EMDR with Focus on Attachment and Early-Life Formative Experience: a Paradigm Shift
Three days in-person in Denver with Mark Brayne · hosted and organised by Jackie Flynn, Jackie Flynn Consulting
At a glance
- Days 1 and 2 · Thursday–Friday, August 27–28 — attachment-informed EMDR: Core Concepts and Session Structure
- Day 3 · Saturday, August 29 — attachment-informed EMDR: Clinical Demonstration and Applied Decision Making (a six-hour masterclass that follows the two-day foundations training, or can be attended on its own)
- Venue — Greenwood Village Training Space, 6200 S Syracuse Way, Greenwood Village, CO 80111
- Hours — 09.00 to 17.00 each day
- Cost — Days 1 & 2 $330. Day 3 $197.
- CE credits — EMDRIA CE credits being applied for
- Registration — Days 1 & 2 and Day 3.
The week after EMDRIA
These three days in Denver run the week after the EMDRIA conference in Anaheim (August 20–23), and are pitched especially, although by no means only, for colleagues who will already be in the United States and might want to go further.
For those travelling in for EMDRIA, the short hop east to Denver turns one trip into two — conference plenary and keynotes in California, followed by a deeper, slower, in-room immersion in the attachment-informed approach in Colorado.
This is also the first full in-person presentation of the ai-EMDR framework in the United States since the model’s most recent revision.
What used to travel just under the banner of “attachment-informed EMDR” is now sharpened and restated as a paradigm shift: from trauma-focused to formative-experience-focused, from rupture alone to rupture and the absence of repair, from “what happened” to the wider question of how this person came to be the way they are. That reframing is what these three days are built around.
With warm thanks to Jackie Flynn — EMDRIA-approved consultant, trainer, and long-time champion of play, expressive arts and EMDR — for hosting the whole event, and for the care she’s bringing to the logistics and to the room.
Attachment-informed EMDR: Core Concepts and Session Structure
You are trained in EMDR. You know the protocol.
And still, when attachment wounds and developmental trauma are associated with persistent nervous system dysregulation, EMDR can feel slower and less predictable.
Targets are less clear. Activation can become overly cognitive or exceed the client’s window of tolerance. Sessions can lose structure or end without a clear sense of completion, even when you are careful and aligned with the model.
This two-day training is designed for that clinical territory. It offers a clear, structured way to work with attachment-related and developmental presentations using EMDR, while keeping attachment and nervous system regulation in view throughout the session.
What this training gives you
Over two days, you will learn how to organize your thinking, your preparation, and your in-session decisions so the EMDR protocol can do its job more reliably.
You will leave with more clarity about:
- ✔️ what is organizing the client’s current presentation
- ✔️ how to resource first so the system has enough support for processing
- ✔️ how to bridge from present-day triggers to meaningful developmental targets
- ✔️ how to activate without flooding or going overly cognitive
- ✔️ how to support repair when processing stalls
- ✔️ how to end sessions with containment and present orientation
How the model is taught
Teaching is clear and focused. Mark teaches through instruction, live demonstration, and structured practice. He explains his clinical reasoning as he works, so you can see how decisions are made moment by moment.
As Gabor Maté says, “Trauma is not what happens to you, but what happens inside you as a result of what happens to you.” ai-EMDR helps us work with what the nervous system learned to do to survive, whether the presenting issue feels big or small.
Days 1 & 2 What we’ll cover in detail
The two days walk carefully through the full arc of the attachment-informed approach.
Day one takes a clean walk through the core of the model: case conceptualisation across the four levels of formative experience, rich and imaginal resourcing (the Team, not just the Safe Place), and the modified protocol with its IEBB activation sequence — Image, Emotion, Body, Belief — a felt-experience alternative to SUDs and Validity of Cognition numbers that tends to be less destabilising for attachment-wounded clients. We spend careful time on bridging as the central methodology for moving from present activation to developmental memory, using the Magic Question as the one-size-fits-all tool that cuts through noise and chatter and takes the work, when done well, unerringly into the root stories.
Day two moves from model to room. We re-walk Phase 4 as the Three Rs — Reveal, Repair, Rewire — and the tipping point between letting the story show itself and moving proactively to repair. We pay careful attention to pacing and prosody, to set length and speed, to the Goldilocks principle of when to return to target, and to how each session holds together as a complete arc, from present issue through bridge, landing target, processing, tipping point and back over the bridge to future template.
The Noise-to-Signal model sits alongside the Six Principles of ai-EMDR — Case Conceptualisation, Rich and Imaginal Resourcing, Target Identification, Appropriate Activation, Reveal-Repair-Rewire, and Session Structure — as the clinical map for why complex and stuck cases so often need this reframing to begin moving.
Who this training is for
This training is for EMDR-trained clinicians who work with attachment-related distress, developmental trauma, and chronic patterns of dysregulation, and who want sessions to feel more contained, coherent, and complete.
If you want more clarity in case conceptualisation, more confidence choosing targets, and cleaner decision making during processing, this training will support that.
Day 3 · August 29 — attachment-informed EMDR: Clinical Demonstration and Applied Decision Making
Even with solid EMDR training, sessions can feel more complex when the client’s distress is rooted in early attachment injury and developmental trauma.
This standalone six-hour, one-day masterclass follows the two-day foundations training in attachment-informed EMDR and is designed for EMDR-trained clinicians who want to deepen clinical decision-making by observing live demonstrations and exploring key decision points through guided analysis and structured discussion.
What you will take from this masterclass
You will leave with more clarity about:
- how to track capacity and shifts in nervous system regulation as the session unfolds
- how to recognize when processing is moving, stalled, or becoming overly cognitive
- how to make cleaner choices about pacing, focus, and intervention within the standard EMDR protocol
- how and when attachment-focused imaginal and relational interweaves can support repair and continuation of processing
- how to return the client to present orientation with containment and completion
A simple plan for the day
- Observe extended clinical demonstrations
- Analyze the decision points and the clinical rationale behind them
- Leave with practical clarity you can carry into your next sessions
What you will see during the day
- Bridging from present-day experience to formative developmental targets with containment
- Resourcing first, so the system has enough support for processing
- Activation guided through image, emotion, and body sensation while tracking nervous system capacity
- Real-time pacing adjustments based on nervous system cues
- Attachment-focused imaginal and relational interweaves selected and timed to support repair when spontaneous processing is insufficient
- Session segments brought to completion with a clear return to present orientation
How the days are taught
Teaching centers on live demonstration, guided clinical analysis, structured questions, and focused discussion. Mark Brayne explains his clinical decision-making as he works, so you can follow the logic moment by moment.
Important note: this training is delivered in person, with no virtual option.
Who this is for
This masterclass is for EMDR-trained clinicians who want to refine clinical decision-making in attachment-informed EMDR through observation.
It is especially helpful if you want a clearer sense of:
- when to stay out of the way and when to intervene
- how to time interweaves without disrupting processing
- how to keep sessions coherent and complete
Venue and logistics
All three days run at the Greenwood Village Training Space, 6200 S Syracuse Way, Greenwood Village, CO 80111 — a calm and well-appointed training space in the Denver metro area. Each day runs 09.00 to 17.00. Final joining details — catering, break arrangements, parking and transport notes — will come from Jackie Flynn’s team with the booking confirmation. Delegates are responsible for their own travel and accommodation; Denver International Airport is well connected, and Greenwood Village is easily reached from downtown Denver and from the airport.
Pricing and CE credits
Pricing for the three-day workshop, and for the two-day and one-day options, is being set by Jackie Flynn Consulting, and is shown on the booking page linked below. EMDRIA CE credits are being applied for, in line with the 12-point approvals granted for Mark’s previous in-person workshops.
About the facilitator
Mark Brayne is an EMDR Europe-accredited and EMDRIA-approved consultant, a UKCP-registered psychotherapist, Director of EMDR Focus Ltd., and a former BBC and Reuters foreign correspondent. He is the author of Unleash Your EMDR — Release the Magic and has taught attachment-informed EMDR across the UK, Europe, the United States, Australia and New Zealand. His current work is a restatement of the ai-EMDR model as a paradigm shift — an invitation to look beyond trauma to the wider landscape of formative experience that shapes how each person learned, in their earliest years, to be themselves.
Register now
Space is limited, given the in-person format. Registration is handled by Jackie Flynn Consulting.
Book Your One Day here