The fourth EMDR Asia conference commenced in Thailand from 4-10 January 2020. Indian team participated in big numbers for paper presentations, posters, and workshops, active engagements for all social, official and organizational activities. Major contribution of Indian team was for organizing Trainers and Consultants training and attending board meetings.
Papers presented:
- Mr. Chintan Naik: Topic, “Using EMDR with Indian Males with Personality Disorders: An approach that focuses on attachments and early life experiences”.
- Dr. Usha Verma Srivastava: “Development and use of EMDR protocol to improve psychological well-being, optimism, forgiveness and altruism in college going students”
- Dr. Mrinalini Purandare: “EMDR Therapy in bringing Psychological Well Being to Survivors of Natural Disaster”
- Ms. Nithya H Mohan: “Effectiveness of EMDR on children with school phobia from developing country”
- Ms. Adithy: “EMDR for the treatment of Dissociative Disorders”
- Dr. Sandheeh PT: “Efficacy of EMDR Among College Students with Internet Addiction”
- Dr. Sany Varghese, Ms. Gincy Mathew, and Sr. Mary Mathew: “Reaching the unreached: An outreach to tribal settlements”
- Ms. Sonali Tanksale: “Processing grief of untimely loss of loved one verses due to prolonged illness with EMDR therapy”
Keynote address and chair of sessions:
Dr Sushma Mehrotra: “Milestones and sharing the experience of growth of EMDR in Asia”, Keynote address
Dr. Mrinalini Purandare and Dr. Sushma Mehrotra were invited to chair some of the sessions of workshops, keynote and paper presentations.
Board Meeting and official positions:
EMDR Asia Board meeting was held on 6th January 2020, Dr. Mrinalini represented the EMDR Association as President of EMDR Association, India, Dr. Parul Tank also participated as a board member. Dr. Dushyant Bhadlikar was concurrently conducting a day-long workshop for the Asian Trainers, thus was unable to attend. Dr. Sushma was also invited as a founder EMDR Asia President and Chair of Training, Standards, and Accreditation (TSA) committee.
Dr. Mrinalini presented the minutes of the last board meeting and also prepared the minutes of this board meeting. She was outgoing Secretary of the Organization of EMDR Asia. Dr. Mrinalini was also selected as the coordinator of Humanitarian Assistance Program of Asia, Dr. Parul Tank as Secretary of EMDR Asia and Mr. Chintan Naik as support for the website.Mr. Chintan Naik was invited as an Observer for the Board meeting.
Manual Orientation:
EMDR Institute Manual has been used for the EMDR Associations where initially the training was organized by Trauma Recovery/HAP or EMDR Institute. Nearly half of the EMDR Associations were provided training by European trainers, using the training material developed and revised periodically, thus comprising the standardized/uniform training curriculum. With the help of Trauma recovery/HAP, EMDR Asia trainers who have not been familiar with the EMDR Institute manual were provided a day long orientation by Dr. Dushyant Bhadlikar along with Dr Rosalie Thomas.
This orientation program was well attended not only by those who were new to the manual but also who have been using the earlier manual prior to 2017 revision.
Training of trainers and ongoing support for organizing training:
EMDR Association trainers and consultants have been taking lead roles for organizing trainings and supervision in some countries in Asia (Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan, Uganda, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Indonesia, China and Philippine). In order to accelerate and encourage the local EMDR practitioners to become trainers is the necessity for EMDR Asia. EMDR Institute and Trauma Recovery/HAP from USA, Trauma Aid from Europe together with Asian trainers developed the EMDR Asia Standards for Training. Dr. Sushma along with Dr. Dushyant Bhadlikar and Dr. Parul Tank is leading the task of trainers training from India besides other trainers from USA, Israel, Japan, S.Korea, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Pakistan and Thailand. During this training both EMDR Therapy Part 1 and Part 2 orientation for 2 full days was organized. In this multi-country team work, training and standards were developed with the guidelines, curriculum development process, participant’s selection criteria, progression to become trainer and required duration.
After the orientation training in January 2020, the Training Standards and Accreditation team, in the leadership of Dr. Sushma Mehrotra as chair, has been meeting and until March 2021, 4 online trainings were organized to provide hands-on practice for the future trainers. There were 15 trainers in training for the Part 1 and 11 for the Part 2.
There has been ongoing supervision/consultation almost on a bimonthly basis for those having received both Part 1 and 2, 4 days training and need 10 hours of mandatory case discussion. From Indian team the members are:
- Dr. Mrinalini Purandare
- Ms. Nithya Mohan
- Dr. Deepak Gupta
- Dr. Usha Verma Srivastava
- Mr. Chintan Naik
- Dr. Parul Tank
- Dr. DUshyant Bhadlikar
- Dr. Sushma Mehrotra
Consultant training:
Dr Parul Tank and Dr Dushyant Bhadlikar did a 2 day training workshop for consultants and facilitators of all the Asian countries who were eligible to attend. It is the first organized event done on such a large scale all over the world to help in standardization and uniformity of training. It was well attended by approximately 23 participants. Other countries like Japan, Pakistan, Thailand and South Korea also helped and gave their inputs. Topics like how to do online supervision, role of facilitators, time keeping, role plays, making case presentations and how to identify mistakes were some of the topics covered. There was theory in the morning with practicum work for all the participants in the afternoon
