EMDR Networking luncheon

Hi everyone,

Just a quick reminder that the EMDR networking luncheon is going to be Monday July 20, 2009 at the Spice of Life Event Center in Boulder. The topic of discussion will be EMDR and Complex PTSD. For more information contact Keith Andresen at  kandre1041@aol.com

This is a great place to meet other EMDR therapists and learn something new about EMDR.

EMDRIA Conference

It's that time of year. The EMDRIA Conference is coming up before you know it.

It will be held in Atlanta from Thursday August 27th to Sunday August 30th.

Francine Shapiro will be there and lecturing on Friday - always good to hear her speak.

This is a great opportunity to gain new information on EMDR and look into speciality areas that you might need more clinical ideas to support your EMDR work.

I will be at the conference co-teaching Friday on how to close incomplete EMDR sessions as well as doing a book signing.

Go to emdria.org for all the information. Hotel rooms go fast so if you are interested sign up right away.

Hope to see you there!

EMDR and Depression

I have just purchased "EMDR Solutions II" edited by Robin Shapiro. I'm going to post some ideas from the book for the next couple of months. I highly recommend this book for your own EMDR library.

Robin Shapiro states in working with Depression and Mood Disorders

She recommends some physical interventions:

1.  3 grams of omega-3 fish oil ,each day.

2.  Exercise at least 3 times each week.

3.  Reduce depressants: alcohol, drugs, caffeine, sugar, and fatty/high carbohydrate foods.

These 3 interventions are to help improve their mood right away.

Next month - I'll talk about EMDR targets for this issue.

Inverted Protocol

At the EMDRIA Conference this past fall, I took the workshop - "Advanced Applications of EMDR and Child Psychotherapy" taught by Robbie Adler-Tapia and Carolyn Settle. They presented a modified protocol called the Inverted Protocol which they recommended using with children. Think of this protocol in terms of:  FUTURE/ PRESENT/ PAST (which is the opposite of traditional EMDR protocol - PAST/ PRESENT/ FUTURE)

Use this protocol to help a child handle trauma work in a more resourced way. They recommended that with children to think episodic treatment - one session at a time to make the greatest impact - always end on something positive for the child to leave a session.

1.  FUTURE first - use future templates to help resource child to begin with. This is great for kids you don't know how long you will have them in therapy.

2.  PRESENT second - monitor triggers, stressors, and self soothing. Target urges in the present and in the installation replace behaviors with mastery experiences - example "Tell me one time you did not act out when you had that feeling?" Install that.

3.  PAST third - target past traumas with standard protocol.

This was adapted from Hofmann, A. (2004, June). Treatment of complext PTSD and EMDR, Plenary session speech during the Fifth European EMDR conference, Stockholm, Sweden.

I would love to hear how this protocol goes for those of you who choose to use it.

EMDRIA Needs Our Help!

Hi everyone,

I received an email from EMDRIA and EMDR therapists need to get the word out to our congress representatives  that EMDR is helpful for those in the military suffering from PTSD. Treatment is being denied across the nation and we need to contact our Congressional Representatives that this needs to change!

Here is a sample letter that you can send to your representatives. You can find your representatives at www.usa.gov/contact/elected.shtml

Please take action today!

Barb

Date

Dear Rep_________or Dear Sen._______

Active Duty Military Personnel and Veterans are being denied top-line, highly efficient therapy for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR), through restrictions and exclusions by TRICARE, The Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Defense. Please stop this injustice.

EMDR is widely accepted as an Evidence-based treatment for PTSD. The International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies in its recently published Practice Guidelines for PTSD treatment ranked "EMDR as an evidence-based, Level A treatment for PTSD in adults". In 2004, the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense Joint Clinical Practice Guidelines approved EMDR as one of the four top "evidence-based treatments" for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a disorder from which an increasing number of our military personnel and veterans suffer. For a review of EMDR research, please visit www.emdria.org.

In spite of the Department of Defense endorsement of EMDR, TRICARE continues to deny EMDR therapy to war veterans and family members despite the approving 2004 guidelines. Additionally, the DOD has not led a single study on the use of EMDR with PTSD.

According to the Rand Corporation Report published in April 2008, Invisible Wounds of War, "One in five Iraq and Afghanistan veterans suffers from PTSD or major depression." The decision to exclude EMDR from research and treatment results in denial of a fast-acting, efficient treatment for active duty military personnel and veterans. As we face the Global War on Terror, it is clearly more financially and strategically advantageous to the government to have service members experience expeditious periods of recovery and return to full functioning.

Please allow veterans and their families the option to choose for themselves if they want to pursue EMDR. Support the continued inclusion of EMDR in VA and DOD Clinical Practice Guidelines, encourage funding of EMDR research which will aid our military personnel in recovering from PTSD, and lift TRICARE's ban on EMDR therapy for PTSD.

Sincerely,

Your name

Your address

EMDR Essentials booksigning

Welcome to Barb's blog on EMDR. Once a month I will be posting something about EMDR - an event, summary from a training, a review from a book, a modified protocol, ideas from EMDR therapists...I'm open to ideas and what you want to hear about.

My first posting is from my booksigning at the Boulder Bookstore on January 12, 2009. My new book "EMDR Essentials: A Guide for Clients and Therapists" is now available for purchase. Around 50 people attended this event to help me jump start the sale of my book. Wonderful questions were asked as people were curious about just what is EMDR and what is covered in my book.

EMDR Essentials: A Guide for Clients and Therapists is a clear and helpful introduction to this therapeutic approach. I share my own story of discovering EMDR, talk about Francine Shapiro and how she discovered this work, and then guide people through the process of finding an EMDR therapist, questions many clients have and need to know in an easy to read format. I help people understand the phases of the work, what is trauma, what happens in the brain with trauma, how EMDR works and research that is available. I include stories from my clients to demonstrate how EMDR looks for them and how they benefited from this work. 

I am so grateful for all the people who came out on a cold winter night to support me with this book. My goal in writing this was to help clients understand what EMDR is - to eliminate the myth of a one session cure and help lessen the fear clients face at the beginning of therapy. 

Here is a sample from the book: Chapter One

Whenever I meet people and they ask, "What do you do, Barb?" I say, I help people feel more empowered through healing emotional pain. I'm a psychotherapist and I specialize in healing trauma through EMDR. EMDR...what? EMDR: it stands for eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, a mouthful I don't expect you to remember. What I do hop you'll remember is that EMDR is a therapy that helps people relieve their pain and suffering caused by traumatic events that have hurt them and left them in a state of distress. It is a therapy intended to help people clear past trauma in order to feel more present, satisfied, and effective in their current lives.

I realize that the word trauma can be scary for many people. My intention is not to scare you, but to educate you about trauma, EMDR, and how you might benefit from it.

EMDR is an inclusive therapy that integrates different aspects of various psychotherapeutic traditions. The goal of this therapy is to empower people to feel, think, and behave in new and healthier ways.

I hope you can get a sense of how I wrote this book - conversational to make it user friendly and make therapy more accessible to more people.

If you want to purchase a copy you can do so through my website.

I would love to hear any comments that you might have and ideas for future postings. Until next month.

Barb