In The Spotlight: Michael Paterson,
D.Clin.Psych
By Marilyn Luber, Ph.D.
December 2005
If ever there were a good candidate for leprechaun, Michael Paterson would be
our man. Light of step, keen of wit, and big of heart, this engaging Irishman
knows about life from the depths of anguish to the transcendent mysteries of the
universe.
Michael Charles Paterson was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. His parents met
in the Auxiliary Fire Service in the 1950’s and he has a brother, two years younger.
As an enterprising young man of 17 years, he began clerical work in the accounting
and computer departments for the Northern Ireland Electricity Service where he
remained for five years. In 1979, he had friends serving in the Royal Ulster
Constabulary (RUC) and liked what he had heard about their experiences. He found
that there was a good future and pay structure and the possibility of defending
his country from insurgents. As a result of all of this, Michael joined the Royal
Ulster Constabulary, becoming a police officer in Northern Ireland. At the time
that he joined the Constabulary, he did not think of himself as an academic and
was excited about his new work, where he did well and had a promising career.
He was newly married and ready for the adventures that life had in store for him.
In September 1981, on his wife’s 25th birthday, Michael’s life path
abruptly changed. At first, he was stationed outside of Belfast, and then he
was reassigned to inside the city. During that time, the police traveled in lightly
armored vehicles. Michael was in just such a means of transportation when a rocket-propelled
grenade was aimed at him. The grenade burnt through the armor of the vehicle
and killed the driver. Next, it “took” Michael’s arms and crushed his leg. It
roared out of the passenger side window and exploded outside.
Michael experienced the light in the tunnel first. He was feeling very comfortable
in the light, although he had the distinct feeling that it was not the time for
him to be there. Then he was back in his body in intensive care. When he had
returned from this experience, he was in great form and euphoric. He felt so
close to God - even though he had not been religious. At that time, his mother’s
aunt brought him a Bible that he still has. Since then, he has had no fear of
death, nor did he experience Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. He attributes this
to his being newly married, physically fit, and “keen to get back to it”. He
never saw himself as disabled, but impaired, and his job was “to get on with it”.
Having a positive view of the future helped him move on.
And move on he did. He had to learn everything again, such as writing or moving.
He recovered from his injuries and was in traction for a fractured femur for three
months. In late spring 1982, he was exercising again and started running, and
by early 1983, he ran a half marathon! He now sees his prosthetic limbs as part
of himself that allow him the independence to live his life to the fullest.
Also in 1982, Michael became a full time student. He attended Castlereagh College
of Further Education for one year. He then went to the University
of Ulster at Jordanstown, where he studied Social Issues, Politics, Statistics,
Economics, and majored in Psychology. He received first class honors in Psychology
when he graduated in 1987.
The events of September 1981 changed Michael’s life forever and influenced his
future. It led to an interest in trauma and a desire to champion the cause of
policemen wounded physically and/or psychologically in the line of duty. The
thesis that won him the honors was titled, “Physically Disabled People: Their
Perceptions of the Public’s Reaction to Them, the Impact of Disability on Their
Social Life, and Their Satisfaction with the Caring Professions”. 1980 marked
the first time that criteria for PTSD were acknowledged in the Constabulary.
It was only late in the 1980’s that any type of psychological support was in place.
Michael went on to study at Queen’s University of Belfast in the Department of
Mental Health and received a Ph.D. in Research. This doctoral dissertation was,
“The Social and Psychological Adaptation of Individuals and Their Families to
Temporary but Prolonged Disability”.
As his first job, he was drawn into Government Statistics. He became a Senior
Assistant Statistician with the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency
for the Northern Ireland Civil Service. He was attached initially to the Department
of Economic Development and latterly to the Police Authority for Northern Ireland
(RUC). His duties included development and management of social surveys, development
of management information systems, and staff management. But his heart was not
in it. He was much more interested in understanding people and how it is that
they behave in the ways that they do. So, he applied to the Department of Clinical
Psychology at Queen’s University of Belfast, receiving his Doctorate in Clinical
Psychology in 1999. His research on “The Psychological and Physical Health of
Police Officers Retired Recently from the Royal Ulster Constabulary” won the Praxis
Prize of 1999, for the best postgraduate research related to mental health in
the School of Psychology, Queens University of Belfast. It was subsequently published
in the Irish Journal of Psychology in 2001.
While training to be a Clinical Psychologist, Michael learned about EMDR. In
1998, he took Part 1 in Cork City, at a training organized by Desmond Poole; the
trainer was Roger Solomon. It was during the practicum that Michael asked permission
to work with the incident where he lost his arms. He remembered that the woman’s
face - which was to be the therapist - fell at the prospect. It turned out that
the practice was a success, and Michael was able to process this central experience
and let it go.
After this, Michael realized the power of EMDR and began to use this new methodology
with the patients in his practice with PTSD. As his enthusiasm grew, he worked
with more and more challenging cases and his expertise grew. He used the listserv
as a way to hone his skill between Part 1 and 2 and then completed his training
in London in 1999. That same year he was invited to be a facilitator and completed
this training in 2000.
On the completion of his Clinical Doctorate, Michael became the Principal Clinical
Psychologist with the Police Rehabilitation and Retraining Trust for Northern
Ireland. Here was the chance for the change that he had dreamed about. He had
the opportunity to work with his fellow policemen and policewoman to help them
heal from the traumas that they had encountered in their work. Also, he was involved
with service development, staff training, and directing and supervising psychological
research.
It was at this time that he met Paul Miller – another EMDR aficionado - who was
at the Trust in a supportive capacity to help prevent secondary traumatization;
they became fast friends. Michael recognized that he wanted to share his skills
by bringing like minded-people together to impact others in a positive way. In
2002, he became the full-time Managing Director of TMR Health Professionals, which
is a private sector organization providing expertise in clinical assessment, intervention,
clinical supervision, and research. Michael is the “front man” for the organization
and administers it, generates new business, sees patients, supervises the staff
and stays current. Paul joined him part-time and is still a great support.
Michael is another member of our community who has been generous with his time
when it comes to supporting his community, especially when it comes to trauma.
In 2002, he was invited, in his capacity as a mental health practitioner, to be
a participant in a program run by the Glencree Centre for Reconciliation (Co Wicklow).
Former Republican and Loyalist paramilitary activists were to meet together with
former security forces, and the powers that be wanted mental health backup. Michael
was to be a non-participating observer and give support. One of the Republican
paramilitaries told him bluntly that he had a choice to “Join in, or clear off!”
but he used stronger words. Michael joined in and became a participant in this
group, where he told his story.
His experience had an impact on the community, and as a result, he was invited
to go to South Africa on a tour of the wilderness, where this same group slept
under the stars and had to depend on each other. There were 18 who went on the
trip, including 4 women and 2 male and 2 female facilitators for the group. They
were exposed to each other’s points of view and personalities. There were ex-combatants
who had been members of the Republican and Loyalist movements and had served time
in jail, an ex-member of the prison service, Michael as an ex-police officer,
and members of victims’ groups who had lost someone close to them. They visited
Cape Town and Robin Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. In all, they
spent 14 days together. At Robin Island they had a workshop where they were invited
to tell their narrative. When the leader was pushing a young woman to tell her
story despite her reluctance, Michael spoke up in support of her right to choose
to speak or not. This turned out to be an icebreaker, and later, ex-combatants
came up to him in support. As the days progressed, an element of mutual respect
developed, as well as trust. They started to see each other as individuals first
rather than just political ideologies. Michael noted that one way to equalize
such a disparate group was to put them out in the wilderness together, and after
5 days everyone smelled the same - BAD!! A film crew accompanied the group as
a way to capture the group dynamic for the purpose of learning about how people
from different points of view, philosophies, and ideologies could come together.
The individuals of the group retain the copyright of this material.
When in the wilderness within ¾ of an hour, Michael had a spiritual experience.
These types of experiences are not foreign to him and have occurred a number of
times in his life, each time at the birth of his children. While having one,
he has a sense of inner peace and being close to nature. While the group of eleven
- at that time - were walking, they came upon eleven water buffalo beside the
river. “There were eleven of them looking at eleven of us”. Later the guide
explained that buffalo are communal creatures, and this he took as a promising
sign. The group began to act and feel like the natural creatures living there.
Although there were poisonous spiders, snakes, lions, and rhinos, they were able
to co-exist and maintain that feeling of inner peace. As a result, Michael was
able to use this experience as a touchstone in his modern life when he returned
to Belfast.
Michael’s first volunteer work in 1987, was at CRUSE Bereavement Care for Northern
Ireland, where he learned many of his initial clinical skills. He worked as a
volunteer Counselor for the Advice Service run by the Northern Ireland Association
for Mental Health, and in 2000, he was an Adjudication Committee Member for the
regional “Give it a Go” program (Millennium Fund) for people with disabilities.
In 2003, he was a member of the Northern Ireland DHSS CREST sub-group that examined
effective treatments for PTSD in adults. Fortunately for EMDR, Michael was a
member of the smaller group that looked at psychological therapies, as he wanted
EMDR to have a fair hearing. As a result of his direct intervention, EMDR was
accepted as an effective treatment for trauma. In Northern Ireland the recommended
treatment for PTSD to primary care givers is SSRIs, CBT and/or EMDR. In 2004,
he was a member of the “Healing through Remembering” panel, and in the same year,
he was a member of the Trauma Advisory Panel for the Eastern Health and Social
Services Board.
Michael has a number of publications from 1987 to current day. He has written
and spoken on issues such as the impact of civil unrest for amputees in Northern
Ireland; the psychological and physical health of retired members of the Constabulary;
PTSD; psychological consequences of upper limb injury; attitudes and disabled
people; the effects of age at which one is disabled and length of disability on
the social behavior and perceptions of physically disabled people; the psychological
cost of caring; and motivation and achievement to staff and pupils in a Belfast
High School for starters!
Michael has been actively involved in EMDR since he was first trained. He is
an Executive Committee Member of the EMDR Association of UK and Ireland. He is
responsible for organizing interest groups in his region and bringing over well-known
EMDR teachers such as Gerry Puk, Mark Grant, and Carol Forgash. He himself is
interested in using Ego States with EMDR in the treatment of Complex PTSD. Currently,
he is in the process of becoming an EMDR Institute Trainer for Ireland.
A few years ago Michael met Terry Waite, a former Beirut hostage, at a talk in
Belfast. Michael later invited him to open the building for TMR Health Professionals
and gave him an experience of EMDR (see photo).
To the EMDR community Michael would like to say the following: “Keep doing what
you are doing and believe in the process because it does change lives, and as
Francine always encourages us to do, “Do the research!!”
Michael is married with 3 teenagers daughters and one younger son. All of them
love skiing and reading. He is not sure how his kids feel about Psychology!
However, we are sure about how we feel about him! He has transcended many of life’s
most difficult challenges and has emerged with his own brand of kindness, humor,
and keen intelligence. We are lucky to have him as part of our ever-expanding
EMDR community.
For more information about EMDR and EMDR International Association, visit
our web site at: www.emdria.org
For more information about EMDR and EMDR Europe, visit our web site at: www.emdr-europe.org