Training

I am hoping to have a distance-training program available soon. Imaginal Nurturing, Ego States, and Attachment: An Integrated Approach to Early Deficits will be similar to the Developing a Secure Self training for EMDR therapists given in Vancouver BC on September 26-27, 2009 and in Toronto ON on October 16-17, 2009. I am am not at this time planning any more in-person workshops. Below is some information about the approach that will be presented in the distance-training program.

Differences from 2002-2007 Trainings

Since my early trainings, both the approach and my teaching of it have changed, becoming more fully developed and fine-tuned. Imaginal Nurturing began in 2000 as an intervention, but over time has evolved into an ego state approach that is integrated into the whole of therapy from the conceptualization of the client and the therapeutic relationship to the therapy itself.

In my earlier trainings, I offered sample guided imagery scripts to facilitate the participant' s transition into working in this way. What I have found is that many therapists stayed with the scripts and used them simply as an intervention rather than as a stepping stone to relating directly and responsively to the younger ego states of the client. There is now more emphasis on the therapeutic relationship and on DSS as an over-all ego state approach that differs from other such methods which are trauma and/or pathology based. I have made changes in the training to better facilitate the incorporation of DSS into the practice of participants.

There are new videotapes of clinical work demonstrating both the therapeutic relationship as one of attachment and of incorporating Imaginal Nurturing into EMDR therapy.

The 'Developing a Secure Self' Approach

Drawing on attachment and ego state theories and research as well as EMDR, this approach makes use of both the therapeutic relationship and guided imagery involving younger aspects of self to address insecure attachment in adults. As an infant and/or child, the client may have missed out on the attuned and loving presence and responsiveness needed for healthy development. This deficit may lead to problems in adulthood such as low self-esteem and confidence, shame, anxiety, depression, and if there is also a history of abuse, complex PTSD and dissociative disorders. Such clients may suffer from impaired emotional skills, addictions, and eating disorders.

The goals of this approach include helping the client to develop a new relationship with self in the present and strengthening the self-structure and emotional skills. It is applicable to almost all adult clients. It can be used with teens, but is not intended for work with children without significant adaptation.

The Therapeutic Relationship

The therapeutic relationship is conceived as triadic and calls upon the therapist to develop a connection with the young ego states as well as the adult client. Viewing the relationship between therapist and client from the perspective of attachment allows the therapist to address attachment issues at an implicit, as well as an explicit, level. Moreover, the recognition of the child de-intensifies the relationship between the client and therapist resulting in a minimization of dependency issues. This understanding gives us a deeper awareness of the dynamics in the therapeutic relationship and promotes an optimal response to the individual client's needs through each phase of therapy. This perspective also invites us to look at our own attachment pattern recognizing that it too will impact the therapeutic relationship.

Imaginal Nurturing and Emotional Skills

Whereas EMDR trauma work moves disturbing memories into the past, Imaginal Nurturing compensates for early deficits by providing new experiences in the present. The processes, which include guided imagery with bilateral stimulation, incorporate the imagistic, cognitive, emotional, and somatic, with a special emphasis on the felt body sense of connectedness, nurturance and encouragement. They facilitate the development of a secure base within. Because we are working to foster a new relationship with self, the connection between adult and child continues to be developed between sessions through honouring activities and "check-ins." Imaginal Nurturing also grounds the young ego states in the present which creates enhanced safety during EMDR desensitization resulting in gentler and faster processing and less need for cognitive interweaves. This present-focused work can be both powerful and empowering, and can elicit in the client compassion for self and new affect skills.

A client response * to this approach

"Last session felt like another breakthrough. I feel more able to enjoy things, not so cut off. I have noticed this especially on my walks. We are close to the beach and to a beautiful provincial park with ancient trees and a salmon-bearing stream. It has always been an effort to get myself to walk - sort of medicinal - and the beauty of things has an odd effect on me - it has made me uncomfortable because I feel unable to grasp it or be in it - then I feel guilty for not being there - then I feel sad, or unworthy - so being in natural beauty has been sad and difficult. I actually wasn't really able to articulate this until it changed. After our last session I took the dog and went for a walk along the stream. I was like a little girl - everything was so marvelous! the moss! the sound of the water! the tiny leaves! the tree roots! I felt good! I was there, enjoying it! It was like finally being able to visit a place I had only seen in pictures. I have been walking EVERY DAY since then, even if I have to wear John's gore-tex. Every day has been the same! When I was little in ...., I spent hours every day outside in all weather, and it was joyful and comforting and exciting, and the only place I felt really safe. It's like that part of me, the little adventurer, is back, whole, with all the good stuff. WOW." ~ email from a client

*(Shared with permission)

Some therapist responses* to Developing a Secure Self

Dr. Hilary Searles wrote:

An amazing workshop in every respect! April's work, to me, represents a very skilled approach to ego state therapy.... As a clinician/psychologist practising for almost 20 years, I can count on one hand the workshops that have changed my practice. April's is now one of them.

Here is feedback from another participant:

This has been a fabulous weekend, so enriching, nourishing for me personally and professionally. I really 'get' that Imaginal Nurturing fills in the gap that gets created when the disturbance gets neutralized - and something needs to be put in its place.

"I enjoyed your workshop and have recommended it to many people. The materials and the concepts were fabulous. You seem like a master clinician as well.... Thanks again for the great workshop. (Just to put this in perspective, I have never written a thank you after a workshop and I have been doing them for 30 years." ~ Carol Lindquist, PhD

"I was in your Imaginal Nurturing workshop here in San Diego two weeks ago and I wanted to let you know that I tried I-N for the first time yesterday with fantastic results! ..... The exercise was unbelievable for her...lots of tears and a wonderful visual image when she took the child into her heart. At the end of the session, she was glowing and said over and over 'that was wonderful.' Wow! So, thank you so much...the training was wonderful and I look forward to using this often." ~ Judy Ervice, MA, MFT

"I'm using what I learned in Toronto a lot, and it's been a breath of fresh air for me, not only in direct Imaginal Nurturing applications, but in other interventions that I'm finding much informed by the attachment material and the nurturing/exploring perspective." ~ Peter Taylor, PhD. CGP

"You have made an incredible contribution to our field. Thank you!" ~ Sherri Gonzales, MA MFT

"I have found opportunities with almost every client to bring in the adjunctive nurturing, and the results have been profound for both myself (as a witness) and my clients. They are so excited to be in the nurturing role, and feel it so deeply - it is very different than any other parts work I have tried. Best of all, they report a continued felt sense of the child they have brought forward to the present, a tenderness and joy that is an honor to behold.... A client found it to be 'the most incredibly moving experience of my life - I have never, ever gone so deep emotionally' ". ~ Maggie Vlazny, MSW, LCSW

"I use your I-N all the time. One of the most helpful/useful workshops I've taken" ~ Sheryl E. Kool, MA/ABS, LMHC

"Imaginal nurturing is intentionally focused on the experience of attachment, whereas the other sorts of affect relief imageries we use seem more about detachment. In essence, it is the difference between getting a big hug after a scary experience versus acknowledging safety but finding yourself by yourself.... For many who have not had a healthy attachment experience to draw upon, the ability to connect to self and the truth and goodness of self is not available. For those folks, getting the distance from the [trauma] experience, which has often defined them, leaves an emptiness and an aloneness that can be profound. I-N addresses this aloneness better than any tool I have used so far. For many this is about experiencing the affect of love which is an experience many have no context for." ~ Ava Schlesinger, MSW, LCSW

*(Shared with permission)