ABSTRACT
Traumatic memories remain fragmented, stored as intrusive sensory, affective and visual pieces, able to be triggered to overwhelm the child repeatedly, without being fully understood and built on. The goal of phase two work is to integrate these memories into a coherent narrative; they become just another aspect of the child's experiences. Trauma-focused therapies stress that addressing, processing and integrating traumatic memory is important in treatment. The phase two interventions in this model are designed to rely when possible on the support of the adult caregivers while exploring traumatic experience within the child or adolescent's window of tolerance, using multiple neurological processes. Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a strongly supported, effective method for processing and integrating traumatic memory. During and after EMDR author encourage attachment-focused exchanges such as soothing, eye contact, mirroring, experimental empathy and affective-reflective exchanges.
