We’re thrilled with the feedback for our various EMDR Focus workshops, all with full-on, supervised practicum sessions to practice attachment-informed EMDR skills. A small selection of recent comments…
Superb. I loved the honesty the group achieved and the fear reduction this engendered.
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.
I have recently (this week) used the AI protocol with two clients who were struggling with standard protocol, and the results in session were phenomenal. It not only processed the root formative experience, it shifted many of the later memories too. You could see the shift in their experience of the memories.
I was already a die hard attachment informed EMDR fan before doing any of Mark’s training but I feel like, after level 1, my practice moved to a whole different level. I had clients tell me that they felt 1 session using The EMDR Magic approach produced greater changes in their belief systems and behaviour than the 20 or so years of previous therapy they had experienced (including standard EMDR).
I am not going to lie, the level 2 training sounded a little far fetched but, given the success I had post level 1, I was game.
However, after experiencing the intergenerational trauma work personally during the sessions I am 100% in. I had been working on a personal issue in standard EMDR for over 2 years and had little resolution with it and, in just 30 minutes of a practice session, I could feel my internal body changing.
It was as if, for the first time in 20 years, my body allowed itself to let go of the grief it had been holding and truly relaxed.
Mark should move to Australia and run the training here. Nothing beats in-person training.
This weekend has been the most significant training I have attended in my career! The possibilities for healing old wounds in my clients are endless, the best part is this can be achieved safely and at great speed. I feel invigorated with new passion for my work with others. A million thanks. Absolutely BRILLIANT.
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.
The ability to use both this protocol and the standard one has been so incredibly useful & I wish I had done this training several years ago.
I was absolutely exhausted after 3 days of training and never felt more inspired in a long time in my work.
Excellent and captivating content and training. Not many 3-day trainings can keep me engaged the way these trainings do!
Wonderful!! This is the first training in ages that I have not felt comatose in at some point-where I have not been forced to reveal details of “who” I am rather than learning about and practicing the direct work and skills, where we do not spend hours of the training on “meditations.” But instead engage in the work.
I love your trainings. They are wonderful. All usable information.
I love the jumping in session by facilitators. I love your scripts. You are so easy to take in and understand.
And I love that you do what makes sense-I have allergies to “protocol for protocol’s sake.” I love your blueprint to the work and can see myself actively using this.
And I feel welcome and not like a weirdo. All wonderful things.
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.”
I just wanted to say a personal thank you 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.
I had been integrating EMDR with attachment in my own way but your approach is a game changer and it allows me to integrate EMDR and attachment work in a way that really matches my passion for the work I do with new parents and their infants when they are at the beginning of their attachment journey.
And I’m surprised at how much I like your “scripts” and am absolutely grateful that you’ve shown how it’s possible to focus in on what’s critical and get really significant change happening in a 1 hour appointment.
I love how your approach allows us to be creative and enjoy the art and science of EMDR. It’s so much more than a protocol.
I also like you including the word magic as it’s often considered ignorant in psychotherapy circles.
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!
As someone trained in the Gottman method among other modalities, I find your approach not only unique but also remarkably effective. Its emphasis on desensitising patterns rather than delving into the issue per se has revolutionized my practice, facilitating rapid and profound changes in couples.
One notable case involved a couple grappling with the aftermath of an affair; through your method, they’ve learned to self-soothe and support each other’s emotional needs remarkably well, transforming their communication patterns.
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!
I have never felt this engaged in an online training before – the presentation with all the images as well as Mark’s easy, intelligent (but with humour) style made it so engaging. Overall it was brilliant!
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!
I am so impressed with AI-EMDR, and almost half a year out from being trained in Part 1, I can confidently say it has revolutionized the way that I work.
EMDR really wasn’t working well for me before (well, I liked it, but my clients didn’t), and then once I introduced AI
EMDR to my clients, literally every single one of them preferred my new method of EMDR.
Whereas I was seeing little progress in my clients previously, basically every client I use EMDR for is now seeing quite amazing growth.
Thank you so much for all that you do!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
Inspiring stuff ! It has shown me how to use EMDR in creative ways to help clients with processing difficulties.
From the EMDR focus attachment training I have learnt so much. I completed part one and part two this year. It has absolutely transformed my practice.
An analogy would be the standard protocol although good feels like vanilla ice cream whereas the attachment informed EMDR I have done with EMDR focus is like the Ferrero Rocher with all the sprinkles on.
Since starting I have practiced as much as I can and I have found that it has reached places that no talking therapy ever could.
People can often rationally understand it and get it but don't feel it.
This training has allowed me to be able to do that with patients at a true emotionally level and has truly transformed their lives too.
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.
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!
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.
This was probably the best CPD I’ve done. Mark is such a fantastic trainer. A little fast for me on Day 1, but the ideas really landed with me on Day 2.
He has such a lovely, calm, respectful and compassionate manner that makes you feel safe.
I loved the slides (compliments to your illustrator!) They really brought the ideas to life.
And fantastic, insightful and supportive contributions from Jutta too.
The music back in from the break was genius and it was all managed and ran so well.
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.
I have found the courses led by Mark, a skilled EMDR training expert, to be incredibly beneficial in enhancing my skills, understanding, and practical application.
The content is engaging and straightforward, and the provided frameworks (protocols) are excellent guides for the work.
Mark is remarkably generous in all aspects, creating a magical learning environment in every sense. I am consistently impressed by his generosity, not only in sharing his extensive knowledge and skills but also in his humble approach to teaching.
This is a gem of a course.
The organisation of the course was much better than any other CPD I had undertaken previously. Pre-course materials were great, organisation was brilliant, presentation and timings when the course ran highlighted a well-prepared and deeply cared-for (by the presenting team) training course. The content, creativity and adaptation this training will bring to my EMDR practice was worth every single penny and minute invested!
I was lucky enough to have experienced the process of AI-EMDR as a demo client. Surrendering to the unknown of a new process (much like our clients do in every session every day they see us) allowed for a rich experience that will stay with me through my career. The sadness and pain of processing; and the restorative and empowering sense of healing that came from the attachment interweave process. Having an understanding of the potential experience clients will have within therapy is important for me as a practitioner.
Alongside this, I have purposely waited a week to fill out this form as I wanted to try AI-EMDR with several clients with Complex Trauma and varying levels of dissociative experiences (from primary to tertiary).
I am pleased to report that they had preferred AI-EMDR adaptations. Most notably the speed in which ‘incomplete sessions’ were supported by the active reparative, or safety steps to allow a client the space to intuitively chose what need (or needed) to happen to ensure the safety of that part of them, which so often is stuck within a time in their history.
I could not recommend this training highly enough.
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.
I think anyone working with EMDR and complexity should do this training (Jan 2020).
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!
The wealth of resources accessible is very helpful. It did feel like a ‘proper’ training and very useful. Your training was well managed, nice flow to the day, info, demo, practice, feedback- a useful structure.
I watched a recording of Mark Brayne’s AI-EMDR The Basics lecture.
I want to express my gratitude for allowing us to follow this excellent presentation.
Mark managed to integrate, in a very condensed content, all the necessary tools for the application of this protocol. I really liked his way of presentation, which is characterized by exceptional intuitiveness and understanding of the places where ambiguities can arise, which he explained very clearly and succinctly. I don’t know that I have ever attended a lecture before that approached students with such sensitivity.
There just wasn’t a place of misunderstanding because Mark clarify it before I had a question. His presentation was full of stimulating slides, extremely interesting and which easily engaged me to follow along without any problems.
I was especially delighted by the comparison of the standard protocol and the modified protocol in relation to the activation of the cerebral hemispheres – it was just a moment of pure pleasure. Although I previously used the bridging technique, the reason and meaning of using it is much clearer to me.
Considering that I am also a gestalt psychotherapist, Mark’s presentation on EMDR working on dreams, which is very similar to gestalt work, particularly intrigued me.
We are really lucky to have such a teacher in EMDR.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Blew my knickers off!!
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)
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.
Wanted to say thank you for such an informative and useful session the role play was really helpful as it linked so well with a client I am working with just now.
I was amazed at how quickly you moved through the events in the story and didn’t get sidetracked by the noise but like a guided missile focused on the underlying emotions at each age.
This allowed speed but I didn’t get a sense of rushed and the client seemed to notice and share the first thing that yielded another deeper layer.
I liked how you used the nurture, protector and wise figures I got a real sense of support for the client. I felt taken aback at the continual deepening around the description of the frozen jelly legs and realised it was about the right side knowledge rather than a intellectual description.
The ending was a great example of covering all the areas the client raised young, teenager and adult sensations and I really liked how you gave her a bedroom.
Overall, a great session that will help me with my client especially not being scared to take control and lead rather than letting the client unload.
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…
Mark and his team were not only knowledgeable but fun too which made the training so easy to engage with. Thank you guys!!!
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.
Mark, you are SO good at what you do, and I think I will be longing to be half as good as you for years to come. Thank you for imparting your wisdom and knowledge to us so we can at least try to get there!
The PowerPoint was very well-done, informative, and engaging; the content itself was extraordinary. I don’t think I ever once zoned out – you had my full attention the whole time!
I believe the Attachment-Informed version of EMDR is a game-changer, and I think if I had been using it earlier with some of my clients, I would have seen better results much sooner. I look back on some “flopped” EMDR attempts with clients and think AI-EMDR is just what I needed, so I’m grateful to have it now.
The role plays were amazing and inspiring. They helped bring all of the information together, solidify it, and show nuances. The volunteers were also so vulnerable and courageous, which really helped with the learning process.
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.
I have found AI EMDR to be the most useful extra dimension to my practice. Mark is an exceptionally talented trainer, I cannot recommend him enough!
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!