Tuly Flint

EMDR and ADDICTION

Addictions are one of the main topics that we, as therapists, have to deal with.

It is no longer an issue of “the junky in the junction” using drugs. Rather, it is almost every second client in both private and public clinics.  The modern way of living with its stressors and hardships as well as “bombardment of triggers” via the electronic media, has Created a reality in which many people seek the help of substances, behaviors and other ways to “escape their day-to-day life”. We include also eating disorders and other non-classic self-medication in addiction therapy.

We now know that many, if not all people who suffer from addictions also went through traumatic events both “capital T” and small “t’s” and tried to resolve with “AB-use” of various kinds. Unfortunately, these attempts often end up in addictions adding more suffering to the total toll the person goes through.

EMDR therapy has a major role in helping people who struggle with addictions, both in direct treatment of the trauma and in treating the secondary traumas that come out of the use and abuse. In the EMDR world, there are some known and approved protocols like A. J. Popky’s Detur and others but the field of treating addictions is improving all the time and EMDR can add to the knowledge.

One of the more efficient methods is the “Twelve steps” program. Little or none attention was given to the combination of EMDR and the twelve steps, but, nevertheless, there are many ways in which the steps and the EMDR treatment go hand in hand. In the workshop, we will learn and practice the means to combine the two.

Addiction is also a spiritual crisis, an EMDR approach to deal with such crisis will be learned and practiced.

Day 1

  1. When the spirit/mind and the body are in unbearable pain. The basic mechanism behind addiction
  2. The basic interventions and where EMDR is best interweaved into it
  3. Treating “Deep basic trauma” that leads to addiction
  4. Treating “Addiction based” traumas
  5. “stay clean” protocol

Day 2

  1. Twelve steps’ program basic understanding Spiritual Therapy principles
  2. The role of EMDR in treating spiritual and emotional crisis
  3. Meta PC- Higher power
  4. Body sensations and treating addictions with EMDR

Detailed description:

  1. Addictions are a special case of a strategy chosen by a person to deal with his/her pain. When we understand the mechanism, we can help the client identify different and more effective targets for reprocessing. In this unit we will learn about the cutting edge knowledge we have today about addictions in three levels:
    1. Physical
    2. Mental
    3. Mind and Spirit
  2. Classical EMDR interventions with addictions:
    1. DeTour
    2. Fsap
    3. Trauma-focused interventions
    4. Abuse focused interventions
    5. Other protocols
  3. Deep Trauma: underneath the known traumas there are “feeding memories traumas” that might be unknown to the client. In addictions it even more important to track and discover those events/patterns. We will learn certain methods to do it using EMDR in a creative manner
  4. Addiction Based Traumas are surface traumas that need to be treated as well. They are present feeders of the behavior.
    1. ABD protocol
  5. The future is a threat to Addicts. It represents a world without hope for them. In this unit, we will explore creative EMDR based methods based on the Future Template classical protocol