Scaling EMDR for humanitarian settings: Rolf Carriere's Vision for Global Mental Health

In this episode, Rolf Carriere shares his journey as a development economist who spent decades leading large-scale health and nutrition programs with UNICEF; to his remarkable discovery of EMDR, as he searched for scalable trauma interventions. We explore how he applied the lessons he learned in the Child Survival Revolution, to ways EMDR could help address the needs of the estimated 500 million people affected by trauma. In this insightful and thought provoking conversation, Rolf shares his vision for how task shifting and simplified trauma care can help address the global mental health crisis, especially in resource-limited settings.

Rolf Carriere has led a distinguished career.

He studied philosophy in the 1960s and has had a lifelong interest in spirituality. From 1971 till 2005, he worked in the UN system, mostly with UNICEF and the World Bank, in health and nutrition programs, including more than 10 years in India. Rolf's main interest has been in the design and the scaling up of programs in malnutrition control, selective primary health care, maternal mortality, elimination of child labour, trauma recovery and educational reform.

In the mid 1970s, Rolf co-founded the International Council on the Control of Iodine Deficiency Disorders to eliminate goiter and cretinism worldwide.

Following his last UNICEF positions as country director in Bhutan, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Indonesia, he established the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition in Geneva and served as its first executive director.

Now in retirement, since 2005, he's been advising on a pro bono basis, civil society organisations like Nonviolent Peace Force and EMDR's humanitarian assistance program, now Trauma Aid.

And in 2017 he founded the Global Initiative for Stress and Trauma Treatment (GIST-T) to promote the scaling up of simplified trauma treatment, carried out by trained and supervised paraprofessional workers in what he describes as 'task shifting'

Resources

Dr Jenny Dwyer provides training in scalable EMDR group and early intervention protocols. For further information and future training dates visit EMDR Academy Australia - https://emdracademy.com.au

For more information about Global Initiative for Stress and Trauma Treatment (GIST-T) - https://gist-t.org

If you have EMDR programs and projects that you think are of interest to our community, inside and outside of EMDR, contact Jenny Dwyer through EMDR Academy https://emdracademy.com.au/contact-us/

Sponsors

Understanding EMDR is proudly sponsored by EMDR Academy Australia.

EMDR Academy partners with like-minded individuals and organisations to provide innovative programs, high quality training, and support for new and experienced EMDR therapists.