For the past 2,600 years, Buddhist mindfulness and the therapies and practices connected to this system of healing have contributed to psychological and spiritual relief to millions of people. Over the past 25 years, our understanding and the treatment of trauma-related disorders and difficulties have progressed, with Francine Shapiro’s development of EMDR therapy and the AIP model representing a particular highlight. In this workshop, participants are challenged to consider how fusing two systems of healing, mindfulness-informed interventions and trauma-focused care guided by the EMDR approach to psychotherapy can revolutionize the helping professions delivery of trauma responsive services.
This workshop begins with the foundations of mindfulness practice and how they can be translated into clinical settings in as trauma-informed of a way as possible. This section draws on the elements of mindfulness inherent in EMDR therapy and also explores the core mindfulness focus in dialectical behavior therapy. From there, a general orientation to how the EMDR approach to psychotherapy views trauma is presented, with special care highlighting how Francine Shapiro drew upon mind body strategies in her development of EMDR therapy. Open to therapists trained and not trained in EMDR.
Upon attending this session, participants will be able to:- Define mindfulness in a classic sense and explain the meaning of mindfulness-informed interventions as a modern clinical term and apply no fewer than three mindfulness-informed interventions in clinical situations, making appropriate adaptations in the spirit of trauma-focused care
- Define trauma with respect to the adaptive informational processing (AIP) model of EMDR therapy and explain clinical relevance for trauma-focused care
- Summarize the history of how EMDR therapy was developed, taking special care to emphasize the mind-body elements reflecting mindfulness principles and attitudes in the development of EMDR therapy.
