EMDR Therapy with grief and mourning, Mt Maunganui

Grief workshop brochure

This workshop will focus on integrating EMDR therapy into the treatment of grief and mourning. The death of a loved one can be a time of unparalleled distress and adaptation to the loss can be very challenging. Even when uncomplicated, bereavement can result in significant psychological, behavioral, social, physical, and economic consequences (Osterweis, Solomon, & Green, 1984; Solomon & Rando, 2007, 2012, 2015). EMDR therapy can be integrated into treatment of grief and mourning to process the distressing memories and present trigger that complicate the bereavement, and enable the mourner to assimilate and accommodate the loss.

Attachment theory increases our understanding of complicated grief and mourning and explains individual differences in grief reactions. Research has shown that attachment style is an important determinant of how one grieves. The loss of a significant person in adulthood can evoke many of the same feelings and responses that accompanied separation from an attachment figure during childhood (Kosminsky & Jordan, 2016). Consequently, understanding attachment theory can guide the EMDR clinician in identification and treatment of the maladaptively stored information complicating the grief.   Other frameworks important for understanding grief and mourning and guiding treatment will also be presented. including Continuing Bonds (Marwit and Klass, 1996), Dual Process Model (Stroebe and Schut, 2010), and the “R” processes (Rando, 1993) which outlines the processes that are necessry for adaptive assimilation and accommodation of the loss.

This presentation will discuss grief and mourning, case conceptualization and target (memory) selection and sequencing), factors that can complicate bereavement, and how EMDR therapy can be integrated into an overall treatment plan. The eight phases of EMDR therapy, and three prongs (past, present, future) with grief and mourning, with video tape illustrations, will be discussed.

An emphasis of this workshop is an analysis of clinical material through presentation of video tapes of EMDR therapy sessions.   Video tapes not only show the content of clinical dynamics of grief and mourning, but also the “art” of EMDR, including the pacing, timing, mechanics, cognitive interweaves, and relational aspects of EMDR.

Learning Objectives

• Understand grief and mourning, and factors that complicate the grief
• Identify the processes necessary for assimilation and accommodation of loss
• Understand attachment theory and its relation to grief and mourning
• Understand how to integrate EMDR therapy into a treatment framework for grief and loss.

Teaching Methods

Lecture, video tapes of sessions, demonstrations

Trainer 

Dr. Roger Solomon is a psychologist specializing in the areas of trauma and grief. He has been Senior Faculty with the EMDR Institute since 1993 and teaches EMDR internationally. He is a consultant with the US Senate, providing direct services (including EMDR) through the in-house Senate Employee Assistance Program. Dr. Solomon has provided consultation and direct services to law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, Secret Service, and Polizia di Stato in Italy, and has worked extensively with families of police officers killed in the line of duty. Dr. Solomon has extensively collaborated with Onno van der Hart (Senior author of “The Haunted Self), and is part of an international team that has written articles on utilization of EMDR therapy with complex trauma. He is a visiting professor with Salesiana University in Rome, Italy and is a consultant with psychology programs for La Sapienza (University of Rome) in Rome. He has authored or coauthored 46 articles and book chapters pertaining to EMDR therapy, grief, complex trauma, acute trauma and law enforcement

Cost (AUD)

• $660
• $400 for attendees also attending the Master Class
• $200 for attendees who have attended three or more Master Class trainings