When the Coronavirus crisis became a reality for all of us, initial despair and fear took over. Clients of all ages were reporting increased anxiety and stress. Uncertainty was rampant among all of us. I remembered the story of the Tabonuco trees that had survived for many years in very rough terrains and strong hurricanes, in addition to structural instability. These trees survived through collaboration as they hold and share each other’s root systems to exchange nutrients and provide support to sustain the strong winds of the strong storms they must endure.
This is where the idea of creating a global alliance evolved. Immediately, I started to contact child and adolescent EMDR trainers and experts around the world. When I mentioned the idea of organizing a global group that could help our children and youth, it was received with incredible passion and excitement. We all met for the first time on March 15, 2020, since then, this group has worked diligently and tirelessly to create webinars at no cost for EMDR clinicians along with story books, songs, guidelines and resources for emotional regulation and much more for children, adolescents, parents and EMDR clinicians have been created in a short period of time. We have followed the teaching of the Tabonuco trees and are holding each other as we get through this difficult time.
We have several task forces: Children, adolescents, parents/caregivers, EMDR clinicians and social media. Each task force has been responsible for developing resources for that specific group as well as supporting each other’s efforts. Resources that have been developed have been quickly translated into multiple languages. Multiple translators around the world have supported our efforts. Many of them are our own Global Alliance members. The Spanish/Portuguese speaking countries formed a branch of the Global Alliance (Alianza Global EMDR Infanto-Juvenil) that has been creating books, stories, free webinars, forums as well as translating material into Spanish and Portuguese. Turkey, led by Derya Altinay, has also created its own branch of the Global Alliance with a number of actively working members that have created numerous resources. This group is showing the power that we have when we work together and in collaboration. This pandemic has brought pain and grief, but has also brought out the best in all of us— This group is a testimonial to this! I want to give special thanks to Susan Darker-Smith (UK), Daniela Lempertz (Germany), Linda McGuire (Ireland) and Derya Altinay (Turkey) for always taking the extra mile and working vigorously to support our group.
Ana M Gomez