Unleash Your EMDR – أطلق العنان لعلاجك بـ EMDR – العمل مع التعلّق

Five Online Modules

In five recorded modules, we explore the core elements of attachment-informed EMDR – Case Conceptualisation, Resourcing, Target Identification, Appropriate Activation, Reprocessing and Session Structure.

• 1. The Basics of attachment-informed EMDR – Case Conceptualisation and Resourcing

  In the first of five individual recorded modules of approximately one recorded hour each, Mark Brayne explores with his psychotherapist daughter Katharine the fundamental principles of working with attachment in EMDR, starting with case conceptualisation and resourcing.

  We invite our trainees to bring radical curiosity to the question, “How did this person get to be this way?” and then “What is this client’s presentation REALLY about?”

  Yes, they may have gone through seriously difficult times, with traumas big and small. But underneath all that, and above all in the context of maternal attachment (even when there are large traumas in their life, as is so often the case in this part of the world) how did they learn in formative childhood years to manage emotion & to self-soothe.

  Emotionally, Behaviourally, Cognitively? Where? When (Age)? With Whom? In What Context?

  Before we get going with target identification and the actual work of EMDR processing, we take a grateful leaf out of Laurel Parnell’s book – now mainstream in most EMDR trainings – to do much more than identify and “install” (a piece of EMDR jargon well beyond its sell-by date) a Special or Calm Place.

  Identifying a team of nurturing, protecting and wise figures (real & imaginary, human & animal, contemporary & historical), we create a safe and kind therapeutic container for the work to come, firing up our client’s (and our own) imaginal capacity for rich and restorative processing of the past.

• 2: Target Identification and Bridging

  This session primarily discusses Phase Three of EMDR, which involves identifying the core issues or ‘targets’ in a client’s formative experiences to effectively address their current problems.

  Emphasis is placed on understanding clients’ backgrounds and identifying precise moments or triggers that link to their formative experiences. The approach goes beyond standard EMDR protocols, encouraging a deeper exploration of clients’ life stories.

  Mark describes a unique approach to bridging, where therapists focus on the client’s current experiences and sensations to navigate back to significant past events. This method bypasses the left brain’s analytical tendencies, engaging the right brain’s intuitive understanding.

  The therapy’s success hinges on understanding and utilizing the present moment as a portal to past formative experiences. This approach is designed to change future outcomes by addressing current issues.

  Mark advocates for a modified EMDR protocol focusing on event, image, emotion, body, and belief, arguing that this approach is more effective than the standard protocol, especially for complex cases.

  The therapist is seen as a guide or driver, with the client’s nervous system intuitively leading the journey. This dynamic is crucial for successful target identification and processing.

• 3: Interweaves and Session Structure

  This session concentrates on the importance of session structure and how actually to reprocess and rewire the past in EMDR’s Phase Four.

  We also explore the crucial role of the therapist’s active and relational presence, and a range of interweaves ranging from computer and iPad to Split-Screen, Educational, Relational , Socratic and Creative.

  Noting the role of flexibility and responsiveness, Mark and Katharine emphasize the need for therapists to be adaptable and responsive, being careful about overly rigid protocol adherence and stressing the importance of concluding each session with a sense of resolution.

• 4: Intergenerational Narratives and Trauma

  With attachment-informed EMDR we’re not primarily working with, or indeed mainly focusing on, the big, nasty traumas that our clients have been through, however enormous and life-changing they may have been.

  We are all creatures of survival, and when we experience something – anything – our amygdala and hippocampus cross-reference incoming sensory information against the database of our own personal

  In our attachment and formative relationship with parents, primary caregivers, and particularly mother (we are all after all born from a female body with nine months, sometimes a bit less, of formative experience behind us as our nervous systems are programmed) everything we experience becomes part of our survival-informed response to life big and small.

  In this module, Mark and Katharine explore how to work with parental introjects which might be blocking adaptive resolution of a childhood/attachment-related target.

  What’s suggested is a kind of session-within-a-session”, where the therapist does EMDR on the client’s introjected parent in their imagination, AS IF, in other words, this were perfectly standard ai-EMDR with that individual in person.

• 5: Dreams

  Sigmund Freud famously described dreams as the Royal Road to the Unconscious, and they lend themselves powerfully to work with EMDR.

  When human beings dream (and probably most mammals too), our eyes move rapidly from side to side in what is termed Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. That is of course (EMDR 101) what we at some level replicate with the bilateral left-right brain sensory stimulation of our trade, whether using literal eye movements, or headphones, buzzers, or butterfly taps.

  While it’s difficult to prove scientifically, EMDR may well work at least in part by kick-starting the brain into the experience-processing work that is otherwise done by dreams, with the essential difference of now having the brain’s left prefrontal cortex consciously online.

  It’s very likely that we sleep not so much to rest but to dream, to allow the brain to make inward narrative sense of stuff we’ve been through and differentiate what needs to be sorted and retained for survival purposes, and what can safely be discarded.

  Dreams are catnip to the attachment-tuned EMDR therapist. And while this module won’t equip participants in extensive detail to work with dreams, it provides the basic structure for colleagues to develop in their own practical work.

Three Live Four-and-a-Half-Hour Workshops

On Saturdays January 10th, 17th and 24th, from 0900-1330 GMT (allowing a half hour for breaks), Mark will personally host live practical sessions online on Zoom (links to be shared with booking confirmation) where colleagues who’ve viewed and understood the full recorded modules are invited to bring their questions and to work with actual live material – their own and that of clients.

Mark will be asking for a volunteer or two with whom to illustrate (with the use of live interpretation) how attachment-informed EMDR can work in practice.

There’ll be plenty of time to prepare and unpack how this can be best done, and colleagues will also be put into pairs and triads to discuss some of ai-EMDR’s key principles in their own language amongst themselves and bring experience and questions back into plenary for shared exploration.

To qualify for the appropriate attendance certificates, colleagues will need to have viewed in full all the recorded material in advance and to have attended all three live discussions.

Recordings for those registered will be available for one month following the workshop.

Price

Pricing is in three tiers – first figure for the 6+ recorded hours only, second figure for all 18 hours as a single package (reminder that you cannot book on the live sessions alone).

• Pro bono for those explicitly invited to register thus by Trauma Aid UK. You and we will know who you are, so if you do not have a personal invitation from Shiraz to register for free, please do not do so – your application will not be accepted;
• USD 75/195 for those with limited ability to pay. Again, you and we will know who this applies to, so please don’t ask to register at this low price if you can afford the fuller price;
• USD 145/395 for those in wealthier parts of the Arab world who are able to pay the full price – which we have still pitched low considering just how much material and training we will be offering.

Testimonials

I believe the attachment-informed version of EMDR is a game-changer, and I think if I had been using it earlier with some of my clients, I would have seen better results much sooner. I look back on some “flopped” EMDR attempts with clients and think ai-EMDR is just what I needed, so I’m grateful to have it now.

From the EMDR Focus attachment training I have learnt so much. It has absolutely transformed my practice.

Since starting I have practised as much as I can and I have found that it has reached places that no talking therapy ever could.

This training has allowed me to be able to do that with patients at a true emotionally level and has truly transformed their lives too.

The live sessions were amazing and inspiring. They helped bring all of the information together, solidify it, and show nuances. The volunteers were also so vulnerable and courageous, which really helped with the learning process.

I have been using everything I’ve learned and already am starting to see this make an incredible difference.

 One of the most powerful and valuable courses I have experienced.

Mark’s enthusiasm for EMDR, and his love of teaching which is clearly a passion for him, is infectious and makes training with him so enjoyable and leaves you wanting more!

A fabulous combination of theory and practice, professionalism and warmth, seriousness and humour … all of which made for a brilliant learning environment. Skilfully done, thank you!

To Bear in Mind

These workshops include full, in-depth and live demonstrations and experiences of EMDR with real personal issues. This can be powerful stuff, both for the group and for volunteers kindly offering themselves to work openly this way. Participants are invited to work in triads on similarly real issues, using the tools of attachment-informed EMDR, and this too can go deep. While we find that participants value this opportunity, be aware that both as therapist and client, the experience can be triggering.

For our part, we commit to doing our best to keep the training safe and contained. We correspondingly ask participants to take responsibility for their own responses, and to remain at all times open and respectful towards the processes and learnings that will unfold as the workshops proceed. You will of course have the opportunity to decline to bring personal issues to the practicum, but for your own sake and that of others on the workshop, we ask attendees to allow space for a willingness to be vulnerable, as well as to be bold.

By registering for an EMDR Focus workshop, and recognising that participation can involve both observation and personal experience of sometimes profound trauma processing, participants agree to take appropriate responsibility for their own emotional wellbeing, with access to any necessary therapeutic and/or supervisory support following the workshop should that be needed.

See here for our full Ts&Cs, including the waiver and release small print.

Cancellation Policy

If you need to cancel up to six weeks before the workshop, we will refund your fee minus a 10% handling charge. After that, refunds will be at the discretion of EMDR Focus.