Ann Beckley-Forest

LCSW, RPT-S

Annie Monaco

LCSW, RPT-S

Attachment Wounds and Dissociation: Sandtray and Playful EMDR on the Path to Healing

Love EMDR or maybe just curious about how it integrates with sandtray therapy? This session is for you! When you attend this workshop, you’ll learn how to use sandtray therapy in the preparation and processing phase within EMDR trauma work. You’ll walk away with a list of varied sandtray directives and prompts that will allow your clients to work within their own window of tolerance and trauma memory network. These prescriptive techniques will work with clients of ALL ages. When we use both sandtray therapy and EMDR, we help clients have self-compassion, even when they are unable to remember or experience reality. Not only will you gain knowledge when you attend this workshop, you’ll hear case studies of how sandtray therapy and EMDR can interweave to promote healing with all clients.

Objectives:

After this workshop, the participants will be able to:

1. Describe the application of EMDR’s Adaptive Information Processing Model to building internal resources through the creation of sandtray worlds.
2. Describe 2 examples of integrating sand tray with trauma processing and playful movement to promote dual attention in the processing of trauma material in and out of an EMDR session.
3. Recognize dissociated parts through a sandtray-based intervention
4. Explain the steps in a multimodal approach to healing attachment wounds including creativity, sand tray, family therapy and EMDR or other trauma protocols.

Ann Beckley-Forest, LCSW, RPT-S, is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in private practice in Buffalo, New York. Her specialties include attachment and child and adolescent trauma, and she also works with adult survivors. She is certified in EMDR and is an EMDR Approved Consultant and Trainer and a faculty member of the Child Trauma Institute, as well as a Registered Play Therapist and Supervisor and Approved Provider of play therapy continuing education through the Association for Play Therapy. She provides consultation in person and remotely and gives trainings locally and internationally. Her primary interest is in the intersection of play therapy and EMDR and has published on this topic including as co-editor of EMDR with Children in the Play Therapy Room: An Integrated Approach (2020) and the upcoming Oxford Handbook of EMDR.

Annie Monaco, LCSW, RPT-S, is a faculty member of the Child Trauma Institute & Trauma Institute and co-founder of Playful EMDR, an online hub for training and consultation in treating trauma-exposed children. Annie travels throughout the US and internationally providing a multitude of trauma-informed trainings and agency and therapist consultation. Annie is an EMDRIA approved trainer of EMDR, EMDR Consultant and trainer of Progressive Counting. Annie also provides specialty trainings on attachment, dissociation, and EMDR with children and teens. Annie was a Director of Restorative Justice programs at a non-profit agency where she oversaw juvenile and adult offender programs for over 10 years. Presently her private practice includes specialties in foster care, out of country adoptions, juvenile justice and dissociation. Annie is the co-editor and contributor of chapters for EMDR with Children in the Play Therapy Room, An Integrated Approach (2020).