President’s Message

Greetings! Looking back at 2012, EMDR Singapore paced slowly but steadily with our Annual General Meeting/annual membership drive (new & renewals) in April, followed by Dr Roger Solomon’s 2-day Public Workshop on Grief & Mourning (Day 1) and Understanding Dissociation (Day 2), followed by 3 days of Master Class in June, and finally, the last “project” of 2012 — the handing over of website matters and ‘reins’ from Stuart Tan, the Association’s first (volunteer) Webmaster, to Dr Vanessa von Auer, our Vice-President and current (volunteer) Webmaster, who put in countless hours creating our new website from scratch, to be launched at the AGM,  www.emdr.sg , and who continues to do so in developing and maintaining it. Vera Handojo continued to faithfully put together the regular Peer Consultation sessions for members who pay a small token fee to EMDR Singapore; these sessions are led by EMDR Institute Facilitators who volunteer their time & space/venue to do so.

We are appreciative to EMDR Institute Trainer from Australia, Sigmund Burzynski, for his integral role in guiding the path for the training of some of our local EMDR clinicians, towards being certified as EMDR Institute Facilitators. An exciting development for the Facilitators in 2012, was the opportunity provided by IMH, for EMDR Singapore Facilitators to conduct the 5 hours of group supervision for Weekend 1 and Weekend 2 participants from the July 2012 training organised by IMH. These group sessions were held in October 2012 and January 2013, and led by 3 Facilitators (Matt, Lee Lee and yours truly :)), who later also supported the Association by donating a portion of the proceeds for these services…thank you Facilitators!

It has been a collaborative team effort in keeping EMDR Singapore going and growing. Many thanks are in order to the EMDR Singapore Committee members who have contributed in their various ways throughout the year (involvement in sub-committees and contributing input about Association decisions, etc). I would like to express additional gratitude to the core Ex-co Team who have worked/work even harder, to carry out their roles as Vice-President/new Webmaster (Dr Vanessa von Auer), Secretary (Reena Goenka) and Treasurer (Vera Handojo), who contribute generously towards maintaining Association matters, functioning and mission. I’m happy to report that our Finances are in a healthy place, which helps us to take steps towards organising more events to support the vision and mission of EMDR Singapore.

I also want to express appreciation to Dr Matthew Woo for continuing to support EMDR Singapore by being instrumental in having organised EMDR Weekend 1 & 2 Training with Sigmund Burzynski with Institute of Mental Health in July 2012, and likewise to Dr Jasmine Pang, for organising EMDR Weekend 1 and 2 Training with Dr Gary Quinn with Changi General Hospital in April 2013. Without their help and involvement in organising EMDR Training now & over the past years, EMDR Singapore would not be in the position we’re now in — witnessing the gradual growth and development of the training and honing of skills of EMDR clinicians in Singapore.

I think EMDR in Singapore is in a promising position, with more clinicians coming on board to get formal training, and joining with us to engage in skills enhancement and growth, as our small EMDR community starts to ‘grow up’ one step at a time.

Do stay tuned, look out for our upcoming events – come join us at the Annual General Meeting on Saturday, 30th March 2013, 12 pm – 2 pm (lunch provided) at Kaizen Room, IMH. Also, we are in the final stages of confirming training plans for Dr Roger Solomon’s Master Class in May 2013, and possibly Roy Kiessling’s workshop in November 2013.

Our heartfelt thanks to each member, and to each EMDR clinician who forms an integral part of our EMDR Community here in Singapore. We welcome your feedback and engagement, and hope to have more opportunities to meet with you all, without whom EMDR Singapore will have no purpose for existing!  We hope you will support EMDR Singapore by signing up for membership, and renewing your membership each year…Via our new website, you will find that membership now has additional privileges, on top of the existing benefits. (Current dues-paying members will be emailed a password for the “Members Resources” section, this April 2013)

Please visit us at www.emdr.sg periodically, to stay tuned and stay connected : )

Best regards for a fruitful and enriching 2013 ahead!

Linda Koh
EMDR President
(2012-2016)