Dana has over 40 years experience practicing Bowen family systems theory. She finds it a reliable way to gain emotional maturity personally and in relationships. Additionally she has over 25 years experience with EMDR, a therapy that helps the brain rapidly shift the way it stores bad experiences. It helps people regain their strengths and talents steadily. When the two approaches are integrated together, as Dana has done since 1997, people can feel themselves growing in emotional maturity and confidence. Relationships become more satisfying.

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This has led Dana to train other EMDR therapists in her integrative Bowen and EMDR (iBE)  Approach. She is an Approved Consultant, helping other EMDR therapists attain EMDRIA Certification. Her first research in 2013 showed that her single client made more progress in a year of individual therapy than Bowen thought was possible in one lifetime. This encouraged her to continue research with groups since 2016. Dana published a self-help book about iBE in 2017, available through this website.

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Dana has offered various kinds of EMDR group experiences. Her groups have served cancer patients, parents of special needs children, family groups facing unique and disturbing trauma together, and many groups seeking relationship healing in general. In October 2022, she led a randomized control trial of iBE integrated with the Ongoing Traumatic Stress Protocol of Ignacio Jarero, PhD.  The population was healthcare professionals stressed by workplace conflict.

 

Since 2022, she has renamed her protocol the iBE Comprehensive Relationship Protocol. She is conducting pilot studies focused on clearing stress and trauma in the 4 universal patterns of relationship difficulty. These are: conflict, distance and cutoff, the drama of triangles, and codependency, or one up/one down functioning. After each clearing, she shares a skill of emotional maturity that can prevent or overcome these stressful patterns. 

 

Dana Elken Terrell, LCSW, EAC has presented on her iBE protocols at conferences and trainings across the nation. A therapist who specializes in both approaches said, "iBE is like Bowen on steroids!"

 

Dana loves helping relationships of all kinds, whether at home, at work, or anywhere else. She is in process on her second book, which will be an "owner's manual "for all the kinds of relationships we experience in our lives.     Read testimonials about Dana