Institute for Creative Mindfulness

Description 

More than 30% of women describe their birthing experiences as traumatic. In addition to trauma occurring in the labor and delivery suite, traumatizing and similarly disruptive incidents can occur in the effort to become pregnant (infertility treatment, surrogacy, the adoption process), during the course of pregnancy itself (high-risk pregnancy, bedrest, adverse prenatal diagnosis, premature delivery, pregnancy/fetal complications, antepartum mood and anxiety or psychosis), or complications in the newborn period (NICU care for the newborn or medical complications in the mother including postpartum mood, anxiety disorders - PMADs - or psychosis). Because these events are common, commonly stigmatized, and rarely life-threatening, women often minimize their impact, and family members and physicians may not recognize their repercussions, making them potentially challenging to clinically detect. 

This advanced practice workshop will introduce attendees to the wide range of disruptive events that can occur in the perinatal period, teach them to identify characteristics of those events that induce ruptures in the normative developmental path of family-building, and to recognize the common clinical presentations of patients suffering in the aftermath of disruptive and traumatizing perinatal events. 

Through this training, attendees will gain an understanding of the Three Core Tasks parents face during the perinatal period (Davis & Stein, 2003). This comprehensive framework guides clinicians around history-taking and case conceptualization, allowing them more nuance and specificity as they assess ruptures in the perinatal period. 

Using EMDR’s 3-prongs and 8-phases, the lens of Adaptive Information Processing, and the guiding framework of the Three Core Tasks, attendees will hone their clinical conceptualization skills, which will guide their decision making around the preparation and resourcing phases of EMDR and their choice of targets and protocols (for phases 3-7). 

 With the use of case examples and structured conceptualization materials incorporating the Three Core Tasks, participants will see how this case conceptualization and treatment-planning model integrates seamlessly with EMDR therapy’s 8-phase standard protocol. 

Increase your knowledge of how trauma affects the brain, and how EMDR can improve client outcomes. Update your skills and enhance your ability to identify hidden trauma in the clients you see and learn to better facilitate healing in new clients suffering perinatal trauma.  Learn advanced practice applications including the integration of AIP-based interventions across all prongs and phases of EMDR treatment. The use of specialized protocols and modifications are also addressed during this training. Case discussion, demonstration, and reflection around 'self as therapist' are woven throughout the course.

Objectives

1. To review the use of EMDR’s Three-Pronged, 8-stage standard protocol and the Adaptive-Information Processing model.

   
   

2. To understand the Three Core Tasks framework for perinatal mental health.

   
   

3. To understand how philosophies of care— developmentally supportive, relationship-centered care—serve as trauma recovery resources. 

   
   

4. To recognize and describe the parameters of both normative perinatal mental health and the types of disruptive events that can occur during this period. 

   
   

5. To conceptualize the impact of postpartum mood, anxiety, and postpartum psychosis through Integrated Lens, and to propose EMDR therapy treatment strategies.

   
   

6. To identify at least three disruptive or traumatic features of perinatal loss and trauma. 

   
   

7. To identify specific considerations important to history-taking and evaluation of clients subsequent to a perinatal event using an integration of the AIP and Three Core Tasks lenses.

   
   

8.  To identify appropriate use of specialized protocols and modifications in treating perinatal crisis and trauma within the framework of EMDR therapy treatment planning.

   
   

9. To extend the AIP and Three Core Tasks framework from assessment to case conceptualization. 

   
   

10. To review features of perinatal hospice, pediatric palliative care, and the factors influencing decision-making in the perinatal period. 

    
    

11.  To apply attachment theory to perinatal loss and trauma, using the AIP and Three Core Task lenses.

    
    

12. To conceptualize the experience of grieving using the AIP and Three Core Task framework.