An Introduction to EMDR and Related Approaches in Psychotherapy
Course #76032 - $36 -
- Participation Instructions
- Review the course material online or in print.
- Complete the course evaluation.
- Review your Transcript to view and print your Certificate of Completion. Your date of completion will be the date (Pacific Time) the course was electronically submitted for credit, with no exceptions. Partial credit is not available.
Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is an approach to psychotherapy that continues to grow in popularity and utility with a variety of clinical populations. In this continuing education course, participants will receive an orientation to EMDR and how it is being used in a variety of clinical settings around the world. Although not intended to be a full training course in EMDR, the course will provide a full explanation of how the therapy works and how the EMDR approach conceptualizes the impact of trauma on the human experience. As a result, some related techniques and clinical case conceptualization skills can be derived from the course, even if the reader is not fully trained in EMDR.
This course is designed for counselors, social workers, and therapists who are interested in incorporating EMDR-related approaches into their work with clients.
The purpose of this course is to provide an overview of the EMDR approach to treatment of trauma-related psychopathology in order for clinicians to evaluate its appropriateness for their clients.
Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:
- Define trauma and explain the manifestation of unhealed trauma on the human experience, as conceptualized by the eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) approach to psychotherapy and its adaptive information processing (AIP) model.
- Explain how EMDR was discovered and developed by Francine Shapiro, making connections to the overall healing role of bilateral stimulation in the human experience.
- Outline components of the AIP model.
- Describe, in a general sense, how EMDR works to help a person stabilize, reprocess, and reintegrate after a traumatic experience(s).
- Discuss the variations in how EMDR is used by clinicians in the modern era.
- Distinguish what makes an intervention purely EMDR therapy versus an EMDR-related intervention.
- Summarize the characteristics of candidates for EMDR therapy and related approaches.
- Describe how to implement a basic "tapping in" strategy for client stabilization (an EMDR-informed intervention).
- Discuss how to conduct a trauma history/assessment on a client using principles of the AIP model.
- Decide whether or not further training in EMDR or an EMDR-related intervention is a good fit for one's own clinical repertoire.
Jamie Marich, PhD, LPCC-S, REAT, RYT-500, RMT, (she/they) travels internationally speaking on topics related to EMDR therapy, trauma, addiction, expressive arts, and mindfulness while maintaining a private practice and online education operation, the Institute for Creative Mindfulness, in her home base of northeast Ohio. She is the developer of the Dancing Mindfulness approach to expressive arts therapy and the developer of Yoga for Clinicians. Dr. Marich is the author of numerous books, including EMDR Made Simple, Trauma Made Simple, and EMDR Therapy and Mindfulness for Trauma Focused Care (written in collaboration with Dr. Stephen Dansiger). She is also the author of Process Not Perfection: Expressive Arts Solutions for Trauma Recovery. In 2020, a revised and expanded edition of Trauma and the 12 Steps was released. In 2022 and 2023, Dr. Marich published two additional books: The Healing Power of Jiu-Jitsu: A Guide to Transforming Trauma and Facilitating Recovery and Dissociation Made Simple. Dr. Marich is a woman living with a dissociative disorder, and this forms the basis of her award-winning passion for advocacy in the mental health field.
Contributing faculty, Jamie Marich, PhD, LPCC-S, REAT, RYT-500, RMT, has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
Alice Yick Flanagan, PhD, MSW
The division planner has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
Sarah Campbell
The Director of Development and Academic Affairs has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
The purpose of NetCE is to provide challenging curricula to assist healthcare professionals to raise their levels of expertise while fulfilling their continuing education requirements, thereby improving the quality of healthcare.
Our contributing faculty members have taken care to ensure that the information and recommendations are accurate and compatible with the standards generally accepted at the time of publication. The publisher disclaims any liability, loss or damage incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents. Participants are cautioned about the potential risk of using limited knowledge when integrating new techniques into practice.
It is the policy of NetCE not to accept commercial support. Furthermore, commercial interests are prohibited from distributing or providing access to this activity to learners.
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The role of implicit biases on healthcare outcomes has become a concern, as there is some evidence that implicit biases contribute to health disparities, professionals' attitudes toward and interactions with patients, quality of care, diagnoses, and treatment decisions. This may produce differences in help-seeking, diagnoses, and ultimately treatments and interventions. Implicit biases may also unwittingly produce professional behaviors, attitudes, and interactions that reduce patients' trust and comfort with their provider, leading to earlier termination of visits and/or reduced adherence and follow-up. Disadvantaged groups are marginalized in the healthcare system and vulnerable on multiple levels; health professionals' implicit biases can further exacerbate these existing disadvantages.
Interventions or strategies designed to reduce implicit bias may be categorized as change-based or control-based. Change-based interventions focus on reducing or changing cognitive associations underlying implicit biases. These interventions might include challenging stereotypes. Conversely, control-based interventions involve reducing the effects of the implicit bias on the individual's behaviors. These strategies include increasing awareness of biased thoughts and responses. The two types of interventions are not mutually exclusive and may be used synergistically.