Join Liam Spicer for this 2.5 hour webinar discussing the use of EMDR for Grief and Loss. You will gain access to the recording, and various handouts and materials.
This course provides a comprehensive understanding of EMDR therapy in the context of prolonged grief, focusing on evidence-based models, treatment protocols, and therapeutic approaches. It explores different types of grief, including acute, complicated, and traumatic grief, and how EMDR can be applied to process blocked emotions, unresolved losses, and other complex grief reactions.
Key topics include understanding grief theories, grief-specific assessments, adjunctive therapeutic techniques, and EMDR case examples. Special attention is given to using the Adaptive Information Processing model (AIP) and integrating EMDR into broader grief frameworks, considering clients' unique experiences and how social support, schemas, and modes impact the grieving process.
Learning Outcomes Include:
- Participants will be able to identify the symptoms and challenges associated with Prolonged Grief Disorder, understanding its prevalence and impact on the bereaved population
- Participants will gain a comprehensive understanding of the Adaptive Information Processing Model and its application in understanding and treating prolonged grief.
- Participants will learn to integrate the Dual Process Model of grief with the AIP model to create a unified framework for understanding and treating prolonged grief.
- Participants will be able to assess risk factors that contribute to the development and maintenance of Prolonged Grief Disorder, including attachment styles, prior trauma, social support and factors identified in Liam’s own research on schemas and schema modes.
- Participants will acquire practical skills in applying EMDR across all 8 phases of treatment to address prolonged grief, focusing on past memories, current triggers, and future fears.
- Participants will learn to utilize detailed case conceptualization to identify and target specific areas for processing in EMDR therapy.
- Participants will understand the importance of building a strong therapeutic alliance early in therapy to enhance treatment outcomes for prolonged grief.
- Participants will learn to incorporate EMDR-based self-regulation techniques and resource development to support clients throughout the grieving process.
- Participants will gain strategies to help clients process current triggers and future fears related to their loss using EMDR techniques such as the Flash Forward Approach and future templates.
The course emphasizes the importance of therapist attunement and the therapeutic relationship, addressing self-care for clinicians and providing tools like the "RISE UP" aftercare model to support clients between sessions.
Liam Spicer
Liam Spicer is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Psychologist, EMDR Consultant and Accredited Schema Therapist based in Lutruwita. Liam is an Autistic ADHDer himself, and is passionate about training, research, and collaboration with other neurodivergent individuals in the Neurodiversity Affirming Space. Liam is actively involved in both training and research in the areas of trauma, grief, neurodivergence, EMDR, and Schema Therapy, delivering workshops across Australia and online to various mental health professionals.
Liam has presented at both International and National conferences including the International Society for Schema Therapy Conference in Europe, the EMDR Asia Conference, two years consecutively at the EMDR Australia Conference, and the Australasian ADHD Professionals Network Conference.
Liam has been a contributor to the Routledge International Handbook of Child and Adolescent Grief and has published in top academic journals such as Frontiers in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy Research. Liam’s current PHD at Curtin University, Perth is focused on the use of Schema Therapy for Prolonged Grief, where he has published in the ISST bulletin on this topic.
Liam’s current PhD is focused on the use of Schema Therapy for Prolonged grief, and he has published journal articles and book chapters on grief in addition to presenting at national and international conferences. His interest in this area is derived from both professional and personal lived experience of loss.