Thank you for joining us at the EMDR Association UK and Ireland’s Annual Conference and AGM. We have organised a great programme to build your therapeutic skills. As always, the national conference was not just a time to update your CPD but to network and connect with old friends in our community. Please note that you have to attend at least 1 annual national conference in 5 years as part of your reaccreditation process.
Keynote Anabel Gonzalez: EMDR in Severe Mental Illness
Conference Keynote and Workshop presenter Dr Arun Mansukhani
Location
The BCEC
Hill Street
Birmingham
B5 4EW
Useful links
EMDR Timetable Birmingham 2019
Conference Materials 2019 (password protected)
Keynote Speakers
Anabel Gonzalez 
EMDR in Severe Mental Illness
EMDR is being used in a wide range of psychopathological conditions beyond simple PTSD, including many conditions usually included in the concept of Severe Mental Illness as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, severe dissociative disorders and extreme presentations of different psychiatric diagnosis. EMDR has shown good result in different research, but the treatment in these cases need a comprehensive case conceptualization, integrating biologic and traumatic factors.
Additionally, the severity of a disorder is also related with the level of traumatization, being this aspect especially relevant for EMDR therapy. Complex traumatization and the presence of dissociative symptoms have been related with difficulties applying standard protocol, and with the need of modifications in therapeutic procedures. This workshop will be oriented to different aspects that we should have in mind when we are working with EMDR with severe mental disorders. Some clinical cases will be presented to describe a decision-making having process and interventions in different cases of severe mental disorders.
Workshop
EMDR is being used in a wide range of psychopathological conditions beyond simple PTSD, and there is now an active controversy about the need of modifications on procedures and protocols. Complex traumatization and the presence of dissociative symptoms have been related with difficulties applying standard protocol, and with the need of modifications in therapeutic procedures. This workshop will be oriented to understand the role of the influence of severe emotion dysregulation in EMDR treatment.
Emotion dysregulation is a frequent feature in trauma-related disorders. Different kinds of regulation problems seem to be linked to particular psychiatric conditions, and there is growing evidence of the association between neurobiological correlates and those dysregulation patterns. Nevertheless, many of the recent findings from the field of the neurobiology have not been translated into clinical practice and are insufficiently contemplated in trauma-oriented therapies. The aim of this workshop is to review recent developments in the field of emotion regulation, connecting these issues with the practical implementation of psychotherapeutic procedures in complex cases. This workshop focus on how emotion dysregulation may influence eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) treatment in trauma-related disorders. Different patterns of emotion dysregulation may influence EMDR treatment and procedures, and the application of EMDR beyond non- dissociative PTSD should take into account the predominant emotion-regulation strategies in each patient.
Different clinical cases will be presented to illustrate the theoretical concepts and to describe a decision-making having into account the specific emotion regulation problems that each patient presents.
Dr Arun Mansukhani
EMDR interventions for individuals and couples with adult attachment issues.
The application and the success of the EMDR-AIP model has led to the understanding of how pervasive trauma is in a large number of emotional and mental disorders (Ross 2000), and the crucial role played by implicit pathogenic memories in development of psychopathology (Hoffman and Hase, 2012). This has also brought the understanding of what acute trauma shares with other types of trauma (specifically attachment trauma) and in what aspects it is different, forcing us to adapt certain aspects of the standard protocol to patients whose problems are related to attachment trauma implicit memories. Adult attachment trauma patients present certain problems for the application of standard protocol as: history taking is deregulating an evocative (Steele 2016), due to attachment blindness (Siegel 2012) they have difficulties relating present problems to past events and are unable to present targets for processing, they present highly defensive-controlling strategies or destabilized structures, with difficulties maintaining dual focus, being either too much in control or overwhelmed by memories.
Due to this, the application of EMDR in these patients requires certain modifications in the standard protocol. These patients also require specific interventions within the EMDR-AIP working model enriched by the findings of attachment theory and practice.
In this presentation, my aim is to present a systematic way of working with patients with adult attachment issues as well as to offer a number of specific interventions, with individuals and with couples, always within the EMDR-AIP working model.
Arun Mansukhani is a Clinical Psychologist (PsyD) and Sexologist with 25 years of experience as a therapist. He has a Masters in Sexology, in Behavioural- Cognitive Therapies, in Hypnosis and is an EMDR Europe accredited consultant and facilitator. He is also a Level III Sensorimotor therapist. He currently is Vice Director at the IASP centre in Malaga (Spain) leading a team of psychologists working with trauma and attachment issues. He has held various representatives posts as Member of the Presidential Committee of the Illustrious College of Psychologists (COP-AO), Member of the Presidential Committee of the Spanish Federation of Sexologists (FESS), External Consultant for the Government of the City of Madrid on Social Addictions, President for the Evaluation Committee of International Adoptions or Advisor to the ORAS-CONHU (UN-Population Fund) on teen pregnancy. He has participated in many national and international conferences as a speaker and has wide teaching experience in seminars, workshops and master degrees.