which we want to offer you the opportunity to network and learn in small groups on the following specialist topics:
Q&A with Mike Rivers on the learning from his case study
Q&A with Mark Brayne on what we can take away from the research findings
Delving into Jim Knipe’s toolbox
Attachment-Informed EMDR
EMDR and somatic experiences
Working with police and emergency service personnel
Working with dissociation
A space simply to catch up with colleagues
The event will take place on Zoom but with plenty of opportunity to catch up with colleagues we very much hope to have an ‘in-person’ feel to the day.
Indeed, as an afterthought here, our East Anglia Regional Group is going to be focusing more in the next period, definitely online and perhaps once again in-person, on networking and personal connections between our members, with space as our events unfold for colleagues to present on their own areas of particular passion.
Perhaps there’s a passion you’d like to share? Let us know.
In the meantime, do sign up for the November networking day, and we look forward to seeing you again there.
