Discover a transformative approach to therapy with our comprehensive combo video pack, Holistic Healing: Integrating Buddhist Mindfulness and EMDR for Managing Pain and Illness. This unique training bundle is designed for psychotherapists and psychologists seeking to deepen their understanding of the intricate relationship between emotional, physical pain, and chronic illness. Combining the wisdom of Buddhist mindfulness practices with the cutting-edge techniques of EMDR and somatic psychology, this program addresses the core therapeutic challenges of helping clients navigate pain and trauma. You will learn to guide your clients in transforming their relationship with pain, fostering resilience, and achieving a greater sense of peace and well-being. Through these integrated methodologies, you will gain practical tools to support your clients in breaking free from the cycle of suffering and reclaiming control over their lives.

Highlights:

• Mindfulness-Based Somatic Approaches: Utilize the body’s resources to manage emotional intensity and increase resilience.
• Biopsychosocial Model: Address both psychological and biological factors contributing to chronic pain and illness.
• EMDR Integration: Enhance client embodiment and process traumatic memories to alleviate somatic symptoms.
• Buddhist Principles: Apply mindfulness and acceptance to transform emotional and physical suffering.

By combining these powerful approaches, you will be equipped to offer your clients a robust and holistic framework for managing pain and achieving lasting healing.

This video resource pack contains two complete workshops (CPD hours: 6 / CE credits: N/A) that cover:

Part 1: Suffering is Optional: Using Buddhist Approaches to Help Clients in Physical and Emotional Pain (Dr Janina Fisher), CPD hours: 3 / CE credits: N/A

How we deal with emotional and physical pain is complicated by living in a society that values stoicism and getting on with it.  In any culture that encourages stoicism rather than emotional expression, we learn to underplay the enormity of our losses. And because grief is such a painful emotion, the universal instinct of all humans to avoid this emotional and physical suffering, yet finding release from it represents a constant challenge for the therapist.

Opening the doors to the world of mindfulness, however, we begin to understand that while suffering is a normal part of life, how much we suffer can be optional. In Buddhist philosophy for example, the belief that suffering is optional encapsulates a profound shift of perspective on the human experience. Rooted in the Four Noble Truths, this concept suggests that while pain and challenge are inherent aspects of life, our actions and reactions to these difficulties determine the extent of our suffering. The thoughts we attach to our emotions can intensify the pain or can bring relief. Just as whether we relax or tense the body in response to pain can also intensify or decrease physical suffering. By cultivating mindfulness and transforming our relationship to physical and emotional pain, we can all find the strength to process the painful emotions yet suffer less.

Essentially, this perspective encourages a shift in mindset from resisting pain as too aversive to a more accepting approach to life’s inevitable ups and downs. Using these tools, we can help our clients can break free from the cycle of suffering and find a greater sense of peace despite all that they have been through. The aim of this seminar, by internationally acclaimed trauma specialist Dr Janina Fisher, is to demonstrate how, drawing on Buddhist thinking, painful emotions can be witnessed and accepted to transform us rather than derail our lives with unbearable sadness and grief.

At this therapeutically oriented seminar, which will be relevant for psychotherapists and psychologists across modalities, we will take a mindfulness-based somatic approach to emotional and physical pain that:

• Takes advantage of the body’s resources to achieve optimal levels of emotional intensity, not too much or too little
• Increases resilience and increases our ability to tolerate emotion
• Understands pain as a whole-body experience  
• Helps us ride the rollercoaster of emotions from numb to excruciatingly painful so that we emerge on the other side

This mindfulness-based approach seamlessly integrates Buddhist principles, providing a comprehensive framework for addressing emotional and physical pain. By drawing from the wisdom of Buddhist philosophy, it emphasizes the interconnectedness of mind and body, promoting a holistic understanding of the human experience. This approach incorporates:

• Embodied Awareness: help clients to observe bodily sensations and cultivate present-moment awareness
• Breathwork: using breath as a focal point to anchor attention and promoting relaxation
• Body Scan Techniques: guiding our clients through exploration of bodily sensations, fostering a recognition of the ever-changing nature of experience
• Somatic Interventions: helping our clients explore and process physical sensations associated with trauma, capitalizing on the resources of the body 

By bridging mindfulness-based somatic approaches with Buddhist teachings, attendees can offer clients a robust set of tools to navigate and transform emotional and physical pain, fostering a more integrated and resilient approach to well-being.

Learning Objectives: 

• Describe the most common causes of emotional and physical pain and define the phrase suffering is optional
• Summarize the practice of mindful observation without attachment or aversion
• Identify at least two interventions for regulating the intensity of emotional and physical pain

Part 2: Pain, Parts, Illness and Identity: EMDR Therapy and Somatic Psychology for Chronic Pain and Illness (Dr Arielle Schwartz), CPD hours: 3 /CE credits: N/A

It is commonly accepted that emotional stress can contribute to physical discomforts including headaches, stomach-aches and frequent colds. As therapists, we also recognise that the relationship between stress and illness is amplified for clients who have a history of trauma – unresolved traumatic memories can even lead to somatic symptom disorders, while unresolved PTSD can manifest itself as bodily inflammation and autonomic nervous system imbalances.

At this engaging and informative video course with Dr Arielle Schwartz, we look at a biopsychosocial model of care which takes into account objective physical and biological factors of pain and illness as well as factors that are psychological or psychogenic in origin. The aim of considering such an approach is to assist clients in increasing their sense of control, self-efficacy and self-regulation with regards to the intensity and duration of distressing physical symptoms.

We recognise that therapy for somatic disorders and illness can be challenging, especially when the etymology lies in complex, developmental trauma. Which is why the course specifically explains how we can assess for dissociation, lack of affect tolerance, or secondary gains that may block successful resolution of traumatic events.

In addition, we will be introduced to the integration of EMDR Therapy and somatic psychology to enhance our client’s embodiment for the treatment of chronic pain and illness. Through the lenses of the EMDR-8 phase model, somatic psychology and structural integration theory, we will consider:

• Therapeutic tools to address client experiences relating to medical mismanagement, invasive medical procedures or the lack of control that arises when the perpetrator is the client’s own body
• The cognitive, emotional and physiological impact of stress, Trauma and PTSD
• A biopsychosocial approach that helps you partner with clients to address psychological components of pain and illness
• How to assess for dissociation and identify client’s parts or ego states as related to pain and illness
• Resource development skills to help clients develop greater control over pain and illness symptoms
• The six stages of trauma responses within the neurobiology of PTSD as it relates to therapy
• Examples of top-down and bottom-up interventions in trauma therapy
• Containment of somatic distress and the development of Affect Tolerance
• Sequencing and somatic re-patterning

Learning Objectives:

• Apply the therapeutic tools to address client experiences relating to medical mismanagement, invasive medical procedures or the lack of control that arises when the perpetrator is the client’s own body
• Explain how to assess for dissociation and identify client’s parts or ego states as related to pain and illness