Course Description

Baird was proud to present the first EMDRIA workshop integrating EMDR Therapy and Sexual Health information (California, 2019), leading to new resources, references, and collaborations with other EMDR clinicians regarding sexual health. This updated workshop will add to previously shared basic and current sexual health information to help our EMDR clients continue to move towards empowered sexual health. Several collaborators will expand upon EMDR/Sexual Health special populations and concepts. Folks will help participants explore how sexuality and spirituality impact each other, often resulting in intertwined traumatic material, and how EMDR can assist clients in positively integrating sexuality and spirituality. Marchese will help participants consider how all gender relates to trauma and EMDR targets. Herman will touch upon EMDR concepts related to pregnancy loss for all genders. Mader will finish by sharing how aging can impact sexuality, and how EMDR Therapy can help mitigate the potential negative impacts of aging.

Learning Objectives

1. Participants will able to describe basic sexual health rights and information and will develop expanded ideas on how past, present, and future EMDR targets, and phases 1-8, can link to sexual health, assessing for sexual health-related EMDR content.
2. Participants will be able to identify the intersection of a client’s spiritual and sexual wounds within the AIP model and use the client’s unique spiritual lexicon and imagery before, during, and after EMDR processing (Jeanne Folks).
3. Participants will be able to describe how gender (Michelle Marchese), pregnancy issues and loss (Sabrina Herman), and aging (Ashley Mader) can impact clients, and how EMDR Therapy can help mitigate any deleterious intersections/impacts.

Presenter(s)

Stephanie Baird, LMHC

Stephanie Baird, LMHC (she/they), EMDRIA Approved Consultant, has provided therapy, assessment, and programming on trauma, self-care, EMDR, and sexual health in various mental health settings since 1999. Stephanie served as Treasurer and Regional Co-Coordinator (2012-2018) on the Western Mass EMDR Board. She has a certificate in Advancing Clinical Excellence in Sexuality and teaches OWL sex education classes. She loves empowering clients with sex-positive information within her EMDR practice, recently publishing a book integrating these areas: EMDR Therapy and Sexual Health: A Clinician’s Guide (Springer, 2021). She writes a monthly column on positive sexual health for the Montague Recorder newspaper.

Jeanne Folks, M.Div, D.Min, LPC

Jeanne C. Folks, M.Div, D.Min, LPC is an EMDRIA approved consultant who has been in private practice in Avon, CT for 40 years, specializing in trauma recovery with individuals, groups, and workshops. EMDR trained for 20 years, she believes every life freed is a contribution to a peaceful world. Jeanne taught adjunctly for many years at Central Connecticut State University Department of Psychology as well as Mind-Body Medicine at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. Retirement from teaching has freed Jeanne to concentrate more fully on consultation, passing on her clinical experience to a new generation of therapists.

Michelle Marchese, LICSW

Michelle Marchese, LICSW (she/they) is the Director of Counseling at Smith College and provides trauma intensives and consultation/supervision in private practice. Michelle is a doctoral candidate at the Smith School for Social Work, teaches on intersectional trauma treatment in the Smith SSW masters program, and is an American Psychoanalytic Association Teachers’ Academy fellow. Previously, Michelle was the Western Massachusetts Regional EMDRIA Coordinator and President of the regional EMDR board. Currently, Michelle is an EMDRIA-Certified Consultant and trained in Progressive Counting and Cognitive Processing Therapy. Past presentations include the Western Massachusetts Annual EMDR Conference, EMDR Canada, and EMDR Europe.

Ashley Mader, Ph.D.

Ashley Mader, Ph.D, LICSW is a psycho-therapist, coach and consultant specializing in sexuality, aging and family systems. Dr. Mader received her Masters in social work and Doctorate in human sexuality from Widener University in Pennsylvania. Throughout the years, Dr. Mader has presented at numerous national conferences on sexuality and aging. From 2016-2020, Dr. Mader co-hosted the podcast Our Better Half. In 2018, she began the post graduate program at the Bowen Center in Georgetown and has been attending it for the past four years and is currently an intern there. Dr. Mader has a private practice in Western Massachusetts.

Sabrina Herman, LICSW

Sabrina Herman, LICSW has a private practice in South Hadley, MA. As an EMDR Certified clinician, her practice focuses on Perinatal/Postpartum care with a focus on childbirth trauma and postpartum bereavement as well as the LGBTQ community and international students. Her diverse professional background includes work in specialized foster care and at a therapeutic boarding school. Sabrina served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Benin, West Africa, 1998-2000 working with midwives and social workers in healthcare and gender development in education. Following her service, she earned a certification from ISMETA-International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association. Sabrina has extensive training in Psychodrama and Expressive Arts therapies and has volunteered for ICAN-International Cesarean Awareness Network as a group facilitator. She received her MSW from New York University in 1994.

Nancy Simons, LMHC

Nancy Simons, LMHC is an EMDR Basic trainer and consultant and an IFS- Informed EMDR trainer for the Syzygy Institute. She has a private practice in Amherst, MA treating adolescents and adults and is a Clinical Supervisor for Jewish Family Services of Western MA, specializing in trauma treatment for Refugee families resettled in the Springfield area.