Integrating EMDR Standard Treatment Protocol into Child Psychotherapy at a Primary School with a 5‐year‐old Boy Who Suffered Complex Trauma: A Single Case Study

Abstract

Schools are making an important contribution to providing access to professional counselling for young people and their families. The population of children who access school counselling includes young people who have experienced severe and complex trauma in their early life, which presents itself as post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is a recommended method of intervention for PTSD, with effective results in a short time. However, school counsellors are rarely specifically trained to work with complex trauma or PTSD. This article presents a case study exploring the integration of the EMDR eight‐phase protocol into child psychotherapy in an English primary school setting with a 5‐year‐old boy who suffered complex trauma. Following treatment, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) score and Generalized Anxiety Disorder Assessment (GAD‐7) score—filled in by the child's parent and schoolteacher because of the child's age—decreased to non‐clinical levels. The six‐month follow‐up assessment confirmed the improvement in the emotional well‐being of the client. The promising results suggest the value of having adequately qualified child psychotherapists linked to primary schools to support emotionally vulnerable pupils.