Invited SPEAKER

Dolores Mosquera is a psychologist and psychotherapist specializing in complex trauma, personality disorders, domestic violence and dissociation. She is the director of the Institute for the Study of Trauma and Personality Disorders. INTRA-TP) in A Coruña, Spain—a 3-clinic private institution initially founded in 2000. She collaborates with two different Domestic Violence Programs, one focused on Women Victims of DV and another one on Males with Violent Behavior. She belongs to the Spanish National Network for the Assistance of Victims of Terrorism.

Dolores has extensive teaching experience leading seminars, workshops, and lectures internationally. Dolores also teaches in several Universities, and collaborates supervising Clinical Psychologists in postgraduate training programs in Spain.

She has published several books, book chapters and articles on personality disorders, complex trauma, domestic violence and dissociation. Dolores received the David Servan-Schreiber award for outstanding contributions to the EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) field in 2017, was made Fellow of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation in 2018, for her contributions to the trauma and dissociation field, and received the MAM10 Prix David Servan-Schreiber award in 2021 to a foreign researcher who has made a notable international contribution, having advanced research in the field of EMDR. In 2022 Dolores received the award Professional of the Year in the category of Psychology for the trajectory and significant contributions in dignifying the profession (psychology).

From the perspective of the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model, obsessive–compulsive symptoms are conceptualized as maladaptive attempts at regulation and control in response to dysfunctionally stored memory networks linked to early attachment disruptions, adolescent relational conflicts, and unmentalized emotional states. The clinical assessment evolved from a symptom-focused exploration toward a comprehensive life-history conceptualization, allowing for the identification of core memory networks associated with emotional invalidation, lack of protection, and disturbances in identity development and self-worth.

The EMDR-based treatment did not primarily target symptom reduction, but instead focused on the reprocessing of etiologically relevant traumatic experiences. As these memory networks were processed and adaptively integrated, a significant reduction in obsessive–compulsive symptomatology emerged as a secondary outcome. Concurrently, the patient demonstrated improved emotional regulation, enhanced self-concept, and a reconstructed sense of personal identity.

This case highlights the clinical importance of adopting a broad, developmentally informed AIP conceptualization when working with OCD presentations. It underscores the value of EMDR therapy in addressing the traumatic origins of obsessive–compulsive symptoms, moving beyond symptom-focused interventions toward deeper and more enduring therapeutic change.

Participants will:

• Recognize how obsessive–compulsive symptoms may function as a protective façade masking underlying complex and relational trauma.
• Apply the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model to conceptualize OCD presentations from a developmental and attachment-informed perspective.
• Identify obsessive–compulsive behaviors as maladaptive regulation strategies linked to dysfunctionally stored memory networks.
• Understand how EMDR therapy can shift from symptom-focused interventions to targeting etiologically relevant traumatic experiences.