Live AI-EMDR workshops take place twice each month (unless otherwise stated), meeting either the first Thursday of the month (UK afternoons) or the fourth Wednesday of the month (UK mornings).

Wednesdays, we meet 0830-1030 UK time (if you’re outside our shores, please make sure you check the appropriate local time – this one works for Australia/New Zealand, but not for the USA.)

Thursdays, we meet 1630-1830 UK time (these ones are good for the USA, and possibly New Zealand depending on the time of year due to daylight savings/clock changes)

Format for the time together is usually a first half hour going over feedback and learnings/questions from peoples’ practice, or previous sessions. If the volunteer from the previous week is in attendance, we might also do EMDR’s Phase Eight Reassessment to discuss the session one-week-on.

For the middle hour (30 mins discussion at beginning and end), we focus on live work with one colleague, with whatever they want to work on, and hoping to highlight questions such as case conceptualisation, target identification, imaginal processing in Phase Four and above all Session Structure and the Radical Curiosity question ‘How did this person get to be this way?’.

Each session is unique unto itself, and as colleagues know, I (Mark Brayne) don’t just tick boxes and stick rigidly to scripted protocols, but work with creativity and imagination with what needs to happen in the moment, informed by intuition and experience as well as EMDR structure.

EMDR Therapy in other words, not just EMDR.

There will be occasions in the coming months where I will not be able to be present myself (travel and/or holidays), and instead an EMDR Focus Facilitator will cover the session and most likely offer a Live Demonstration of their own. The Zoom link will be the same.

There’s also a proposal every few weeks, or maybe more often, to break into pairs for supervised practicum sessions in AI-EMDR. Great idea, to be trialled perhaps.

Now for some essential organisational context.

These workshops can be a very powerful experience, both for the group and for volunteers kindly offering themselves to work openly this way.

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

Technical Requirements and Workshop Etiquette

It is a precondition for joining any EMDR Focus workshop that you have sufficiently robust broadband and technical equipment to enable you to take part fully. While continuous connection cannot be guaranteed (thunderstorms, power outages, floods, pestilence, plagues of frogs…), we ask all participants to ensure they will be able to join in full and on time.

You will need to be in a safe and private space before we open the session, and to have your computer or mobile set up with a good internet connection.

We use Zoom Meetings, with which you are almost certainly already familiar, and you’ll need to make sure in advance that you have the correct microphone and video turned on in the browser/operating system you are using. You can check these under your computer’s Sound Settings.

We ask you very strongly to use (best) mic-enabled USB or (less reliable) Bluetooth headphones rather listening to the call on your laptop/computer speakers. Over-the-ear headphones with their own microphone can be bought from Amazon or similar retailers and it’s worth spending £30 upwards for sufficient quality. Logitech is a good brand.

Your computer or mobile needs to be positioned at a sensible height with the camera at eye level so that we can clearly see your face.

Ensure that there is adequate lighting in the room you are in. It is essential that you do not have your back to a window or strong light source. This can make it very hard for you to be seen clearly.

On Zoom it is very easy to hear background noises, for example animals, children, washing machines, kettles etc. You must make sure you are in a quiet location.

It is essential that you will not be disturbed for the duration of each workshop session, that there is no-one within easy earshot, and that the door to the room you are sitting in is closed.

You agree to join the meeting at the appointed time, or if that proves to be difficult to advise as soon as possible by text or email. The workshop will not be delayed for late arrivals, and outages will need to be caught up with by watching the recording.

If workshops are recorded (with permission – and always the case for Unleash Parts One and Two) participants will be able to access a password-protected folder online for one month after the event. You must not let anyone else listen in to any part of the workshop (via phone or any other technical device or in person) without prior agreement.

Participation in the workshop is understood by all taking part as agreement to the above terms.