CompassionWorks

↩️ Before reaching for a new protocol, ask an old question: when did the nervous system learn this response was necessary?

EMDR Therapy keeps evolving, with new protocols, adaptations, and integrations. That's good for the field. But as Dr. Amber Quaranta-Leech, LPC-S, writes in her new article, it's easy to get so focused on what's next that the foundations slip out of view.

Her three reminders:
1️⃣ Symptoms are adaptations. The AIP lens looks at what the nervous system learned in order to survive, not only at what hurts now.

2️⃣ All 8 phases matter. Preparation builds the resources processing depends on, and the future template carries the work into what comes next.

3️⃣ Structure and safety go together. The protocol gives the session direction; attunement is what makes it safe for clients to go there.

Her closing line stays with us: "Sometimes the most valuable step forward is a return to the basics."

💬 Which of the three do you come back to most in your practice? Tell us in the comments.

📖 Read the full article → https://compassionworks.com/back-to-basics-8-phases-of-emdr/

⚠️ You're in Phase 4 and the client shuts down.
The problem usually started two phases earlier.

History-taking and preparation are where the treatment plan actually gets built — where patterns surface, where the target sequence takes shape, and where stabilization skills give a client something to stand on before processing begins.

Rush them and Phase 4 tends to let you know.

EMDR History and Preparation: A Step-by-Step Guide for Preparing Clients for EMDR

📅 Saturday, September 12
🕘 9:00 am–1:00 pm Central
💻 Live online
🎓 4 CE credits · $189
👤 With Amanda Martin, PhD, LMFT-S, LPC, BCN

Swipe to see what clinicians said after the last two workshops 👉

Register here: https://compassionworks.com/registration/emdr-history-and-preparation-a-step-by-step-guide-for-preparing-clients-for-emdr-sept-12-2026/

Save this if you've been meaning to tighten up your intake process, and send it to the colleague who keeps saying they'll get to it.

Post-conference brain is a real diagnosis.

Three days in Anaheim. Too much hotel coffee. A notebook that's now 80% underlined.

What stays with us isn't just the slides. It's the hallway conversations. The clinician two seats over who's been sitting with the same hard case you have. The reminder that the work is heavy and nobody's doing it alone.

We came home tired, a little fired up, and with a longer list of questions than we flew in with.

Which is exactly what a good conference does.

Were you there? Tell us the best thing you took home 👇

Dr. Jinnelle Powell Accepting her Emerging Leaders Award at the EMDRIA conference.

What happens when EMDR group protocols are delivered inside an active war zone?

That's one of two questions CompassionWorks is bringing to the EMDRIA Conference 2026.

1️⃣ Assessing the Impact of EMDR Group Protocols in Ukraine's Active War Zones
Amber Quaranta-Leech, Ph.D., LPC-S with Dr. Cindy P***n, LPC, NCC and Olya Zaporozhets, Ph.D.

Research from years one through two of the large-scale invasion, comparing EMDR G-TEP and EMDR-IGTP-OTS-R across trauma symptomology, resilience, and well-being.

2️⃣ Relational Neuroscience in EMDR
Jinnelle Powell, Ph.D. with Jessica Blakeslee, LPC-Associate.

How do relationships shape the way trauma is experienced — and healed? Relational-Cultural Theory and neuroscience brought together to sharpen case conceptualization and inform therapeutic presence.

📍 Anaheim Marriott, Anaheim, CA
🗓️ August 21–23 · Trainer & Consultant Day, August 20

Registration details at emdriaconference.com

⚠️ The protocol isn't the problem. The fit is.

In 2022, 56.1% of White adults with any mental illness received mental health treatment — compared to 39.6% of Hispanic, 37.9% of Black, and 36.1% of Asian adults (SAMHSA, 2022 NSDUH).

That gap isn't about need. It's about fit and access.

Culturally responsive EMDR isn't a separate protocol. It's the eight phases you already know, adapted in five specific places:

➡️ where the bilateral stimulation comes from
➡️ whose world the resources are built out of
➡️ whether the cognitions actually fit the client's framework
➡️ what language distress gets measured in
➡️ and the posture the clinician brings to all of it

Swipe through all five. Then read #5 twice — humility is a practice, not a credential.
July is Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month.

📥 Save this for your clinical toolkit and share it with a colleague who's adapting protocol on the fly.

🗨️ Then tell us: how do you adapt trauma work across the clients you serve?
👇 Companion guide in the comments.

Silent for 17 years. Then, all at once — it surfaces.

If July Were an Animal, it would be a cicada. 🦗

Some memories work the same way. When an experience overwhelms the brain's processing system, it isn't stored like an ordinary one — it's held raw, locked with the emotions and sensations of the moment it happened.

And like the cicada waiting for the soil to reach 64°F, it surfaces only when the present feels stable enough to hold it. 🌱

That's not a setback. It's the system signaling it's ready — and in EMDR, that's where the work begins: a memory processed and integrated, not erased.

👇 What's something that only surfaced once you were finally ready to meet it?
📌 Save it for a session. Send it to a colleague who works in trauma.

🔷 Online. In-Person. Hybrid. On-Demand.

EMDR training in 2026 doesn't have to bend around one rigid format.

💡 Four delivery options mean licensed clinicians can build the credential around the practice they already run — not the other way around.

Basic Training cohorts are open now (a few locations are already flagged LAST SPOTS), plus specialized workshops all year: Bilingual Refresh, Equine-Assisted, Parts Work, and more.

📌 Save this so the dates are here when you're ready.

↗️ Send it to a colleague who's been meaning to get trained.

🗨️Comment "ROADMAP" and we'll DM the direct registration links + full syllabus.
Full schedule at the link in first comment.