One of the successful actions of our EMDR Special Interest Group (SIG) has been electing two people for each position—both for the current term and the “elect” role—as suggested by the SIG policy. For example, the Secretary-Elect will shadow the current Secretary, learning all the required tasks, thus resulting in being prepared when their term begins. We have a Chair and Co-Chair with overlapping terms; as the Chair finishes their 2-year term, the Co-Chair is entering their second year. As Abigail Percifield completed her successful term in December 2025, Elizabeth Davis began her second year as Chair and Peggy Kolodny began her first year as Co-Chair. Coral Compagnoni ended her term as Moderator and was elected to be the Secretary with Jen Marchand as Secretary-Elect. Chloe Rovitz began as Moderator with Holly Forman-Patelas Moderator-Elect. This system allows for smooth transitions and continuously filled positions. With 15 new members so far this year, we currently have 126 active members!
Our general membership meets monthly, with bimonthly meetings for our executive committee in between. Leadership plans the membership meetings early in the year to offer a cohesive structure and encourage interest and attendance. We ask members to suggest topics for discussion in our meetings and follow-up with guest speakers, panel discussions, and at least one “watch” party viewing a video from ISSTD’s library. In 2024, we had a theme of attachment informing our meetings, leading to a watch party fora Wendy Lemke video, followed by a panel of EMDR SIG members discussing assessments for attachment and treatment with EMDR.
This year our membership meeting was held in person in March at the Boston ISSTD conference, with 20 people in attendance. We discussed bilateral drawing highlighted by Peggy and Elizabeth leading a bilateral drawing experiential for members to try! In asking for suggested topics for 2025 meetings, integrative approaches to EMDR as the theme led the way. Additionally, Elizabeth and Peggy facilitated a workshop at the conference on Integration of Expressive Arts and EMDR principles.
In our May membership meeting, we were fortunate to hear EMDR SIG member, Jen Marchand, discuss Ecotherapy-informed EMDR, her area of specialty and the topic of her outstanding recent book. Jen brought an understanding of ecotherapy integrated with EMDR that uses a culturally responsive lens, providing us with resources and basic skills to use in our own practices. Jen, a Canadian therapist currently living in Ethiopia, is an example of the globally diverse make-up of our membership. Our members range from clinicians just beginning EMDR trainings to experienced EMDR trainers and consultants. These shared experiences offer diverse learning opportunities for the SIG.
We are, indeed, an accomplished group with many certified EMDR trainers and consultants, workshop facilitators, academic faculty, and published authors. Chloe Rovitz helped organize a local conference in her home state focused on EMDR and trauma! Elizabeth Davis and Jen Marchand are two of the authors of EMDR and Creative Arts Therapies (2023), with Peggy Kolodny contributing a chapter on IFS and EMDR. Elizabeth wrote a chapter on developmental trauma and art therapy for The Handbook on Complex Trauma and Dissociation in Children (Gomez & Hosey, 2025). Davis will be joining Kolodny in teaching a summer course on The Neuroscience of Trauma and Stress, with a focus on dissociation, for the Art Therapy Graduate Program at Florida State University. Based on this course, Peggy was invited to write a chapter on Art Therapy and Dissociation for The Wiley Book of Art Therapy (in press). Holly Forman-Patel created her workbook Anger Management Activities for Kids (2020). We look forward to hearing more from our membership regarding their accomplishments!
These accomplishments enhance the EMDR SIG and ISSTD as we encourage members to share skills and resources with both ISSTD members and the global community. We remind them that they are ISSTD ambassadors, offering information on the benefits of ISSTD membership!
Our upcoming watch party on July 21 will be a 90-minute meeting with invited speaker Dorinna Ruh, 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM US Eastern Time, lecturing on “Creative Resourcing Techniques based on AIP Theory.” Send in your membership request before then so you can attend! SIG members that attend the EMDRIA conference in California September 12-14 are planning to meet for lunch and will offer to volunteer at the ISSTD table. At least 4 of our SIG members will be presenting, including Jen Marchand, Holly Forman-Patel, Deborah Korn, and Kathia Lopez Murdock. Let us know if you will be there too! Our meeting on September 24 from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM US Eastern Time will focus on a recap of EMDRIA conference from those that attended. Our final membership meeting in November 21 at 5:00 PM- 6:00 PM US Eastern Time will host Sarah Jenkins presenting on Equine Therapy with EMDR.
Our goals this year include using our SIG forum online to engage membership involvement in our SIG and in ISSTD by encouraging introductions, questions, resources, and topic discussions in building these connections. To that end, each member of our SIG executive board has volunteered to take monthly turns introducing themselves, sharing relevant information, asking questions for discussion and inviting members to post. We are currently discussing developing a small project for ISSTD. Other goals are based on the foundational reasons for this group, to learn more on how EMDR can effectively serve the complex trauma population, especially those with dissociative identities and to enhance ISSTD’s resources to benefit clinicians in the wider community.