Course Description

This workshop explores clinical challenges in working with clients who experience suicidal ideation and self‑harming behaviors, with attention to therapist emotional responses and relational dynamics. Using EMDR’s Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model, participants will examine self‑harm as a trauma‑related regulation strategy and its relationship to unprocessed adverse experiences. The session reviews how EMDR‑informed conceptualization can be used to understand the memories, beliefs, and affective dysregulation associated with suicidal ideation and self‑harm. Stages of suicidal ideation, risk assessment priorities, and EMDR‑informed clinical considerations are discussed, with emphasis on identifying relevant treatment targets, maintaining appropriate therapeutic boundaries, and managing crises without reinforcing maladaptive patterns. Clinical examples illustrate how EMDR clinicians can approach treatment planning with care, structure, and ethical responsibility when working with repeated suicidal behaviors and self‑harm.

Learning Objectives

1. Participants will be able to explain self-harm and suicidal ideation from an Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) perspective.
2. Participants will be able to describe the different stages of suicide ideation and associated clinical considerations.
3. Participants will be able to identify at least three examples of EMDR-relevant treatment targets when conceptualizing work with suicidal clients.

Session Level: Intermediate

Presenter(s)

Dolores Mosquera, Psy

Dolores Mosquera is a psychologist specializing in personality disorders, complex trauma disorders and dissociation. She has published many books, book chapters and articles on trauma-related disorders. Dolores received the David Servan-Schreiber award for outstanding contributions to the EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) field in 2017, was made Fellow of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation in 2018, for her contributions to the trauma and dissociation field, and received the MAM10 Prix David Servan-Schreiber award in 2021 to a foreign researcher who has made a notable international contribution, having advanced research in the field of EMDR.