Using EMDR with Children

October 13, 2010:  With no rest for the weary, we began a specialty training on working with children the very next day. Dr. Frances Klaff combined her many years of experience with video tapes of actual sessions with children, to provided the 35 participants with ideas on using EMDR with this population.

Children present their own challenges due to their short attention spans and their non-verbal ways of expressing their problems and emotions. Dr. Klaff, one of earliest therapists in the EMDR world to adapt EMDR to these young clients, emphasized how creative a therapist needs to be in order to respond appropriately to the unique way that each child participates in therapy.

In Ethiopia, due to the millions of AIDS-orhphaned children, the majority of therapists taking EMDR trainings are working with children. To help them get started, wands, finger puppets, laminated charts about emotion and I Think, I Feel, I Am Cards donated by Melinda Halpern-Collins were handed out to everyone at the end of the day.


And to top off the afternoon, the first group of Ethiopians to complete both Part 1 & 2 of the training and demonstrate competence in EMDR were awarded their EMDR Completion Certificates. These therapists, among others, have been working on this for the past year, and are the first of many to join the International EMDR community of therapists.

"Ready, Steady, Go"

Little did I know this fall that in less than six months, I would be planning my first psycological training in Ethiopia.

On September 2, 2008, I received an email from Yewoinshet Masresha, founder and director of Hope For Children-Ethiopia, responding to my inquirey about recycled eyeglasses for the HFC children, staff and care-takers. Realizing that I was a psychologist, her affirmative response was followed by a request for more psychological training for herself and her staff.

My first thought was to contact the EMDR-Humanitarian Assistance Program, an organization that focuses on training therapists in crisis situations or in under-served communities or countries to treat trauma using EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing).

While Bob Gelbach, HAP's Executive Director and I began our discussions on setting up an EMDR training in Ethiopia sometime in the upcoming year, an unexpected opportunity arose in Nairobi. Thanks to a generous donation from a close friend of mine, Yewoinshet and one of her therapists, Zebenay, flew to Kenya in mid-November and completed EMDR Level 1 training (pictured above).

Now that Yewoinshet and Zebenay have returned to Addis Ababa and have begun using EMDR with some of the children, I am in the process of setting up periodic consultation with them via the Internet. Time differences and the undependable nature of Ethiopian Internet services are making this a challenging goal.

My goals for the upcoming year fall into three areas:

1. Organizing and funding an EMDR Level 1 training in Addis Ababa for approximately 25 Ethiopian therapists sometime during the fall of 2009. Preparation for this will begin during a trip I am taking to Ethiopia this February to teach the preliminary " Traumatology and Stabilization" workshop to potential participants and to find an appropriate training location.

2. Researching and filming two 5-hour training videos on Play Therapy in conjunction with Paul R. White, LCSW that will focus on techniques and equipment applicable to the Ethiopian culture and economy.

3. The collection, labeling and transportation of recycled eyeglasses to the members of the HFC community, as well as financial support for an optometrist to attend to the visual needs of the community.

Future blogs will keep you abreast of my progress on all three projects. I would love to hear from any of you regarding ideas you may have for fund raising or advancing any of these programs.

Thanks,
Dorothy