AI-EMDR with Couples

 

As workshop leaders, Mark and Jutta Brayne are both trained in transpersonal couples therapy, and (as many colleagues know) have their own very personal story of relationship rupture and repair.

Not that we’ve got it perfectly, but with our own experience over nearly 50 years of hope, disappointment, breakdown, divorce and eventually remarriage (living happily ever after? Sort of…) we both find that combining core couples therapy skills with an attachment-informed approach to EMDR can make an astonishing difference.

You’ll get more out of this workshop if you’ve already done Unleash your EMDR Part 1 of our Attachment-Informed training, but that’s not a requirement.

Note that as of February 2024, we have no further workshops planned. This may change in the northern hemisphere autumn.

Workshop Focus

Just as we ask ourselves how our individual clients got to be the way they are, and what therefore are the developmental EMDR targets that need processing, with couples too – where in a sense the relationship itself is the client – we need to be open to how that relationship is wanting to heal.

On this webinar, we use the time to explore how to identify with couples the roots of their individual and joint presenting distress, and how then to support them working together, with EMDR processing right there in the session.

Participants will be invited to bring their own and clients’ experience of couples work to explore where, how and why relationships are getting into trouble.

We invite a volunteer couple to join us with a live – and very real – demonstration of how well EMDR can support the necessary work of healing.

Learning Outcomes:

  • With couples, structure and hold a session, working individually with partners on trauma-related dysfunctional memory networks currently impacting their relationship.
  • Deploy the eight standard procedural phases and AIP-informed targeting of Past, Present and Future within a couple relationship.
  • Practically and proactively deploy Dual Attention and Bilateral Stimulus to facilitate mutual processing between couples, and focused individual targeting.
  • Session Structure and Creative relationship-informed Interweaves.

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.  

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

Before the workshop I would not have used EMDR with couples. Now I feel equipped to try it out. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole day and it was very thought provoking.

Excellent course, loved how the AI-EMDR couple protocol dovetails so productively with Imago therapy/the [transpersonal] approach to couple therapy. EMDR can be used to alleviate barriers to empathy and intimacy between the couple arising from early attachment wounding.

The video session and live demo demonstrating couples EMDR was very helpful. Workshop was engaging and accessible. Handouts are useful especially the practice sheet. Good use of images, media and poems during the presentation to engage the audience and illustrate key points.

Very interesting and meaningful content. I don’t actually work with couples but I think it will help with my relationship with my husband, and with clients’ relationships.

As ever, we aim to include where possible full, in-depth, live demonstrations of EMDR, which can be a powerful experience both for the group and for those willing to share perhaps their own stories.

While we find that participants value this opportunity, both as therapist and client, the experience can be triggering. For our part, we commit to doing our best to keep the training safe and contained.

We correspondingly ask participants to take responsibility for their own responses, and to remain at all times open and respectful towards the processes and learnings that will unfold as the workshops proceed.

You will of course have the opportunity to decline to bring personal issues to the practicum, but for your own sake and that of others on the workshop, please do allow space for a willingness to be vulnerable, as well as to be bold.

By registering for an EMDR Focus workshop, and recognising that participation can involve both observation and personal experience of sometimes profound trauma processing, participants agree to take appropriate responsibility for their own emotional wellbeing.

They will furthermore ensure they have access to any necessary therapeutic and/or supervisory support following the workshop.

We try to be as generous and kind as we can, and appreciate prompt payment for our workshops and webinars. If you find yourself needing to postpone or even cancel, we will be happy to hold your payment against a future event, or, if within two weeks of our meeting, refund minus a 10% handling charge. Closer to the time, refunds will be at the discretion of EMDR Focus.

Dates and Times for future AUS/NZ-friendly workshops 2024/5 TBA

0700-1200 UK time / 1800-2200 AEDT

5 EMDR UK CPD/EMDRIA CE Points

Dates and Times for future US/UK-friendly workshops 2024/5 TBA

1500-2000 UK time / 0800-1400 West Coast/1100-1600 East Coast

5 EMDR UK CPD/EMDRIA CE Points