Integrating Relational Psychoanalysis and EMDR

Integrating Relational Psychoanalysis and EMDR: Embodied Experience and Clinical Practice provides contemporary theoretical and clinical links between Relational Psychoanalysis, attachment theory, neuroscience, and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, all of which bring both the patient's and analyst's embodied experience into the forefront of clinical thinking and practice.

"Hemda Arad weaves together a rich tapestry of relational psychoanalytic thought, brain research, trauma theory, and attachment theory to illuminate how integrating Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) into a relational-psychoanalytically informed clinical practice can be invaluable in working with patients to help release the affective and embodied experience that lie beyond the reach of words. In clear and often movingly poetic language, she synthesizes research and scholarship with vivid clinical examples that bring to life the ways in which the human mind operates to shield itself from painful experience. She offers clinically relevant and experience-near illustrations of how EMDR can serve as a valuable addition to psychoanalytic treatment and, conversely, of how processing material arising from EMDR sessions psychoanalytically can enhance its clinical effectiveness. This book will be invaluable to clinicians seeking a better understanding of how to help patients for whom the "talking cure" is not enough."-Karen E. Starr, PsyD, editor, Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy Integration (2015); author, A Psychotherapy for the People (2013) and Repair of the Soul (2008). "This is a ground-breaking book which brings together two apparently disparate approaches to treatment relational psychoanalysis and EMDR. Arad makes a distinction between analytic goals and therapeutic goals, arguing that at certain moments of emotional impasse, when words are not available to facilitate the process, EMDR can offer a different, bodily, avenue of approach. She observes that "The actual travel into thought, feeling, or pain during EMDR sets is dynamic in nature, and resembles a deep primary process in analysis." She finds this dual approach seems particularly useful for patients with dissociated self-states, in that, "EMDR helps ground [the patient] in a feeling state that otherwise is prohibited from entering her consciousness." Couples therapy might benefit especially from this integration, because Arad discovers that self-states can frequently shift between partners at times of conflict, creating an opening for EMDR strategies. In these ways Arad imaginatively challenges her readers to expand their therapeutic repertoires by bridging two approaches that at first glance might seem antithetical. This is a courageous and much needed text."-Robert Winer, MD, an editor of the book Who's Behind the Couch?: The Heart and Mind of the Psychoanalyst and the author of the book Close Encounters: A Relational View of the Therapeutic Process. Co-founder and co-chair of the program, New Directions: Writing with a Psychoanalytic Edge at the Washington Center for Psychoanalysis, member of the editorial advisory board of Psychiatry: Interpersonal and Biological Processes. "Hemda Arad's book translates solid EMDR function to poetic analytic introspection in an extensive, comprehensive manner, including research, deep exploration of both techniques, and case histories that interweave them."-Robin Shapiro, LICSW, editor of EMDR Solutions, Pathways to Healing; EMDR Solutions II: Trauma Treatment Handbook; and author of Easy Ego State Interventions (Norton, 2016).

Autorentext

Hemda Arad, PhD, is a psychoanalyst, consultant, and Washington State Approved Supervisor. She is also an EMDRIA Certified Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapist. She has served on the faculties of the Northwest Center for Psychoanalysis and the Washington Center for Psychoanalysis program: New Directions: Writing with a Psychoanalytic Edge. She works in private practice in Seattle with individuals, couples, and groups.

Inhalt

Preface; Acknowledgments; Introduction; PART I: Literature and theory 1 EMDRHistory, method, protocol, and modifications for integration with relational psychoanalysis 2 The influence of big T and small t trauma on the brain 3 The relational perspective within the psychoanalytic tradition 4 Attachment: Companionship in action PART II: Case studies using both relational psychoanalysis and EMDR 5 In the trenches: Digging for lost passionsThe use of EMDR in psychoanalytic work 6 Working in tandem 7 I-dentity: Is trusted love ever an option? 8 EMDR in absentiaThe power of "No" 9 Conclusions: Reintegrating the music with the lyrics