EMDR with Children: 3 Attachment Interventions for Trauma, Regulation and Parent-Child Connection

In this episode of The Gritty Mental Health Therapist, we share three EMDR attachment interventions for child therapy. These practical exercises help therapists strengthen parent-child attachment, support nervous system regulation, and repair early trauma wounds.

Listen to this one if you’re a therapist who works with:

• Children with attachment trauma

• Foster or adoptive families

• Kids with separation anxiety

• Children who struggle with emotional regulation

• Clients with histories of neglect or abandonment

We walk you through three simple, but powerful exercises (well, we think they're powerful because we created them and have the research to prove it, more on that later!) that integrate bilateral stimulation, attachment repair, and co-regulation in therapy sessions with children and parents and what's cool is that these exercises can be found in the book EMDR and Family Therapy: Intergrative Attachment Trauma in Children By Debra Wesselmann, the 2nd Edition.  What's also cool is that along with Debra Wesselmann we are the co-founders and original co-authors of this protocol.

In this episode we cover:
• How to expand the Magical Cord of Love attachment exercise using EMDR bilateral stimulation
 • A powerful Safe Place for Baby / Nesting Dolls intervention to repair early attachment wounds
 • How to use the game, Jenga, as a regulation and attachment exercise to expand a child’s window of tolerance
 • Why object constancy and attachment security are often disrupted in children with trauma histories
 • How attachment-based EMDR interventions help children build emotional regulation and relational safety
 • Why therapists should consider including caregivers and parents in sessions to deepen attachment repair.

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