Category: 2024

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From Critical Incident to Mass Casualty: an EMDREA networking day with Marlene Kenney, Sat Dec 7 2024

Summary by Carsten Dernedde

As we mark the 10th anniversary of our founding in 2014, the East Anglian Regional EMDR Group stretched its geographical borders on Saturday December 7 2024, welcoming a truly worldwide EMDR community to explore, with Marlene Kenney from the US, AIP and disaster mental health: from critical incident to mass casualty.

We are proud to have had attendees from the UK, of course, but also from Lebanon, Spain, Iraq, Bosnia and a number of other countries.

Marlene an EMDRIA- approved consultant and EMDR trainer based in Arlington, Massachusetts, teaching the Group Traumatic Experiences Protocol and R (as in Recent) TEP.

As a member of the EMDR Council of Scholars from 2019-2021, Marlene worked with a global clinical practice group mapping a future for EMDR in the post-Francine-Shapiro era. She is also the Director of Disaster Mental Health for First Aid of the Soul, a mental health organization supporting those affected by the Ukraine conflict.

Marlene trains professionals in psychological first aid and trauma recovery.  Her career spans numerous disaster response efforts, including providing mental health support after Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines, the Boston Marathon bombing, and several mass shooting events in the U.S.

Continue reading “From Critical Incident to Mass Casualty: an EMDREA networking day with Marlene Kenney, Sat Dec 7 2024”
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From Critical Incident to Mass Casualty: AIP and disaster mental health

with Marlene Kenney, MA, LICSW

Online, Saturday December 7 2024

With 6 EMDR UK CPD Points

The East Anglia regional EMDR group was thrilled to welcome Marlene Kenney from the US for a day’s online exploration of best practice in EMDR-informed response to critical incidents.

We’ll be posting here shortly a full account of how the day unfolded, and in the meantime he’s a reminder of the background.

Marlene is an EMDRIA-certified consultant and Group Traumatic Episode/Recent Traumatic Episode Accredited trainer.

She has managed teams in response to the Boston Marathon Bombing, mass shootings, deaths by suicide and other critical incidents in the US.

She is the director of disaster mental health for First Aid of the Soul, a Ukraine-focused mental health organization and has worked with communities in the Philippines.

Participants were introduced to the core pillars of AIP informed disaster mental health, Psychological First Aid, EMDR Early Intervention theory and practice, and the underlying frameworks of responding to any incident. The workshop used examples from Marlene’s expertise in responding to suicide loss as a community based critical incident.

Workshop goals and objectives

Participants were invited to learn how to:

  1. Describe the eight core action steps of Psychological First Aid.
  2. List three EMDR Early Intervention techniques.
  3. Describe how to assess which type of Group EMDR to use.
  4. Define Early Intervention EMDR.
  5. Describe three approach variables to consider when responding to a critical incident.
  6. Increase understanding of the principles of Group Traumatic Episode.
  7. Explain the rationale for working with an episode as practiced with group EMDR.
  8. Define AIP approach to suicide loss.
  9. Define suicide postvention.
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Ely in-person Networking Day Saturday April 27 2024 – EMDR with Walking, and the Body

By Carsten Dernedde. Michelle Griffiths-Reeve and Joe Kearney

Mike Rivers, Chair, welcomed us to the first in-person CPD and Networking Event in Ely since 2019 in the Ely Beet Club, a venue of many past such adventures.

With Carsten Dernedde lined up for the end of the morning and Joe Kearney ready for the afternoon, both looking into EMDR and the Body, Jo-without-an-E Gresham-Ord kicked off the day with her talk of EMDR and walking which has been a big part of her EMDR journey. A few in the audience had dabbled with it but blocking beliefs come easily to mind.

A chance encounter with an Australian psychologist was the first time Jo encountered an enthusiast for walking EMDR, and with Covid forcing us all to make choices about social distancing, Jo gave herself a push and chose walking – experimentally at first, and not yet in the best physical location. Her feeling was that it would particularly suit highly complex patients.

Jo uses the standard EMDR protocol with tweaks. She took us through the eight-phase protocol and the adaptations she has found most useful, with history-taking including a risk assessment and consent form and resourcing/phase two preparation beginning indoors and carrying on outside..

Continue reading “Ely in-person Networking Day Saturday April 27 2024 – EMDR with Walking, and the Body”
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Working with EMDR and Dissociative Parts: Optimal Integration of Parts Models

with Mary Clare de Echevarria 

Saturday, 3rd February 2024

Summary of the day by Carsten Dernedde

Our day with Mary Clare gave a clear outline of how to integrate every way of working with ego states and dissociative parts into the practice of EMDR, and included some essential steps that are often missed out.

Mary Clare de Echevarria is a UKCP registered Psychotherapist, Recognised Supervisor and Recognised Training Supervisor, and EMDR Europe Accredited Consultant.

She is also a qualified teacher, with over 30 years’ experience of teaching and training, and with a style that’s been described as clear, accessible and engaging.

A very rewarding 200 participants had signed up for EMDR East Anglia’s latest training day, 145 of whom were in the Zoom room on the day.

Trained by Deborah Korn, Dolores Mosquera and Laurel Parnell among others, Mary Clare has been training trauma and parts work for many years, and had prepared a formidable handout for the day. In the event, and reflecting how she works, a day unfolded of sparkle, interaction, discussion and innovation – no death by Powerpoint on this occasion…

The introduction – an exercise in body awareness

Mary Clare started with an exercise, inviting us to feel into the body, welcome any difficult sensation or emotion, and to continue to take note of those inward experiences throughout the day. She asked us to say ‘hello and welcome’ to them, just as we ask our clients to do. Our feelings, noted Mary Clare, wish us no harm: they have something to tell us.

The Basics of Dissociation

To understand the origin and purpose of dissociative parts, updated polyvagal theory helps with the understanding of trauma responses. The Still Face experiment, of which Mary Clare showed a video clip, helps with understanding the biological mechanisms in early-life attachment of rupture and absent repair.

Continue reading “Working with EMDR and Dissociative Parts: Optimal Integration of Parts Models”