New horizons in EMDR

We’re pioneering our first long-form EMDR & IFS training, running over 13 weeks, beginning on Friday, September 9th, 2022 at 0730 UK time/1630 Australia. This takes you beyond the EMDR standard protocol of basic training so that you can begin to explore the territory of EMDR psychotherapy. Thus addressing the full clinical picture of individual, relational and behavioural issues for clients, so that you’re able to treat any symptom that walks in the door from depression, anxiety, phobias, addiction, OCD, through to relationship and parenting problems. This is relational EMDR both within the client, the therapeutic relationship and the community outside. But this course takes you beyond skills and into the terrain of working with your own parts, the parts of us, the therapists that become overwhelmed by clients, feel over-responsible and sometimes feel frustrated that our clients won’t find that target.

A review in EMDR Therapy Quarterly of a recent Parts/IFS workshop I ran said: “I came away from the training full of new ideas about how to work with clients when in the past a session may have got stuck or when there was a lack of growth. Due to the way the course was designed and the material presented, I felt confident to begin utilising the new skills the very next day when I went back into my clinic. Since then, I have used the skills so often that now I barely recognise they are new. I would recommend this course unreservedly”.

Read my latest article on IFS-informed EMDR published in the EMDR Therapy Quarterly here.

Harnessing the insights of parts & ego states by using an IFS-inspired approach to trauma healing.

Want to join us on the journey of blending EMDR & IFS?

EMDR and IFS are the most powerful therapies available for activating the brain’s natural healing mechanisms, which EMDR calls the Adaptive Information Processing Model or AIP and IFS calls unburdening. Both approaches bring about memory re-consolidation to change the way the brain stores memories and thus overcome debilitating symptoms such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders, behavioural and substance addictions, physical conditions including chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia, as well as severe illnesses such as borderline personality disorder, and suicidal thoughts.

Attachment-focused EMDR, also known as attachment-informed EMDR, brings you Laurel Parnell’s innovations in simplifying the standard EMDR protocol, rich imaginal resourcing and a truly brilliant bridging technique that allows you to tap into the root causes of today’s presenting problems and symptoms.

The IFS model brings a relational set of tools to EMDR that offer ways to work with the most stuck, resistant and avoidant of clients. Firstly there’s a whole new approach to understanding targets, which now become parts in the IFS model. Parts who can be dialogued with and appreciated for their positive intentions. As all the parts that drive the symptoms are carrying burdens and trauma, they can be assisted to unburden and integrate. Plus as well as dialoguing with the firefighters who drive addictive behaviours you’ll get to learn all the EMDR protocols for working with addiction too.

You can take the learning at your own pace, practise a new skill each week, share with the group how you’re getting on with clients and ask questions to take you further.

The number of participants is capped at 21: this is to ensure you always have space to ask questions and don’t feel like you’re lost in a sea of Zoom faces. Please note the Sept training is currently full, please email to go on the waiting list.

There’s also a higher ratio of facilitators so most of the time you’ll have a personal facilitator dedicated to supporting your practice, not just dropping in and out, interrupting your flow as a therapist and client. Many people name having supervised support during the practicums, from highly experienced EMDR consultants, as one of the most valuable parts of the training.

Also we’re aware that some people are very experienced in working with parts and ego states so please tell us on the registration form about your IFS level of experience. That way we can put you in practice groups with other novices or advanced colleagues, as appropriate. We may even run a future course specifically aimed at advanced IFSers to stretch you.

Many in the EMDR community are curious about IFS and what it can add to EMDR trauma processing, in fact there’s quite a buzz. However most IFS training courses, lasting eight full days (48 hours) are booked up, with long waiting lists of over a year, or places are even allocated via a lottery system. Then there’s the cost to contend with – usually around AUD $6,000 or Sterling £3,000. This 36-hour course is intended to fill that gap: to offer you the feel of IFS as it can be integrated with EMDR, along with the immersive supervised practice that’s central to IFS and intended to help you get to know your parts and your system in service of your clients.

Curriculum

1. Sept 9th Module 1: Welcome. Intro to Parts & ego states. Self & Parts. Meditation & brief demo. Ways to get into Self (more than clients, you in the world). Times 1630-1930 Sydney time = 0730-1030 UK time.
2. Sept 16th: Practise part to Self-connection & unblending. With facilitators.
3. Sept 23rd. Module 1 part 2: Appreciating protectors. No bad parts. Dialoguing with protectors. Plus Polarised protectors. Demo Two hand IW with protectors.
4. Sept 30th. Practise Part to Self-connection. With facilitators.
5. Oct 7th. Module 2: AI-EMDR. Review of that model. How can IFS help? Knowing your parts. Map your parts (homework in wk 3). Self like Parts. What gets triggered in therapists in AI-EMDR? Note new times for Australians 1730-2030 Sydney time = 0730-1030 UK time.
6. Oct 14th. Practise AI-EMDR with therapist in Self. With facilitators.
7. Oct 21st. Module 2 part 2: AI-EMDR with parts protocol. Blending both models. Adding unburdening. Rescue & repair protocol.
8. Oct 28th. Practise AI-EMDR with parts protocol. With facilitators.
9. Nov 4th. Module 3: AI-EMDR with addiction. Overview of addiction theory. Demo of addiction protocol. Note new times for Australians 1830-2130 Sydney time = 0730-1030 UK time.
10. Nov 11th. Practise AI-EMDR with addiction… maybe just steps in the protocol. With facilitators.
11. Nov 18th. Module 3 part 2: AI-EMDR with addiction more of an IFS lens. Dialoguing with polarised protectors. Tricky cases, what’s triggered in us? Stages of change model and other tools with addiction.
12. Nov 25th. Practise AI-EMDR with addiction… full protocol. With facilitators.
13. Dec 2nd. The whole group together to ask hanging questions, clinical cases etc.

Cost in sterling £1,300 please email for an invoice. AUD $2,335 + GST = $2,568.

This payment button will charge you $395 in Australian dollars or convert your currency into Australian dollars. Email info@emdrinsight.com if you’d prefer an invoice to pay in pounds sterling by bank transfer.

28 hours of CPD with EMDR Association UK have been awarded.

The September training is currently full, please email info@emdrinsight.com to go on the waiting list for the next one.