EMDR for Complex Trauma: Step-by-Step Somatic & Polyvagal-Informed Interventions

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

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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 Kase & Co. 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. Evaluate current research for the treatment of complex PTSD (CPTSD), common clinical symptoms, and treatment guidelines.
2. Assess the usefulness of EMDR with CPTSD presentations, and review contraindications for EMDR-based interventions.
3. Analyze core principles of Polyvagal Theory and appraise their application to EMDR Phases 1 & 2 in the treatment of CPTSD.
4. Utilize mindfulness and somatic-based interventions to resource and stabilize clients with CPTSD.
5. Utilize ego states interventions to resource clients and improve functioning.
6. Integrate at least two techniques into your clinical practice with CPTSD clients to increase dual awareness and reduce dissociation.
7. Appraise the usefulness of EMDR desensitization techniques with CPTSD.
8. Develop a symptom-focused EMDR treatment plan for CPTSD clients, focused on improving functioning and reducing acute symptoms.

Outline

• EMDR & C-PTSD – what and why?
• Known contraindications, risks & limitations
• How to use neuro-informed counseling
• Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model, how it works
• How memories are felt

• Neural exercises are and how they apply to work with CPTSD
• Importance of therapeutic presence
• Why care about the Vagus Nerve?
• The 3 Circuits – how they work
  •     Ventral Vagal
  •     Sympathetic Nervous system
  •     Dorsal Vagal
• How to tune into nervous system cues
• Survival Physiology – protective or problematic?
• The pathway to healing: nervous system regulation
• Practice: Neural exercises

• One foot in the past, one in the present
• Working with types of dissociation – befriending them
• Assessing readiness
• Grounding in the here-and-now
• The role for psychoeducation
• Practice: Circuit Mapping, Narrative, Regulation

• Learn to be “quick on the draw” and how to resource adaptive moments in therapy
• C-PTSD specific opportunities for resourcing 
• Mindfulness and interception work
• Ego States: develop the oldest, wisest self
• Explore modifications to BLS for CPTSD clients
• Practice: Installing safety, Building interoception

• Help clients reclaim their bodies
• Build & optimize interoception
• Help clients develop vocabulary to notice and name feelings and sensations 
• Cultivating curiosity 
• Practice: Describe sensations, Pendulating awareness, Surfing

• Where to start?
• Target specific symptoms 
• Reflexive Orienting to reduce overwhelm
• Overcome common client defenses with BLS
• Integrate BLS & mindfulness to target emotions
• Explore “fractionating” a treatment plan
• Where to go next?
• Video Demonstration: EMD & EMDr
• Vignettes

Target Audience

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