EMDR for Grief and Loss

Dr Elena Alexandrou is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist and EMDR Consultant/Clinical Supervisor currently serving as Complex Trauma Lead at East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT) and also in private practice. She has extensive experience in trauma-focused practice across NHS, community, and independent settings, including leading an NHS staff wellbeing service and providing direct clinical support to bereaved staff during the Covid-19 pandemic — work that brought her into close contact with grief in its most acute forms.

Her clinical work spans complicated and prolonged grief, sudden and traumatic bereavement, and ambiguous loss. She has worked extensively with individuals affected by forced migration, where grief is frequently cumulative, disenfranchised, and compounded by ongoing adversity. She has also worked with communities impacted by the Grenfell Tower disaster, delivering trauma-informed intervention in the context of collective and catastrophically disruptive loss.

The day will cover working within Shapiro's eight-phase model, alongside the contributions of Rando and Solomon on mourning and trauma-grief intersections, and Weller’s work on the cultural and collective dimensions of grief. Together these frameworks inform a clinically grounded and humane approach to EMDR with bereaved clients — attending to formulation, target sequencing, and the careful pacing that grief work demands. Participants will leave with practical ideas and a deepened clinical understanding applicable across a broad range of loss presentations.

This workshop awards 6 CPD points. Lunch is provided on the day.