Session Description
In this talk, Dr. Ross will discuss the relationships between attachment conflicts, dissociation and EMDR Therapy. A core principle from his Trauma Model Therapy (TMT) is the problem of attachment to the perpetrator – this will be explained and then linked to dissociation and EMDR Therapy. Four meanings of the word ‘dissociation’ will be reviewed to clarify the discussion. Within TMT a basic function of dissociation is to protect a child’s attachment systems and solve the problem of attachment to the perpetrator. The child also develops a conflicted, ambivalent and dissociated relationship with him or herself. These dissociated elements of self can be targets within EMDR Therapy, which is fundamentally based on a trauma-dissociation model, as Dr. Ross will propose. The goal of EMDR Therapy is to integrate these dissociated elements with the Adaptive Information Processing Model.

Learning Objectives
1. Describe the problem of attachment to the perpetrator.
2. Describe how dissociation solves the problem of attachment to the perpetrator.
3. Describe how a conflicted relationship with adult caretakers is repeated in a trauma survivor’s relationship with him or herself.
4. Describe how EMDR Therapy is fundamentally a trauma-dissociation model.