Francine Shapiro Award | KEYNOTE: The treatment of neglect at the core of depression (IT, ES, FR, PL, RU)
| Saturday, June 24, 2023 |
| 17:45 - 19:00 |
| AUDITORIUM 1 - Sala Europa |
Overview
Audio interpretation
Italian
French
Spanish
Polish
Russian
Speaker
Mr. Luca Ostacoli
Emdr Italy
The treatment of neglect at the core of depression
Abstract
THE TREATMENT OF NEGLECT AT THE CORE OF DEPRESSION
Luca Ostacoli
Childhood Neglect is associated with the emotion regulation strategies that are most
strongly related to depression, like rumination and repetitive negative thinking, social avoidance,
difficulties to feel emotions in the body and low persistence of positive experiences; the lack of selfcompassion mediates the vulnerability to shame in interpersonal relationships. In simple words,
reduced ability to feel alive and to love. The EMDR treatment may be challenging, we must apply an
integrated approach. We need to process a relatively small number of crucial episodes but at deeper
level, to reach the child’s pain, affecting the interpretation of self, others and of the world. We must
combine processing with nurturing, helping the person’s adult part to take care of the child one.
The key words are slowness, space, rhythm, tenderness, emphasis on receptivity and compassion.
The most delicate moment, at the top of the ascent towards childhood pain, is the emergence of
sadness, the feeling of loss and transformation. A hard law of life states that the basic needs of early
childhood, that have not been met, can no longer be recovered, because any attention the person
may receive as an adult can never compensate for them. Many of the acts of the “coercion to
repeat” arise from this unresolved grief, trying to “get back” what was lost. Paradoxically, we must
help the person to feel that sadness, very close to them, not hurry to go over it, supporting the
mourning process. The therapist’s inner setting is very important: a lot of work can be done inside,
especially in those precious moments without words during Bilateral Stimulation, when we are very
close to each other, physically and emotionally. We can open our receptivity to the patient’s virtual
image evoked inside us, containing sufferance and transforming it; we can sustain the patient’s
process with Loving Kindness silent intentions; we can be sensitive to the patient’s human positive
qualities, letting us be nurtured by them, with the Loving Presence approach. This connection with
the deprived child part is one of the deepest we can have in our therapist’slife; when transformation
takes place, session after session, we are enriched too; we feel grateful towards the patients and
our awareness of human value increases.
Luca Ostacoli
Childhood Neglect is associated with the emotion regulation strategies that are most
strongly related to depression, like rumination and repetitive negative thinking, social avoidance,
difficulties to feel emotions in the body and low persistence of positive experiences; the lack of selfcompassion mediates the vulnerability to shame in interpersonal relationships. In simple words,
reduced ability to feel alive and to love. The EMDR treatment may be challenging, we must apply an
integrated approach. We need to process a relatively small number of crucial episodes but at deeper
level, to reach the child’s pain, affecting the interpretation of self, others and of the world. We must
combine processing with nurturing, helping the person’s adult part to take care of the child one.
The key words are slowness, space, rhythm, tenderness, emphasis on receptivity and compassion.
The most delicate moment, at the top of the ascent towards childhood pain, is the emergence of
sadness, the feeling of loss and transformation. A hard law of life states that the basic needs of early
childhood, that have not been met, can no longer be recovered, because any attention the person
may receive as an adult can never compensate for them. Many of the acts of the “coercion to
repeat” arise from this unresolved grief, trying to “get back” what was lost. Paradoxically, we must
help the person to feel that sadness, very close to them, not hurry to go over it, supporting the
mourning process. The therapist’s inner setting is very important: a lot of work can be done inside,
especially in those precious moments without words during Bilateral Stimulation, when we are very
close to each other, physically and emotionally. We can open our receptivity to the patient’s virtual
image evoked inside us, containing sufferance and transforming it; we can sustain the patient’s
process with Loving Kindness silent intentions; we can be sensitive to the patient’s human positive
qualities, letting us be nurtured by them, with the Loving Presence approach. This connection with
the deprived child part is one of the deepest we can have in our therapist’slife; when transformation
takes place, session after session, we are enriched too; we feel grateful towards the patients and
our awareness of human value increases.
Video
https://vimeo.com/818325853
