EMDR, Faith and Spirituality – EMDR East Anglia networking day

Friday 21 November 2025, 0900-1630

Online on Zoom

£30 EMDR Association Members

£40 Non-Members

With Six EMDR Association CPD Points

We warmly invite EMDR colleagues from across East Anglia and beyond to view the recording of a very special day of reflection, dialogue and learning.

This year’s regional autumn gathering explored the place of faith, spirituality and religion in our work as EMDR therapists. We heard a rich variety of personal perspectives from colleagues of different traditions, and considered together how our own understandings of spirituality – however defined – shape our therapeutic practice.

Rather than a single keynote, the day offered a series of short contributions interwoven with Q&A and small group discussions. Speakers included:

Selvira Draganovic– a Bosnian perspective. Selvira is Associate Professor at Sarajevo University, teaching courses ranging from mental health and positive psychology to psychopathology and trauma. Her main research interest alternates from risk to protective factors in mental health and psychopathology, tackling attachment, marriage and family, abuse, violence and trauma.

Rabbi Dr David Roth – the view within Orthodox Judaism. David received Rabbinical Ordination in 2005, following 12 years at Talmudical Colleges in England & Jerusalem. He holds a Professional Doctorate in Child and Educational Psychology (registered with the HCPC & chartered with the British Psychological Society). Completed EMDR training in 2012 and became accredited with EMDR Europe this year. (2025).

Ashraf Muwafaq Flaiyah – President of EMDR Iraq. A Muslim perspective: Ashraf is a clinical psychologist with a UK PhD, currently serving as Head of the Clinical Psychology Department at IJUS Iraq where he leads academic development and supervises clinical training for undergraduate and postgraduate students. Ashraf is an EMDRIA certified therapist and Consultant-in-Training, coordinating the Iraqi group within Trauma Aid UK (TAUK) and promoting professional capacity building and mental health awareness across the country.

Shohreh Akarzadeh– insights from the Baha’i tradition. Shohreh is a UKCP-accredited integrative psychotherapist with more than three decades of experience. Drawing on the Bahá’í vision of unity and the spiritual evolution of humanity, she offers a reflective view on how EMDR can honour the sacred dimension of healing while remaining deeply human and inclusive.

Beverley Hutton – a Christian perspective: Beverley Hutton is an EMDR Practitioner with an MA in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy. She is Clinical Director of the Christian mental health charity, Still the Hunger, and is based in Somerset where she has been offering intensive residential EMDR retreats for some time now. Whilst not exclusively the case, a large percentage of her work is with people for whom including their Christian faith within their EMDR journey is extremely important to them.

Kamla Dadral – a Hindu-and-more view from South Asia. Kamla is an integrative psychotherapist and EMDR practitioner drawing on her Sikh and wider Indian heritage. She works with mental health across borders and explores how cultural belonging, compassion and ancestral wisdom can help restore safety and connection in the healing process.

Jutta & Katharine Brayne – The role of silence and connection to nature. Jutta and Katharine offered an experiential component for more personal exploration. In a day filled with insights from many traditions, they held a space to reflect and digest for as well as learn a little of their approaches.

Having grown up in West Germany and travelled widely with her family, Jutta’s training in advanced transpersonal psychotherapy, CBT, breath- and dreamwork, as well as her own silent retreat experiences, inform her interest in the transformative potential of silence within EMDR sessions. Her work focuses on how such moments can support healing and spiritual growth, helping clients shift their perspective on themselves, their past, and their present life.

Katharine is an EMDR-trained integrative psychotherapist (MBACP, NCPS) with more than 20 years of personal study in healing and spirituality. She brings a younger generation’s perspective on spirituality as experienced through nature, and a deep curiosity about how neuroscience and metaphysics influence healing both generally and within the EMDR process.

Shelley Pompana Spear Chief – Indigenous perspectives from North America: Shelley is an EMDR Consultant and Hypnotherapist, identifying as an Indigenous Dakota Woman (knowledge keeper/elder) married into the Blood Reserve, known as Kainai in Alberta Canada to and working with First Nations. Her co-authored book Eagle Wings Flapping: Beaver learns to manage big emotions explores the idea of Eagle Wings Flapping as a form of bilateral stimulation. With Sandra Paulsen she also wrote Indigenous
Trauma and Dissociation: Healers, Psychotherapy and the Drum.

Chaired by Mark Brayne, this day was personal, practical and grounded – with examples from clinical work as well as opportunities for open sharing, and a clear focus on how, in our therapeutic encounters, spirituality and EMDR can meaningfully be joined.

All colleagues working enthusiastically with EMDR, not just Association members, are warmly welcome.

Feedback form here for those who attended or who have since viewed the recording.

February 8, 2025May 4, 2025

Ely in-person networking day Saturday April 26, 2025, on Music in EMDR with Cassandra Manning, plus Esther Kiehl on EMDR with Neurodiversity

The EMDR East Anglia Association steering group looks forward to welcoming you to learn, mingle, network and connect (or re-connect) with our rich regional EMDR community in what has become EMDREA’s home base at the Beet Club in the beautiful cathedral city of Ely.

Now with Six EMDR Association CPD points.

Book Here

In the morning Cassandra Manning will explore with us the use of music in EMDR.

Cassandra is an integrative arts psychotherapist specialising in creative process in integrative EMDR psychotherapy.

Music as an interweave in memory reconsolidation (Mus-EMDR) was inspired by Ad de Jongh’s 2.0 training during lockdown – in which he used the Queen track We Will Rock You to help a client process during Phase 4.

Informed by her training and experience in how music can play into well-being and health, Cassandra will show us how to use music & imagery as EMDR interweaves.

Mus-EMDR uses received music (music which is not made within session, but is already recorded and offered to the client during processing) within the framework of the standard EMDR protocol. It can be used in all phases of EMDR.

In the afternoon, Esther Kiel will be showing us how to supercharge the 8 phases of the standard EMDR protocol with neuro-affirmative enhancements to therapeutic and supervision work.

Esther is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist and is neurodivergent herself.

The strengths and limitations that come with ADHD and other forms of neurodiversity, whether encountered in clients, in colleagues or in oneself, require understanding and accommodation. Rejection sensitive dysphoria, for example, may be triggered by the challenging nature of the therapeutic interaction; experiences of rejection are of course very real in neurodiverse lives.

Following Esther’s presentation in the afternoon, there will be ample time for networking with old friends and new allies.

October 11, 2024December 16, 2024

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:

Describe the eight core action steps of Psychological First Aid.
List three EMDR Early Intervention techniques.
Describe how to assess which type of Group EMDR to use.
Define Early Intervention EMDR.
Describe three approach variables to consider when responding to a critical incident.
Increase understanding of the principles of Group Traumatic Episode.
Explain the rationale for working with an episode as practiced with group EMDR.
Define AIP approach to suicide loss.
Define suicide postvention.

February 11, 2024May 1, 2024

First In-Person EMDR East Anglia Networking Day since Covid, Ely, Saturday April 27 2024 Invitation.

Fed up with only meeting virtually? Wondering what we all still look like below Zoom’s Face-and-Shoulders view? Longing to give each other that long-awaited bilateral hug? Curious about innovations in EMDR that might include the most ancient forms of bilateral stimulation before Shapiro invented ships-in-the-night eye movements?

The EMDR UK Association’s Regional Group in East Anglia was delighted on Saturday April 27 to host our first in-person meeting (break out the champagne…) since the pandemic, at our well-known and well-loved Ely (Sugar) Beet Social Club in the heart of Fenland.

Jo Gresham-Ord, sharing her thoughts on Walking and EMDR, all in good time.

Blowing Covid cobwebs to oblivion, Jo Gresham-Ord took us through EMDR with Walking, and while Joe Kearney and Carsten Dernedde enthused us about EMDR and the Body, somatic experiencing in EMDR, and, especially also, all that very topical polyvagal stuff.

As long-standing members of our Regional Steering Group and organisers of many a past networking day, Joe and Carsten needed perhaps less introduction, though we added a few further down.

Fuller report of the day coming shortly, so at this point, just saying thanks to the team and all our guests for making this day such fun and so professionally rewarding.

Regional Chair Michael Rivers saying thanks to Carsten for his wonderful presentation

And for Jo without an E, she’s an EMDR Europe-Accredited Consultant with over 20 years of experience working in the NHS, University of East Anglia and in private practice. Since the Covid crisis her practice has broadened out to include the use of Walking and EMDR as a modality for treatment, and she’s an Ely local.

Jo (the one without an -e) writes:

Have you ever wondered why Francine Shapiro, who discovered EMDR when she was walking in the park, focused so much on the eye movements and not the walking part? I have.

Maybe it was due to the cultural norms of doing therapy in the room at that time or simply that the eye movements were a more noticeable part of what she experienced.

Therapists have been working outdoors for a long time. This is not new. However, with the advent of the Covid virus meaning that meeting in rooms was more challenging, one thing is for sure, more people seem to be taking the therapy outside.

Consequentially, I have increased my use of EMDR using Mindful Walking as BLS and will be sharing how to adapt the standard protocol by giving some examples of how and when it has worked most effectively. I’d like to encourage any therapists who feel apprehensive about doing this to embrace the opportunity to use nature as part of their therapeutic tool kit.

For the rest of the day, once Jo has taken us all for at least a metaphorical walk, Carsten and Joe outline their ideas thus:

Why is EMDR Bodywork? Before lunch, and taking in the neurobiology of trauma and social engagement, we’ll explore why thinking is feeling, why the past is present, how resonance sends adaptive information processing in the right direction, and the deer metaphor explanation of why EMDR works.

Plus as a bonus feature why the earth is flat after all. Not really joking but rather an invitation to consider EMDR from the body’s point of view.

After the lunch break, we will do some practical exercises to illustrate some of these points.

Joe Kearney will present on Somatic Experiencing and EMDR, and we will explore how EMDR can be enriched by giving the body room in the Eight Phase protocol. There will be opportunity for small group experimentation and reflection.

And as we conclude here, potential future presenters at regional networking days please take note: it can be very enjoyable and stimulating preparing a presentation in a group, even if you don’t take the stage.

September 2, 2023January 31, 2024

EMDR East Anglia Mini-Conference and Networking Day

EMDR and IFS: EMDR for all our Parts (morning)

GTEP in NHS ICU during Covid, and with staff in an Inpatient Setting (afternoon)

EMDR in Bosnia Herzegovina (afternoon)

Presentations and Q&A, followed by Networking Groups to focus on the content of the day.

Saturday 25^th November 2023, 09:30 – 16:30

Online via Zoom
(the event will be recorded and available for 28 days)

Cost: £40 members

£60 non-members

6 CPD points

BOOK NOW

[The East Anglia EMDR Association AGM will be held at 12:30, during the lunchbreak]

Morning

EMDR for All Our Parts with Claire van den Bosch

Claire van den Bosch, EMDR Practioner and IFS Level 3 trained therapist, will present on experiencing our clients and ourselves through the intensely and explicitly relational systems theory lense of Dick Schwarz’s Internal Family Systems. Claire will share reflections on her experience of the power and beauty of incorporating IFS into every Phase of EMDR psychotherapy with complex clients and of the “most important” interweave available – working with our own parts – as therapist – in real time in sessions.

Please email any questions you have for Claire in advance of the day: clairepvdb@gmail.com

Afternoon

GTEP Presentations with John Mulhall & John Davies –

GTEP in ICU during COVID & GTEP with staff in an Inpatient setting

John Mulhall, Cognitive Analytic Psychotherapist, Supervisor & Trainer, & EMDR Consultant. Presenting on the GTEP (Group Traumatic Episode Protocol) project, a single session group based intervention, outlined in the attached paper (view document) was conceived, co-facilitated by John, and his colleagues, at the St Aubyn Centre in Colchester. The Centre is an NHS adolescent inpatient psychiatric setting. John will be presenting and discussing aspects of the project, and its findings.

A further study will be presented by Dr John Davies, Psychologist & EMDR Practitioner, on using GTEP with patients and staff in ICU during COVID-19. John has a particular interest in using this approach with critical care inpatients who have been identified as being at increased risk of developing ICU-related psychological morbidity, including PTSD. He has similarly used RTEP and elements from GTEP to support staff during the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

EMDR Bosnia Herzegovina talk with Mevludin Hasanovic, Shemsa Hasan and Selvira Draganovic.

Mevludin Hasanovic, President of EMDR Bosnia Herzegovina, will talk of his work in developing EMDR in Bosnia Herzegovina as a Consultant Psychiatrist & later EMDR Consultant post war (1992-1995). Supported by Trauma Aid UK.

Followed by Shemsa Hasan, EMDR Consultant, talking of her experiences in the Child War Museum in Sarajevo and the Memorial Centre, Portocari.

Finally, Selvira Draganovic, EMDR Consultant in Bosnia Herzegovina, will then talk on ‘The Elephant in the room’; Incorporating spirituality & religion in psychotherapy.

February 9, 2022July 18, 2022

Jim Knipe’s EMDR Toolbox, and EMDR with Sex/Porn/Love Addiction

A day of East Anglian EMDR networking.

With Sonya Farrell and Gary McFarlane

0930-1630 Saturday April 2 2022

£40 EMDR Association UK Members: £60 for Non-Members

EMDR Association UK CPD points applied for.

BOOK NOW

See here for support documents (password will have come to those registered via Eventbrite).

Following our highly successful – and fun – regional networking day in November with Justin Havens and Mike Rivers on Flash, Dreams and Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, we were pleased to have persuaded our own Sonya Farrell to take us through some of the basics of Jim Knipe’s essential EMDR Toolbox on our next regional event in April 2022.

Sonya is both a founder member of the EMDR Association UK’s regional group in East Anglia, and has worked closely with Jim for many years now, preparing with time to step out as a trainer herself in his Toolbox approach as the Master himself settles slowly into his US retirement.

For the first half of the morning, Sonya took us through some of the essential pillars of the Knipean approach to EMDR, including:

LOUA Level of Urge to Avoid
Loving Eyes
CIPOS Constant Installation of Present Orientation and Safety
BHS Back of the Head Scale

In the afternoon, our colleague Gary McFarlane brought us an overview of EMDR with clients presenting with sexual addictions and compulsions.

Gary is a Relate-trained relationship counsellor and mediator, and has created a comprehensive Sex/Porn/Love addiction recovery programme online being used by clients internationally.

Gary explored the difference between compulsion and addiction, relating this especially to Attachment theory and AI-EMDR, how best to case conceptualise in EMDR’s Phase One Trauma History taking and then how best to work with what emerges in Phase Four processing.

Our East Anglia Regional Group is focusing more in the next period, online only for the time being, 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.

June 27, 2021May 1, 2024

EMDR East Anglia Autumn Networking, with dreams, Flash and MUS. Saturday Nov 20 2021.

Flash, Dream Completion, Post-Covid & Online, Chemical Sensitivity: a day of East Anglian EMDR networking.

0930-1630 Saturday Nov 20 2021

£40 EMDR Association UK Members: £60 for Non-Members

Stop Press: Now with 6 EMDR Association UK CPD points.

BOOK NOW

Join us for a day of regional (but not just us in East Anglia) networking, with Justin Havens taking us through his Dream Completion Technique and offering an introduction to the ever-more-popular Flash Technique.

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.

BOOK NOW

November 29, 2020June 27, 2021

EMDR Therapy and Parts Work: Working with the Inner System Across the Lifespan in Complex Trauma, with Ana Gomez

The EMDR Association UK’s regional East Anglia group are thrilled to have secured the internationally renowned, indeed legendary EMDR Consultant and Trainer Ana Gomez for our next networking day online in April 2021, to take us through how, as EMDR therapists, to work with complex trauma, parts and our client’s inner systems.

Where: Online, on Zoom.

When: 1400-2100 UK time Saturday April 24 2021 (note the afternoon and evening times, as Ana will be presenting from the US).

STOP PRESS – Ana has generously agreed that we can record the day, so even if you can’t be with us live, if you’re paid and signed up you’ll have access to full workshop video, audio and recorded chat for a further month, also qualifying for the CPD points.

How to book and cost: via Eventbrite here. £55 for Association members, £60 for non-members

Book Now!

With 6 EMDR Association UK CPD Points

Ana M Gomez, MC, LPC born in Colombia (South America) is a psychotherapist in private practice, author of several books, chapters and articles, and a lecturer internationally known for her innovative work with children and adolescents.

She’s an EMDRIA approved consultant, an EMDRIA advanced training provider, an EMDR Institute and EMDR-IBA trainer and a trainer of trainers.

As Ana describes it, clients with complex and developmental trauma present with layers of trauma, adversity, attachment injuries and unmet needs.

April 28, 2019May 1, 2024

Derek Farrell on EMDR with Unspoken Trauma. Chelmsford, Saturday, November 30 2019.

The EMDR Association’s East Anglia group was delighted to welcome our very own Derek Farrell, former Association President and international expert on all things EMDR, for a classic regional networking day with a special focus on working with what he terms Unspoken Trauma.

Derek spent the morning at this new venue for us, Chelmsford’s cricket ground, taking us through the standard, structured EMDR approach for clients who can’t or aren’t ready to share specific and often intimate details of what happened to them.

“Certain trauma experiences have ‘no voice’,” says Derek, “often when traumas involve deep-rooted shame, or fear of retribution”.

The workshop (Powerpoint handout here) outlined some of the key components of ‘unspoken trauma’, relating for example to child abuse, gender-based violence, conflict, atrocities and human rights violations.

October 9, 2018May 1, 2024

Healing Dissociation with EMDR Therapy: A Practical Workshop with Dr Jamie Marich (USA). Ely, Saturday Feb 9, 2019.

Enhancing your efficacy with clients through the power of process.

Saturday February 9, 2019. 0900 for 0930 – 1630

Ely Beet Sports & Social Club,

83 Lynn Road, Ely CB6 1DE

£55 for Association members, £60 for non-members. Fee includes lunch and refreshments.

Six EMDR Association UK&I CPD Points

The EMDR UK Association’s busy East Anglia regional group is delighted to welcome Dr Jamie Marich back to the UK on a further training visit , picking up and taking forward Dr Mel Temple’s fabulous day with us in Ely in Spring 2018 on working with dissociation.

As EMDRIA-accredited Trainer and Consultant based in Ohio, USA, and author of several books on EMDR Therapy, Jamie is rapidly establishing a reputation as one of EMDR’s leading international trainers.

In April 2017 she inspired us in Norwich with a day on Making EMDR Simple, and this time, she’s bringing for the first time to the UK a brand-new workshop debunking myths around dissociation and giving us a practical and sensitive orientation to how the dissociative mind works. Continue reading “Healing Dissociation with EMDR Therapy: A Practical Workshop with Dr Jamie Marich (USA). Ely, Saturday Feb 9, 2019.”