EMDR for Recent Traumatic Events: Customized Treatment to Target Symptoms and Achieve Rapid Results

CPD

Planning Committee Disclosure - No relevant relationships

All members of the PESI, Inc. planning committee have provided disclosures of financial relationships with ineligible organizations and any relevant non-financial relationships prior to planning content for this activity. None of the committee members had relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies or other potentially biasing relationships to disclose to learners.  For speaker disclosures, please see the faculty biography.

Handouts

Speaker

Rebecca Kase, LCSW Related seminars and products

---

Rebecca Kase, LCSW, is an internationally renowned EMDR expert, consultant, trainer, and owner of Kase & CO Training and Consulting. She is the author of Polyvagal-Informed EMDR: A Neuro-Informed Approach to Healing (Norton, 2023) and has worked in a variety of settings with a variety of populations including children, adolescents, and adults. She has additional experience working with dissociation and complex trauma and incorporates yoga and mind-body techniques throughout her clinical work. She advocates for embodied presence, humility and curiosity as vital components for healing and successful therapy. Rebecca strives to provide engaging, safe, and shame-free environments for clinicians to explore and learn.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Rebecca Kase maintains a private practice and is the CEO of Trauma Therapist Institute. She previously received royalties from Bilateralstimulation.io. Rebecca Kase receives royalties as a published author. She receives a speaking honorarium, book, and recording royalties from Psychotherapy Networker and PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Rebecca Kase is a member of the American Psychological Association, EMDR International Association, the International Society for the Study of Traumatic Dissociation, and the Yoga Alliance.

Objectives

1. Investigate research on EMDR with early trauma intervention, recommendations and contraindications.
2. Assess readiness for EMDR phases when working with clients who’ve experienced recent traumatic events.
3. Develop the clinical acumen to choose between resourcing and stabilization techniques, constricted processing and full protocols for processing recent events.
4. Practice at least three ways to resource clients with Complex PTSD.
5. Practice at least two techniques for distress management.
6. Practice at least two techniques for increasing dual awareness.
7. Formulate an EMDR treatment plan for recent traumatic events and differentiate from standard EMDR protocol.

Outline

• The need for early EMDR interventions
• “What’s stuck cases yuck”
• Research base & core concepts 
• Changes to EMDR
• “Follow the lead” of the nervous system
• Clinical need for early intervention & rapid therapy
• Must-know contraindications
• Components of memory & how they function
• Adaptive vs. maladaptive memories
• The AIP model

• The first protocol 
• How to assess readiness
• Phases of EMDR therapy
• Brief history taking
• Get clients on-board without being a salesperson
• Assess nervous system tolerance for treatment
• Polyvagal integration in phases 1 & 2 
• Cue into physical & psychological arousal
• Therapy within the window of tolerance
• Hyperarousal and Hypoarousal, made simple
• A note on dissociation
• Dorsal dissociation versus structural dissociation
• Red flags of complex structural dissociation 
• Dual awareness 
• Assessing medical considerations
• State Change vs Trait Change 
• Red flags in reprocessing 
• Case Vignettes

• The role of Psychoeducation
• Bilateral Stimulation – appropriate types and speeds
• Follow the lead of the nervous system
• Bilateral Stimulation – key resources for installing
• Distress management techniques: Containment techniques, Resourcing techniques, Boxed breathing
• Installing present safety
• “Abnormal is normal”

• Comprehensive treatment vs symptom reduction
• What is Fractionated treatment planning and when to use it
• Diving in EMDR reprocessing phases 3-6
• Constricted vs telescopic processing
• EMD & EMDr – How do they work?
• Philip Manfield’s Flash Technique
• Who benefits from constricted processing?
• Step-by-step EMD technique – how to use it
• EMDr case example
• Constricted processing for recent events
• Choice points vs protocols

• Why treat current symptoms?    
• Research support of modified protocols 
• Addressing memories before consolidation
• 3 types of Protocols for Recent events & step-by-step application of each: 
  • Recent Events Protocol (REP)
  • R-TEP (Recent Traumatic Episode Protocol)
  • PRECI (Protocol for Recent Critical Incidents)
• What’s similar and what’s different between the 3?

• Tips for desensitization of recent events
• Additional early intervention protocols
• Clinical choice points & how to present them
• 32-year-old, white, she/they, recent school shooting, flashbacks, panic & life stressors
• 17-year-old she/hers, 3rd generation pacific islander, car accident, guilt and self-blame
• Creative resourcing techniques
• Handouts & Experiential exercises

Target Audience

• Counselors
• Social Workers
• Psychologists
• Addiction Counselors
• Marriage & Family Therapists
• Nurses
• Case Managers
• Physicians
• Other Mental Health Professionals