EMDR-Meditation Group

for Kindred Counselling Clients Only

This is an EXCITING one-of-a-kind EMDR-Meditation Therapy Group for Kindred Counselling clients only who are actively managing "ongoing traumatic distress". A specialized group protocol for EMDR treatment will be paired with a mediation process. The group will be held in a nice studio space located in the same building your individual sessions are. This group is so exciting because no other EMDR therapists are facilitating EMDR groups in greater Vancouver.

​

Value of the Group

• Decrease ongoing traumatic distress

• Increase day-to-day functioning

• Learn and practice effective coping skills

• May be covered by insurance as facilitators are RCC/RSW

• Affordable psychotherapy

• Great supplemental treatment to boost your individual therapeutic progress

• Research shows clinically significant positive results from other groups using the EMDR Group Treatment Protocol for Ongoing Traumatic Distress

• Belong to a community of people who are on a similar journey

• Gain a sense of empowerment

• Small group size

• Guided by expert psychotherapists in a safe environment

• Learn to regulate your nervous system when you think about stressful events

• Chip away at negative thoughts and emotions connected to ongoing stressors

• Build self-confidence

About the Group

One of the great parts about this group is that most participants will have had either Tara or Sarah as their individual therapist already. This will help with that sense of trust and safety needed to be more willing to try something new and feel ok transitioning into group work.

​

The reason we decided to keep the group closed to Kindred Counselling clients is because you've all been through the EMDR process. It is a unique therapy with its own structure, style and language. So we believe that you will transition a lot easier to the group format because the language and activities will be familiar.

Another thing that makes this group different is that this is not a typical talking support or process group. In this group people will be working on their own individual silent/internal process among a group of people while Sarah and Tara give directions and guide you through the process. It will have the "flowy" feel of a meditation/yoga class environment with a therapy component.

There is a term in EMDR called "blind to therapist" meaning you can do EMDR processing without the therapist-or other group members knowing your "target". And because you are used to the EMDR protocol you can follow along silently as Tara verbally cues the group to process their target while we integrate meditative practice into the process at the same time.

​

When we refer to traumatic ongoing distress we are talking about a very wide range of issues. But the issue itself doesn't matter so much for the group, its more the commonality of being in ongoing distress that is the focus.

Am I in Ongoing Traumatic Distress?

Remember, your reaction to traumatic experiences is based on your subjective assessment of the situation and the "meaning" you assign to it. Also factoring into this is your perception of your ability to cope. This will determine the intensity of your reaction and how it negatively impacts different areas of your life.

Even if you've never though of yourself as being in a traumatic environment, or that you are being affected by negative experiences that happen everyday, I don't think it would be a stretch to  imply that facing difficult experiences on an ongoing basis would take some kind of negative toll on you. Have you just gotten used to it? Has it just always been this way?

So the questions become, "is the stress manageable?" "Is it interfering in meeting my personal goals?" "Is the ongoing distress interfering with my therapeutic progess in individual therapy?"

You invest a lot of money into therapy but if your coming in to session in fight/flight/freeze/collapse mode it may impede your ability to reflect and focus on the deeper issues you sought EMDR for in the first place. 

​

Ongoing Traumatic Distress Examples

Are you experiencing something difficult that persists daily without a rest period? Examples of experiences leading to ongoing traumatic distress (This is not an exhaustive list):

• Experiencing workplace bullying, or a toxic work environment

• Experiencing racism

• Experiencing sexism

• Experiencing/witnessing domestic violence

• Living in constant physical pain

• Exposed to any form of abuse or neglect on a regular basis

• Experiencing homo-phobia

• Experiencing any kind of ongoing personal discrimination

• Living with the persistent symptoms of a clinical mental disorder

• Living with a serious medical diagnosis

• Being in a caregiving role that is very difficult

• Experiencing a high conflict divorce

• Pressures of daily living that add up

• Living in a conflictual, or dysfunctional environment

• Coping with consistent loss or complicated grief

• In a line of work where witnessing/experiencing traumatic or disturbing things are a constant, or likely to occur

• Experiencing PTSD flashbacks

• Recent exposure to a natural or manmade disaster

​

​