Unleash your EMDR: Release the Magic (Part 1)

Workshop Focus

To help colleagues remember the six core elements of this approach, we suggest a humorous mnemonic that starts with Charlie Chaplin and ends with Session Structure.

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  1: Case Conceptualisation (“Charlie Chaplin”)

  We invite our trainees to bring radical curiosity to the question, “How did this person get to be this way?” and then, “What is their presentation REALLY about?”
  Yes, a client may have gone through seriously difficult times, with traumas big and small.

  But underneath all that, what – above all in the context of maternal attachment – did they learn to do in formative childhood years to manage emotion & to self-soothe. Emotionally, Behaviourally, Cognitively? Where? When (Age)? With Whom? In What Context?

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  2: Resourcing (“Recognises”)

  Before we get going with target identification and the actual work of EMDR processing, we take a grateful leaf out of Laurel Parnell’s book – now mainstream in most EMDR trainings – to do much more than identify and “install” (a piece of EMDR jargon well beyond its sell-by date) a Special or Calm Place.

  Identifying a team of nurturing, protecting and wise figures (real & imaginary, human & animal, contemporary & historical), we create a safe and kind therapeutic container for the work to come, firing up our client’s (and our own) imaginal capacity for rich and restorative processing of the past.

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  3: Target Identification (“That”)

  Where standard EMDR might take a comprehensive time-line history of all the bad things that have happened to a client through their lifetime, from assaults and abuse to accidents and illness, attachment-informed EMDR is constantly curious about the subtly painful moments of the present (fears of the future for example, present triggers, pervasive emotions) from which to “bridge”.

  This takes us proactively into key developmental targets way back in the past whose re-working (those three Rs) will change both present and future.

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  4: Appropriate Activation (“Attachments”)

  As anyone who has trained in EMDR knows, Francine Shapiro and those who followed her placed, and continue to place, intense emphasis on a particular sequence of questions in the Standard Protocol’s Phase Three.

  This starts with the Negative Cognition (NC) that arises when thinking about a traumatic event, and is followed by an alternative Positive Cognition (PC), a Validity of that Cognition (VoC) on a scale of 1-7, then the attendant Emotion with its Subjective Unit of Distress (SUD) on a different scale of 0-10, then where that is happening in the Body.

  As so many of us know, what can happen is that both client and therapist ricochet between left and right brain, and EMDR is easily derailed. In ai-EMDR, we emphasise emotions and body sensations over cognitions and numbers, and get much more efficiently and quickly into the work.

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  5: Repair and Rewire (ARE – or “R“)

  In Phase Four of Standard EMDR (that’s the D for Desensitisation), therapists are told to stay out of the way as much as possible and let what’s termed the client’s Adaptive Information System do the work – the natural capacity to heal, emotionally as well as physically, which comes with being an evolutionary human being.In ai-EMDR, we allow and encourage much more space for proactive, imaginal and creative interweaves that are so often needed when working with a bereft, misunderstood, lonely, often traumatised child ego state.

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  6: Session Structure (Seriously Salient) 

  And finally, an absolutely central element of attachment-informed EMDR is ensuring that each session has a clear beginning, a processing middle, and an end. We bring the client explicitly back to the present (back across the bridge as it were) to check how the work we’ve done in the past is shifting their experience of the here and now, and of the immediate future. Which after all is why they’ve come to therapy in the first place.

  Of course we don’t literally change the past (that’s impossible), but with radical, with what can feel like an almost spell-busting focus that’s solidly based in neuroscience, we shift how those old dysfunctions are now stored in the nervous system.In attachment-informed EMDR, we never have an incomplete session.

  Just think about that!

Course Delivery & Pricing

Venue: Online, on Zoom.

Price: £495 (sum defined in GBP, but payable at the relevant daily rate in local currency.) See the booking form for discount options if you’re booking Part 2 at the same time, or going for a refresher. Note that these prices include appropriate taxes, full facilitation of triad/dyad work as well as workshop materials.

You can book Unleash Parts 1 and 2 together at a generous discount – £850 for the pair as against £990 if booked separately. The booking form has an option to tick. And there are discounts of various kinds for refreshers.

Take a close look at the various different timings, pitched at the UK and the US as well as at Australia/NZ.

Key Workshop Info

In these advanced workshops in integrative, advanced and transpersonal EMDR for attachment-informed complexity, Mark Brayne teaches ways to work with the most challenging clients, with generous and essential practicum space to practise these new skills for real and in full, with kind and focused support from our experienced (and friendly) team of EMDR Focus facilitators.

Workshops are built around live demonstrations of ai-EMDR, with pair- and triad-work as both therapist and client. Groups are kept manageable in size, so there’s rich opportunity for questions and discussion. You’ll have a unique opportunity to learn, at warp-speed and building on everything you were introduced to on your basic EMDR training, how to deliver the most powerful and effective EMDR whether online or in-person.

Unleash your EMDR – Release the Magic Part 1 has 12 EMDR Association UK CPD points and 12 CE points from EMDRIA. To qualify for the appropriate attendance certificates, colleagues will need to attend not just most of the teaching but also all three daily practicums. Recordings for those registered will be available for one month following the workshop. As long as anything else missed is viewed within that time frame, the certificates count for continued accreditation or certification.

Testimonials – Just a Few

From the EMDR Focus attachment training I have learnt so much. 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 practised as much as I can and I have found that it has reached places that no talking therapy ever could.

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.

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 live sessions 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.

This was probably the best CPD I’ve done. Mark is such a fantastic trainer. 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.

Your training is so good and so thorough. It’s like having the full training again, with extras. I love how it keeps to one central concept rather than reinventing techniques for different diagnoses.

I have been using everything I’ve learned and already am starting to see this make an incredible difference. It also reinforced for me that as a learner I really need that experiential element to consolidate what I learn by reading.

Mark and team create an immediately and incredibly trusting and safe environment in which to work. This enables vulnerabilities to come forth and realise effective work from the get-go. One of the most powerful and valuable courses I have experienced.

Mark’s enthusiasm for EMDR, and his love of teaching which is clearly a passion for him, is infectious and makes training with him so enjoyable and leaves you wanting more!

A fabulous combination of theory and practice, professionalism and warmth, seriousness and humour … all of which made for a brilliant learning environment. Skilfully done, thank you!

Mark’s passion for working in an attachment-informed way is inspiring and his depth of knowledge immense. The quality of the written materials provided is excellent.

It was an incredible weekend, with so much amazing knowledge delivered so compassionately. It has completely transformed how I approach my EMDR sessions and given me the ability to reach an entirely new level of healing with my clients. Genuinely transformative and magical.

To Bear in Mind

These workshops include full, in-depth and live demonstrations and experiences of EMDR with real personal issues. This can be powerful stuff, both for the group and for volunteers kindly offering themselves to work openly this way. Participants are invited to work in triads on similarly real issues, using the tools of attachment-informed EMDR, and this too can go deep. While we find that participants value this opportunity, be aware that 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, we ask attendees to 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, with access to any necessary therapeutic and/or supervisory support following the workshop should that be needed.

See here for our full Ts&Cs, including the waiver and release small print.

Cancellation Policy

If you need to cancel up to six weeks before the workshop, we will refund your fee minus a 10% handling charge. After that, refunds will be at the discretion of EMDR Focus.