EMDR For Kids

EMDR Resourcing with art & making animals with air dry clay! 🦁

This is one of our favorite ways to help kids resource an inner strength such as feeling confident , calm , patience or brave . 💜

Step 1: Have the child identify a quality or characteristic they would like to have more of for a current problem they have! " I want to feel braver!" (when I go to the doctors) or "I want to stay calm" (when a classmate is mean to me). ☺️

Step 2: Have them come up with an animal or creature that represents that quality for them and have them create it with clay or play-doh! ( In this example the child picked a lion to represent being brave being away from mom despite her separation anxiety) 🫟

Step 3: Have the child select a memory of a time they were brave! Have them noticed what they see, the positive thoughts , how they feel & any good body feelings that go along with the selected memory. 💭

Step 4: Add a few slow sets of BLS to help child integrate the resource & use the animal or creature they created if possible! The child may choose to follow the animal they created with their eyes or even tap the animal gently for their back & forth movement ! 👀

‼️Please note that this intervention should only be offered by therapist fully trained in EMDR! ‼️

If you are not yet trained in EMDR though, you can still do all of the following steps 1-3 & omit step 4 of adding the bilateral stimulation! 🥰