EMDR Spring Conference 2026

Extended Workshop Descriptions

One Target at a Time: Brief Adjunctive EMDR with Complex PTSD with Amy

Winters Champoux (90 minutes)

The long term, open ended model is often endorsed as the gold standard for therapy, and it can be generative, allowing for nuance, repair, and relational growth over time. The long term model is also consistently recommended for clients with complex PTSD.  But is it the best frame for healing?   And how much time is enough time?  What if the client who gets suicidal every time her (talk) therapist goes on vacation, after seven years working together, can be feeling more expansive, adaptive, and secure in 12 sessions of Brief, Adjunctive EMDR with you? Now you’ve helped two people:  The client, who is free of unprocessed trauma; and the referring therapist, who was on the brink of burning out.

Perhaps the best, most surprising gift of Brief, Adjunctive EMDR is the way these same principles can invigorate work with long term clients.  Creating a frame, titrating exposure, and highlighting motivation offsets the pitfalls in long term work: drift and phobic avoidance.

This presenter will clarify the reasons why a brief, collaborative approach is possible, and sometimes preferable for clients with complex PTSD. Participants will learn tools in assessment, case conceptualization, target sequence planning, and interweaves for keeping clients in a window of tolerance.  Concepts from EMDR 2.0 and  Mosquera & Gonzalez’s Progressive Approach are foundations for  this model.  Special consideration and tools for addressing dissociation will be offered. Case examples will demonstrate these theories.   Ample time will be given for participants to collaborate and practice in small groups.

Re-imagining Adaptive Information in a Collectivist Context: Linking Chinese Collectivism to the Adaptive Information Processing Model with Grace Chen (90 minutes)

This workshop bridges Western EMDR therapy with the collectivist foundations of Chinese culture. Clinicians often face "clinical friction" when individualistic protocols—such as boundary-setting or promoting self-actualization—clash with the deeply rooted values of social harmony and filial piety. Participants will trace the historical roots of collectivism to better contextualize these dynamics in contemporary practice.

We will examine how these structures shaped a hierarchical society in which identity is defined by social roles and collective obligations rather than personal traits. Clinicians will learn to navigate the "We-Self," in which individuals are inextricably connected to their family system and its social status. We will distinguish adaptive qualities, such as loyalty and belonging, from maladaptive responses, such as guilt, resentment, and "losing face."

Participants will learn to identify common cultural "blocking beliefs," such as perfectionism to please others, and calibrate EMDR processing to honor each client’s cultural context. The workshop also examines the influence of East Asian culture on both clinicians and clients, and how Western clinicians can respectfully navigate cultural differences. Clinical implications—including the therapist’s authority role and efforts to foster acceptance within collectivist frameworks—will be explored.

Recovery from Behavior & Substance Addiction using EMDR Therapy with Sarah Osborne (90 minutes)

This workshop focuses on how to use EMDR therapy to aid in recovery from behavioral and substance addictions. Focus is given to the connection between trauma and subsequent vulnerability to addictions. Participants will learn to identify when clients are “stable enough” to proceed with EMDR therapy. Concerns related to proceeding with clients who are not abstinent or in early recovery will be addressed. Introduction to the addiction focused protocols and how to identify when to use them versus the standard protocol. Training is provided through the use of clinical examples, videos and Q&A.

Strategies to Facilitate Memory Reconsolidation Throughout the 8 Phases, with Nancy Simons and Jennifer MacGregor (180 minutes)

EMDR is grounded in the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model, yet clinicians often encounter moments when processing stalls, avoidance increases, or symptoms temporarily intensify. Reprocessing may be out of reach when the tasks of the previous phases are too activating, do not align with a client’s neurological make‑up, or are a mismatch for their cultural background.
This training shows how resourcing can be used more intentionally across all eight phases, using techniques that integrate directly into the standard protocol to support the AIP system and strengthen clients’ capacity for effective processing. Participants will also be introduced to Bruce Ecker’s reconsolidation‑informed framework as one way of understanding the neurobiological conditions necessary for lasting change.
We will clarify why some forms of resourcing create momentary “state” change while others support deeper “transformational” shifts. These categories will be illustrated through two protocols: The Scaffolding Protocol, which includes strategies for both state and transformational change (including TIARA), and the Updated Self‑Compassion Container, which is designed to support transformational change.
Special attention will be given to clients with C‑PTSD, neurodivergent processing styles, and cultural differences. Because skill development benefits from both didactic and experiential learning, participants will have the opportunity to practice elements of these protocols in small groups.

The Many Dimensions of Adaptive Progress: How EMDR therapists can better recognize and enhance this AIP indicator of change to strengthen EMDR outcomes beyond symptom reduction Mark Nickerson (180 minutes)

This presentation highlights one of EMDR therapy’s most distinctive yet underdeveloped dimensions: the discovery and emergence of clients’ adaptive capacity. While standard outcome markers—0 SUD, 7 VOC, clear body scan—remain ingenious indicators of memory desensitization, they do not fully capture the many transformative adaptive shifts that clinicians regularly observe during treatment. Grounded in the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model, this presentation provides a rationale and structured framework for better recognizing and enhancing adaptive progress. Participants will learn key indicators of adaptiveness (how it is observed), core features (what it is), and apply these insights across cognitive, emotional, somatic, relational, behavioral and identity domains (where it appears). Practical tools and handouts support the enhancement of adaptive progress throughout all eight phases of EMDR therapy. By reframing treatment as both symptom resolution and adaptive capacity development, clinicians can deepen case conceptualization, refine cognitive interweaves, and promote more comprehensive EMDR therapy outcomes that enhance post traumatic growth and wellbeing. Actively strengthening adaptive progress provides validation and motivation for all clients and is particularly essential for those who struggle with complex trauma, attachment disruptions, and moral injury.

EMDR Case Conceptualization in Context: Culture, Identity, and Belongingness with Robert Richards (90 minutes)

This experiential, interactive clinical workshop explores how identity, belonging, and culture shape trauma presentation, EMDR case conceptualization, and treatment planning. Designed for practicing EMDR therapists, the training centers on clinical application rather than theory alone, with a strong emphasis on how cultural and identity-based experiences manifest moment to moment in assessment, target selection, resourcing, and pacing.

Using an intersectional case narrative, participants will actively work through EMDR case conceptualization grounded in the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model. The workshop examines how cumulative and identity-based stressors, such as microaggressions, conditional belonging, chronic illness, class mobility, and systemic oppression, become encoded within adaptive information networks, often outside of discrete “big T” trauma events. Throughout the training, adaptive survival strategies are understood as contextually meaningful rather than pathologized. The format is highly participatory and includes guided reflection, small-group discussion, case-based exercises, and structured opportunities to apply concepts directly to participants’ own clinical work. Particular attention is given to common points of misattunement in EMDR treatment and to strategies for repair that maintain both relational safety and EMDR fidelity. Participants will discuss culturally responsive target identification, resource development, and clinical decision-making across phases of treatment.

The workshop also invites clinicians to reflect on how their own identities, visibility, disclosures, and implicit presence influence the therapeutic process. By the end of the training, participants will leave with concrete tools for culturally attuned EMDR case formulation, increased confidence in navigating complex identity dynamics, and practical strategies to bring greater humility, responsiveness, and effectiveness into everyday clinical practice.

Embodied EMDR for AuDHD Adults: Somatic and Yoga-Informed Interventions to Support Regulation and Processing with Alyssa Desroches (90 minutes)

AuDHD adults (those with co-occurring autism and ADHD) often present with complex trauma shaped by chronic nervous system overwhelm, sensory sensitivity, masking, and repeated experiences of misattunement. While EMDR Therapy is well suited to address these experiences, standard approaches may require thoughtful adaptation to meet neurodivergent sensory and interoceptive needs.

This workshop offers an experiential exploration of somatic and yoga-informed interventions that can be integrated within the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model when working with

AuDHD adults. Drawing from EMDR Therapy, polyvagal theory, somatic psychology, and trauma-sensitive yoga principles, participants will learn how to support regulation, dual awareness, and stabilization without over-reliance on cognitively driven strategies.

Through brief experiential practices, case examples, and video demonstrations, participants will explore how to adapt preparation, resourcing, and early processing phases of EMDR to reduce overwhelm, dissociation, and shutdown. Emphasis is placed on consent-based, choice-oriented, and culturally responsive interventions that respect sensory differences, executive functioning variability, and diverse identities.

Participants will leave with concrete, immediately applicable tools to enhance embodied safety, increase tolerance for bilateral stimulation, and support adaptive processing for neurodivergent clients.