EMDR Therapy and Mindfulness for Trauma Focused Care - #1

At the end of Clinical Dharma: A Path for Healers and Helpers, I write about the journey I have taken recently with Dr. Jamie Marich, where we have walked steadily, quickly and resolutely toward the complete integration of Buddhist psychology, mindfulness and EMDR therapy. That journey is anything but complete, but it now has its own guidebook. EMDR Therapy and Mindfulness for Trauma Focused Care is everything Jamie and I wanted it to be... a review of mindfulness including the history and specifics of the Buddha's approach, a succinct description of and a deep commitment to the Adaptive Information Processing Model (AIP) and the original 8 phase protocol of Francine Shapiro's formulation of EMDR therapy, a manifesto declaring how critical this integration of EMDR and mindfulness is for our times, and a handbook and guidebook for those clinicians seeking to develop their own mindfulness practice and that of their clients in the service of relieving their suffering through mindfully applied EMDR therapy. To say I am excited about this book is a drastic understatement.

It was less than two years ago that I had the brainstorm that I should look into rekindling and deepening my relationship with Jamie, and to seek her counsel and ask for the opportunity to possibly join the faculty of her Institute for Creative Mindfulness as an EMDR Trainer. As luck would have it, she was thinking similar thoughts. This all coincided with my belief that if we trained all our clinicians at Refuge Recovery Centers in EMDR therapy, that we would provide the best possible care, by taking trauma informed one step further and becoming trauma focused. That very quickly grew into the MET(T)A Method, and here we are now. The MET(T)A Method is in full swing at Refuge Recovery Centers, some other centers are looking at what we are doing, we have become the subject of a USC research study, and now our book EMDR Therapy and Mindfulness for Trauma Focused Care brings our thinking and methods out to the general clinical public.

I will continue to reflect upon this book and the journey it creates on my blog here, as well as on podcasts, at live events and any other opportunities I have to connect... May all be beings be at ease...