Course Description

Therapists struggle to include caretakers in all the phases of EMDR with children including engaging them to agree to allow the processing of memories. Therapists may also have ambivalence if the caretakers are the cause of the attachment trauma, failed to adequately protect the child, and the parental attachment pattern are negatively impacting the child. Despite the complexity, the literature is clear that caregivers (by which we mean biological, foster and adoptive parents, grandparents, etc.) must be involved in EMDR therapy as a resource and for fullest benefit of trauma processing with EMDR. The workshop—led by Ann Beckley Forest, LCSW, RPT-S and Annie Monaco, LCSW, RPT—will provide playful interventions for children and involving caregivers in the preparation phase as co-regulators of their children and being present in the room and key in supporting the child’s reprocessing using the storytelling approach. Therapists will assess in between session processing to determine change in the child with the Closure and Re-Evaluation checklist.

Learning Objectives

1. Participants will be able to describe 3 ways to involve parents in the preparation phase of EMDR using prescriptive play activities to promote regulation.
2. Participants will be able to confidently utilize a guided process to prepare parents to be storytellers for their child’s EMDR processing of trauma targets using an approach that blends EMDR processing within a play therapy setting.
3. Participants will be able to utilize a scripted parent interview and reporting form to closely involve parents and caregivers in both the closure and re-evaluation phases of EMDR.

Presenter(s)

Ann Beckley-Forest, LCSW, RPT-S

Ann Beckley-Forest, LCSW, RPT-S, has a private practice in Buffalo, New York specializing in attachment and child trauma, and she also works with adult survivors. She is a Registered Play Therapist and supervisor and Approved Provider of play therapy continuing education, an EMDRIA-Approved Consultant, and a faculty member of the Child Trauma Institute, in addition to serving as the training chair for the EMDRIA Special Interest Group for children and adolescents. She has given trainings around the US and Asia. Her primary interest is in the intersection of play therapy and EMDR and has previously published on this topic.

Annie Monaco, LCSW, RPT

Annie Monaco, LCSW, RPT, is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, a Registered Play Therapist, and a faculty member of both the Child Trauma Institute and of University at Buffalo School of Social Work. Annie travels throughout the US and internationally providing trauma-informed trainings and agency and therapist consultation. She is a trainer of EMDR, Progressive Counting, and Attachment & Dissociation, and is the Chair of the EMDRIA Child and Adolescent Special Interest Group. She has extensive training in complex trauma, family therapy, play therapy, and restorative justice, and over 25 years’ experience in serving children, teens, families, and adults.