Abstract: Many of the symptoms experienced by traumatised individuals are not sufficiently captured by the existing ICD-11/DSM 5 criterion for PTSD, particularly when those symptoms include feelings of shame/ guilt, loneliness, social isolation, fear of recrimination, and moral injury. Addressing these specific elements, particularly regarding moral injury/ is increasingly important.
Moral injury is the psychological distress resulting from events that transgress an individual's moral or ethical beliefs. Compassion Focused Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an emerging treatment approach for individuals experiencing moral injury. The approach integrates EMDR with compassion-focused techniques to target the shame, guilt, and self-criticism often associated with moral injury/ trauma.
This presentation explores the core components of moral injury/ trauma using individual narratives, country case studies – including Northern Ireland, the Middle East, and political disasters such as Hillsborough & Grenfell as critical narratives. It will explore the distinction between individual and political responses to trauma through the lens of Adaptive Information Processing (AIP).
Specific skills within Compassion-Focussed EMDR therapy (CF-EMDR) will include CF EMDR-informed case conceptualisation, psychoeducational frameworks, trauma regulation, strategies, compassion-focussed interweaves and addressing vicarious traumatisation and self-care.
The workshop will also explore how these skills can be applied for EMDR therapists working with complex, vulnerable populations and peer-support workers - working with first responders.
Learning Outcomes:
1. Participants will consider the core components of Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) and how this applies to more vulnerable and complex
Populations with a specific focus on moral injury
2. Participants will explore various theoretical frameworks to explicate the trauma landscape of the client’s lived experience through both a moral and compassion-focussed lens
3. Theoretical, empirical, and clinical case examples will be utilised to underpin knowledge, understanding and application
Speaker Biography:
Prof Derek Farrell MBE is a Professor in Trauma Psychology and Veteran Studies at Northumbria University, Newcastle and Queen's University Belfast. Derek is President of Trauma Aid Europe and the Trauma Response Network Ireland. He is also Co-Editor of the Journal of EMDR Practice & Research. He has been involved in several Humanitarian Trauma capacity-building programmes, including Pakistan, Turkey, India, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Lebanon, Poland, Philippines, Palestine, and Iraq. Derek has authored over 50 academic peer-reviewed publications and several book chapters and is the Co-Editor of the Oxford Handbook of EMDR.