-
-
Leading-Edge Workshops
Advance your practical and client-focused skills with EMDR in the UK, US, Australia/NZ & around the world.
-
Welcome to EMDR Focus
Empowering fellow therapists to release the magic of this extraordinarily powerful therapy.
Welcome to EMDR Focus
A warm welcome to our new (old) EMDR Focus website, building on the powerful work of the past two pandemic years online.
Saying a fond farewell to Annabel McGoldrick and her workshops on Addictions and Internal Family Systems (see her new EMDR Insight website for details), at EMDR Focus we’re now focusing tightly on our popular Unleash Your EMDR workshops Parts 1 and 2.
We are also developing our regular series of Monday morning (UK/AUS timing) and soon Thursday PM (UK/US times) sessions where Attachment-Informed EMDR can be experienced and explored live.
Hoping also you enjoy the image of Jutta and Mark at Bluff at the bottom end of New Zealand/Aotearoa in March 2016, at the end of their epic 3000-km six-week tandem ride from Cape Reinga at the very other north end of NZ. Teamwork!
Noting also the theme of lighthouses throughout this website – and our newly updated logo, illustrating the concept of Finding Direction which we share with our psychotherapy website Braynework.
Release the Magic of this Extraordinarily Powerful Therapy
Our EMDR Focus workshops give you new opportunities to advance your practical and client-focused skills with EMDR in the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand, and beyond…
We’re committed to a model of supervision which encourages warmth and dance in support of your journey towards EMDR mastery, while respecting and honouring the structure and focus of EMDR’s Standard Procedural Steps.
EMDR can be very successfully used alongside/in parallel with a client’s other mainstream therapy, as long as this is done with a clear focus and time-limited frame, and with full transparency and agreement between both therapists.
Using EMDR with couples online has been some of the most rewarding therapeutic work we’ve done. Let us know if you’d like to know more as plans unfold.
With the Corona virus, online EMDR therapy has proven to be highly effective – and in some ways even more powerful than working in-person. Geography is no longer the issue it was. At EMDR Focus and Braynework, we work exclusively online.
Browse our selection of articles and papers from Mark Brayne over recent years, mainly on EMDR but also on journalism and trauma.
“Unleash your EMDR” Testimonials
I saw seven clients today, and I have to say that I brought so much of the training into the day and with really great effect.
I have been using this approach since the training weekend with fabulous effects. It’s lovely to give the client more control & there’s no more ‘clunkyness’ going on! Which means… the therapy flows more naturally. Read more “”
Inspiring stuff ! It has shown me how to use EMDR in creative ways to help clients with processing difficulties.
Marie
I am so glad I volunteered for the demo for two very specific reasons – for myself and also for my practice as an EMDR therapist. As a therapist, the… experience was invaluable, to fully experience such a shift for myself, it has increased my confidence greatly in helping clients to achieve big shifts. I have been using everything I’ve learned and already am starting to see this make an incredible difference to three clients in particular. This is exactly what they needed. It also reinforced for me that as a learner I really need that experiential element to consolidate what I learn by reading. As an individual, I felt completely held by the process. I appreciated your gentle but completely focused approach. I’m sure you can imagine that this consistent challenge in my life goes through peaks and flows. As a mother it is a real challenge and I know I have this familial legacy of ploughing through and just getting on with things. It’s easy to get into a groove of doing everything myself and this experience really reminded me that others have lots to offer me that it’s not helpful for me to go it alone psychologically. The experience was so healing. When we finished that day, I went downstairs and hugged my son for a long time, it felt so different as so much of my anger had just melted away. My heart felt so much more open. Things have been calmer since we did the workshop and I firmly believe that EMDR session has contributed to that. Read more “Marie”
Mark’s knowledge, facilitation style and passion for EMDR [have] transformed my EMDR overnight and reignited my passion for it after it was slowly draining away through being frustrated by the… standard stuff. Bravo! Read more “”
I am understanding bridging much more and using it again to great effect… Going back to target more frequently is also really working… I feel as if I have had… an “advanced” EMDR course that has improved my knowledge. This is the only course I have been on and started using my learning straight away, so thank you once again. Read more “”
Nigel
Excellent (couples) course, loved how the AI-EMDR couple protocol dovetails so productively with Imago therapy/the CCPE approach to couple therapy. EMDR can be used to alleviate barriers to empathy and… intimacy between the couple arising from early attachment wounding. Relatively basic innovation of getting the couple to tap each other is so effective, helps promote empathy, demonstrates and encourages self-regulation on the part of the witnessing, tapping partner, again accords beautifully with fundamental principles of Imago-type couple therapy. I appreciated the many rich references and pithy quotes which really helped to encapsulate and drive home crucial points: in order to be understood, first seek to understand, surviving the experience of the other’s internal reality etc. Appreciated the light touch/humour of : marriage allows you to annoy one special person for the rest of your life, appropriate gentle humour makes difficult messages palatable for many couples. Valuable new phrasing for me : EARNED secure attachment, haven’t come across that handy description before. Really liked the bridging back from a simple interaction between M & T at start of session, working with what’s in the room. Many thanks, can’t wait to try this with couples ! Read more “Nigel”
Sean
For someone who absolutely hates Marmite, I have to say I’m delighted to find I absolutely love Mark Brayne and his team…………what a remarkable training! I find my already impassioned… enthusiasm for EMDR ignited even further by the last 3 days and I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to Unleash Part II. I cannot recall how many years it has been since I last felt this degree of excitement! Thank you all so much! This really has reinforced my understanding and experience of EMDR: the power and potential of its application; how creatively and intuitively it can be applied; and how breaking free of certain limitations regarding the standard protocol is the next step in EMDR’s evolution. I now feel I am considerably better equipped and informed than before the training, and can say, with a good deal of confidence, that I will be incorporating all that I have learned into my practice. The brilliant resourcing tools and revelatory application of the bridging back technique will become standard practice. These three days were brilliantly conceived and presented, with just the right balance of teaching and practicum. I also think that spreading the training over three days broke it down into readily digestible, bite size, chunks, promoting the assimilation and retention of information…………superb! What can I say! The humility and generosity of heart with which you laid yourself bare, identifying the two small t events, involving the video and momentary lapse of concentration when treating (volunteer demo client), were deeply moving, and served only to illustrate your humanity, and the robustness, resilience and wisdom, demanded of training of the quality provided by yourself and your team over the last three days. Thank you all, I feel truly honoured and privileged to have been a participant and to have witnessed all that I have…………remarkable! Read more “Sean”
Roger
It’s been the most useful and well presented training I have undertaken for some time. I enjoyed it , even with the early start. It was also great to work… online with people from across the world . Thanks for the opportunity. (Part 1 Aug 2021) Read more “Roger”
Jacq
Mark’s enthusiasm and depth of knowledge [about Dreams] inspires and lead us on a journey of exceptional learning. Dreams are indeed the royal road into our internal psyche and Mark… makes an excellent tour guide of the royal road. Read more “Jacq”
Sarah
I am someone who has really struggled to get going with using EMDR regularly with my patients and clients. I would get hung up on the protocol, struggling with NCs… and PCs and SUDs! The key thing I have taken away is this simplified protocol, the concept that it does not have to be difficult, the learning around how the left brain stuff (NCs, SUDs etc) interferes with the right brain process totally made sense and I can see where and why I have been stuck. Thank you, I think this is really going to make my practice so much more effective for my clients and patients. Read more “Sarah”
The ability to use both this protocol & the standard one has been so incredibly useful & I wish I had done this training several years ago.
Deborah
I was touched by the generosity of the course handouts, which were extremely helpful in their characteristically visual, humorous and concise format. I experience Mark’s facilitation style as one of… life’s great treats. He appeals to my inner child and my inner nutty professor, both of whom are inwardly squealing with delight at his use of rich metaphor and imagery to illustrate key concepts. Mark’s embodiment, passion and articulation of AI-EMDR has the capacity to switch my nervous system into a bright, energised and open learning state that feels deeply joyful and receptive. As an experiential learner, Mark’s great skill, intuitive capacity and dual attention (self, client and audience) with the live therapy demonstrations brings yet another dimension to the gravitas of Mark’s training in support of integrating the learning and illustrating the potential of the AI-EMDR approach. Mark’s facilitation team are an awesome group of skilled and committed therapists whose presence and input is another key feature of the training. The ratio of facilitator to participants is extremely generous and is invaluable during the small group practice sessions. The on-going post training support and CPD enables me to connect with a sense of belonging and to have a trusted developmental pathway. As an independent practitioner, this feels invaluable. Read more “Deborah”
Carolyn
I would highly recommend Mark’s excellent training. A combination of theory, live demonstrations and supported practice, this training will take your EMDR practice to the next level and give you… the confidence to further enhance positive outcomes with your clients. Definitely one of the best PDs I have attended. Read more “Carolyn”
Liz
Astonishing clearly presented. Inspirational training. Goes to the core, reaches the places that talking therapy just can’t reach. This will change my practice forever!
Thank you SO much
Since completing the training (Nov 2019) I’m witnessing some absolutely brilliant results. Each and every one of my clients now has a resource team, which they think is excellent by… the way. After doing this with one of my longer term clients she then informed me she was ready to “do EMDR”; a breakthrough we had both been waiting for! This method has totally transformed my practice. My clients are truly astonished at how well they can process. I am super grateful to you all – it has really helped to slow my practice and totally re-connect to my clients. Tapping may seem simple, but, you so helped when you told me to “really commit” to my client, Mark. I was also advised to be more gentle from other instructors, (and) again my clients have responded so, so well to this. Huge, huge thanks. Keep doing what you’re doing, because you have no idea how many lives you are actually changing for the better! Read more “”
Nicola
The wealth of resources accessible is very helpful. It did feel like a ‘proper’ training and very useful. IYour training was well managed, nice flow to the day, info, demo,… practice, feedback- a useful structure. Read more “Nicola”
At the time of doing your course, I had only four clients and worked two days a week as a theatre lawyer. […] I was quite on the verge of… giving up and felt quite disempowered. The training had a dramatic effect on me and my feeling of personal power and don’t they say “what you communicate out to the universe it brings back”. Anyway within 10 days I had taken on 12 clients and really haven’t looked back. […] I know as a therapy I have something special to offer people now and isn’t it funny how incidents that talking therapy cannot resolve disappear so quickly with this AF-EMDR. I know I’m on to something here. I’m up to 18 clients now… Read more “”
Helen
I thought I’d share some feedback I just sent to Mark on the wonderful training he gave in New Zealand a few months ago For context I’ve had the chance… to use the training some now and am starting to get more of a feel for it and have been able to see and hear feedback about the impact on clients. I’m amazed how much can be done in an hour and how contained it all is, even though it’s such core stuff. The relief for clients appears to be huge. I am starting to appreciate how important the petalling is (and why Mark emphasises that aspect) to the work remaining focused and containable and being able to complete so much so quickly. Also how well the resource team process appears to prime clients for being able to find helpful resolutions during the processing. I don’t use this with all my clients as not all are ready yet; for those who are ready this is like magic. I am kicking myself for not doing the training in 2010 when I first wanted to as life happened and then I didn’t follow it up. Big mistake! “I’m so glad I did the part 1 – 3 days. The training was very clear and educational as well as fun; one of the best trainings I’ve done. I’ve been using the AI EMDR and IG emdr with a few clients now and the outcomes are truly amazing. Very powerful and deep transformation for the client within an hour with everything wrapped up and completed by the end of the session. That’s really something when the session can cover for example a present trigger, a 2 year old self, a 7 year old self, a parent of the 2 year old self, and that parent’s younger self, all 8 phases for each part of the work, all targets completed to 0/10, 7/7, and a clear body scan in an hour. This is a game changing protocol. A most heartfelt thank you from me and my clients.” Read more “Helen”
The training was intense and enlightening in ways I could not have imagined when I booked and at last I have a way to work effectively and without scaring the… s**t out of my clients using the effective techniques learnt. Blew my knickers off!!! I was enchanted from start to finish! Read more “”
Soraia
This training is the missing link between EMDR standard protocol training and the intricacies of complex trauma EMDR practice. Evolution happens and trying to deny it just delays our illusion… that we are in control! Read more “Soraia”
Bella
My memory from the original training was that EMDR was a rigid robotic like model in its implementation, which didn’t resonate with me. A refresher training some years later opened… me up to EMDR and it was from this point I started to use it. However, I felt inspired by this training. I feel it’s given me permission to be more flexible and attend to nuances in the therapeutic process. Read more “Bella”
Deborah
I have been blown away by your training, Mark. Having now completed Part 1, 2, AI-EMDR with couples, Case Conceptualisation (and intending to attend Parts in December), I am aware… how your training has catapulted my couple work onto a whole new level of competence and confidence. My ability to conceptualise and validate the adaptive/maladaptive attachment strategies of younger traumatised parts, surviving in the only way they knew, greatly supports the flow of compassionate witnessing within and between couples. Read more “Deborah”
I think anyone working with EMDR and complexity should do this training (Jan 2020).
I just wanted to say a personal thankyou for the training the other week. It was really good and has reduced my anxieties about EMDR quite a bit. I was… struggling with the basic protocol and trying to make it fit the very complicated clients I see in the NHS, I think the AF-EMDR is much more appropriate and I have started to weave it into my practice. Read more “”
Annette
A fabulous combination of theory and practice, professionalism and warmth, seriousness and humour … all of which made for a brilliant learning environment. Skillfully done, thank you!
Thank you to EMDR Focus for the incredibly helpful training and practise day in London this September. I have subsequently had some incredible sessions using the modified protocol and being… really active with interweaves. Of particular note was successfully processing a sexual abuse memory within a one-hour session. Thanks to the advice to check early on what is happening in the body, I realised almost immediately when the client began to dissociate. I was then able to ground them quickly and carry on in a way that felt safe and contained, until the target was fully resolved. The client felt empowered and able to let go of anger. It was just amazing! Read more “”
Excellent training and incredibly practical and useful. Mark was very clear, compassionate and entertaining.
I had one client who had really struggled to develop a peaceful image that really felt safe – today she imagined being gently licked and lovingly encapsulated by a lion, protected by… an eagle circling her while her partner kept watch, with an elephant’s herd surrounding them, and her breathing being co-regulated by the lion’s breathing, by an oak tree. What an imagination that I had not tapped into until now! She was inspired and so was I. Read more “”
Ann
I was absolutely exhausted after 3 days of training & never felt more inspired in a long time in my work.
Learning how to resource so quickly [was especially useful]. I had been taking a lot longer to do this and it’s great to know if can be done fairly quickly… and effectively. Learning how to bridge back while staying in the Right Brain was very useful and effective. The live demo was incredible. Very brave of Mark to do this in front of all of us and it worked so well. This showed me how much confidence he and I can have in these techniques. Read more “”
Even in one week the benefits I am seeing are amazing. Using the nurturing, protector and wise figures really helps the clients and they are reporting spontaneous “appearances” of the… figures when needed in their lives. I’ve also felt at ease with myself to interact with the clients differently and use their imaginations more to great effect. Read more “”
Superb. I loved the honesty the group achieved and the fear reduction this engendered.
Stuart
Blew my knickers off!!
It was just the most incredible weekend, absolutely life changing personally and professionally. It has changed and shaped my EMDR practice for ever more. Thank you!
Utsa
Just wanted to thank you for the wonderful training I have had with you. Following the couples training day I tried your way of working with a couple. The wife… went first; she had a real AHA moment and realised her child self was seeking comfort and how that plays out in the relationship. She came to the conclusion that now she is able to do that for herself and if she needs to get it from him, she needs to be very specific as ‘he cant read her mind. ‘ I later asked the husband how it felt to witness the work that she had done. He said it was amazing to witness how relaxed she became and that she looked beautiful. OK that was emotional for me too. With intergenerational work, I was able to take a client who felt unsupported by mom back to her great grandmother. Clearing out her stress and that of the grandmother and mother, was so beneficial for the client, that she remains amazed. So just a big thank you for helping me expand my EMDR capacity to help the client even deeper. Read more “Utsa”
Kini
Grateful to your leadership, guidance, and support during this time. Online EMDR has been working awesome!! I am so pleased with the timing when I attended your workshop in London.… Upon returning home, applying the techniques in person and online. It has been a streamline process for me, but having familiarity with zoom and online platforms made the transition much easier. #divinetiming Read more “Kini”
After the meeting online with you last week I built myself a virtual studio which has been impressing my clients and giving them a bit of light relief from the… life stresses they are all feeling. Strangely I feel I have made more progress in these sessions than I would have had in-person with the same clients. So far I have used your method 4 times on online and every time it has worked amazingly !!!! with the SUDs reducing to zero AND a VoC of 7. I have done a bridge back to early childhood on 3 out of 4 and my most challenging client who has different parts ( I have worked with her for 5 years) made an amazing eureka moment at the end of processing. I would never have imagined how powerful this work could be online and `I would say to others give it a go- build up your confidence in online work. The EMDR community has been really supportive and I am humbled by all the contributions when we are all under such pressure. Read more “”
Mark is a brilliant and engaging speaker. He held my interest and I really respected his level of knowledge and experience (I am an experienced, senior clinical psychologist). The practicums… really help consolidate the teaching. Read more “”
Sharon
What you’ve taught me has transformed my therapy structure and depth and my clients are healing and transforming so fast I can’t quite believe it and have to pinch myself… that it’s true! I can barely wait to learn more AI-EMDR. Read more “Sharon”
Latest from Focus Blog
Ainslee Gibbs reports back on Part 3 Couples and Addictions
emdrfocus2021-05-12T21:09:16+01:00May 12, 2021|
Attachment-Informed EMDR
emdrfocus2021-04-16T19:55:48+01:00April 16, 2021|
Wonderful post-workshop story from Claire on intergenerational EMDR
emdrfocus2021-02-04T17:34:01+00:00February 4, 2021|
Stay in the Loop
If you’d like to be kept up to date on EMDR Focus training events, we’ll be delighted to keep you posted.
We promise to keep your info safe, not to bombard you with emails, and very definitely not to misuse your information or pass it on to third parties without your consent.
Thanks, and looking forward to hearing from you.