How Narrative Can Unlock Pre-Verbal Trauma and Attachment Issues in Children and Adolescents? - Part I
Tracks
Studio N
| Saturday, June 6, 2026 |
| 14:00 - 15:30 |
| Studio N |
Overview
Savita Daslboe (C&A) & Pål Vegard Hagen (Norway)
Speaker
Savita Dalsbø
Emdr Norway
How narrative can unlock pre-verbal trauma and attachment issues in children and adolescents? - Part I
14:00 - 15:30Abstract
Authors
Savita Dalsboe1,
Pal Vegard Hagen MD2
1Falsens gate 1, 7052 Trondheim, Norway
2St. Olavsgate 61, 2317 Hamar, Norway
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprosessing (EMDR) Storytelling is a trauma focused treatment that is used by clinicians for infants and younger children with PTSD symptoms. By placing traumatic experiences in a narrative context, while simultaneously taxating the working memory by bilateral stimulation (BLS), the memories can be stored more adaptively and less emotionally charged. This 90 minute lecture will present clinical experience and cases in which EMDR storytelling and narrative techniques have been used as part of a therapeutic process with both younger (3-5 years old) and older children (12 years old) to address preverbal memories. The presentation will illustrate how attachment issues can surface within this kind of work and discuss suggestions on how to intervene to help toward more adaptive information processing. Videos of clinical material in which storytelling is used within a framework of EMDR will be presented. The aim of the presentation is to expand understanding of how EMDR storytelling can be used as an aid in unlocking trauma with children. Another goal is to suggest the possibilities of using EMDR storytelling also with older children with known preverbal trauma. In the clinical video of the 12 year old a suggestion on how to return to more standard EMDR protocol after having used storytelling as an intervention will also be presented.
Learning objectives are:
Broaden how EMDR storytelling can adapt to the AIP model. See clinical example in how stories can externalize traumatic material safely allowing reprocessing to occur. Broaden the understanding of how EMDR and storytelling can unlock and heal preverbal trauma. Broaden the understanding on how to intervene when working with children with attachment issues. Broaden the understanding of possible use of EMDR storytelling also with older children and preteens.
Key words:
Infants and preteens, EMDR storytelling, preverbal trauma, case example
Savita Dalsboe1,
Pal Vegard Hagen MD2
1Falsens gate 1, 7052 Trondheim, Norway
2St. Olavsgate 61, 2317 Hamar, Norway
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprosessing (EMDR) Storytelling is a trauma focused treatment that is used by clinicians for infants and younger children with PTSD symptoms. By placing traumatic experiences in a narrative context, while simultaneously taxating the working memory by bilateral stimulation (BLS), the memories can be stored more adaptively and less emotionally charged. This 90 minute lecture will present clinical experience and cases in which EMDR storytelling and narrative techniques have been used as part of a therapeutic process with both younger (3-5 years old) and older children (12 years old) to address preverbal memories. The presentation will illustrate how attachment issues can surface within this kind of work and discuss suggestions on how to intervene to help toward more adaptive information processing. Videos of clinical material in which storytelling is used within a framework of EMDR will be presented. The aim of the presentation is to expand understanding of how EMDR storytelling can be used as an aid in unlocking trauma with children. Another goal is to suggest the possibilities of using EMDR storytelling also with older children with known preverbal trauma. In the clinical video of the 12 year old a suggestion on how to return to more standard EMDR protocol after having used storytelling as an intervention will also be presented.
Learning objectives are:
Broaden how EMDR storytelling can adapt to the AIP model. See clinical example in how stories can externalize traumatic material safely allowing reprocessing to occur. Broaden the understanding of how EMDR and storytelling can unlock and heal preverbal trauma. Broaden the understanding on how to intervene when working with children with attachment issues. Broaden the understanding of possible use of EMDR storytelling also with older children and preteens.
Key words:
Infants and preteens, EMDR storytelling, preverbal trauma, case example
