Most clients respond to EMDR treatments with ease and surprising success, while others inexplicably become flooded, numb, sleepy, or blocked. Still others have symptoms that contraindicate the use of EMDR trauma processing, such as active addiction, recent sobriety, or self-destructive behavior. Faced with the EMDR client who cannot tolerate affect, who becomes overwhelmed by traumatic targets, who cannot stay grounded, manage self-destructive impulses, differentiate past and present experience, or create a Safe Place inside – is there any way that EMDR can be helpful?
The answer is “Yes.” Fortunately, the use of simple body-centered interventions drawn from Sensorimotor Psychotherapy that modulate autonomic arousal and address somatically-driven trauma responses can often make EMDR treatments accessible even for blocked, de-stabilized and dissociative clients.
This presentation will introduce a conceptual model for understanding how and when EMDR treatments can be effective even with dysregulated clients. Participants will be taught simple, body-centered interventions that can be woven into both trauma processing and Resource Development protocols.
Who should takes the course
- Counselors
- Social Workers
- Psychologists
- Psychiatrists
- Addiction Counselors
- Psychotherapists
- Therapists
- Marriage & Family Therapists
- Other Helping Professionals
Learning Objectives:
Upon completion of this workshop, participants will be able to:
- Identify dysregulation-related blocks to effective EMDR treatment.
- Integrate body-centered strategies into EMDR trauma processing.
- Utilize body-centered strategies as cognitive interweaves.
- Increase effectiveness of resource development strategies in preparation for EMDR trauma processing.
Course Modules / Outline
Challenges to EMDR Processing
- Effects of traumatic experience on autonomic nervous system
- Biased neuroception and triggering
- Phobias of memory and/or emotion
- Limitations of the research and potential risk
Increasing EMDR Effectiveness
- Observing autonomic effects of remembering the past
- Integrating grounding and centering techniques into EMDR processing
- Capitalizing on information obtained through the body
- Limitations of the research and potential risk
Somatic Interweaves
- When cognitive interweaves don’t work
- Mindfulness-based interweaves
- Somatic interweaves incorporated into EMDR processing
- EMDR resource development
- Traumatic activation and prefrontal shutdown
- Challenges of resource development
- Using somatic resources in place of positive experiences
- Limitations of the research and potential risk
Why Take This Course?
Even the most skilled EMDR practitioners encounter clients who hit a wall — they become flooded, numb, dissociative, or blocked in their processing. Others may have active addiction, recent sobriety, or self-destructive patterns that make traditional EMDR unsafe or ineffective. Without the right tools, these cases can stall progress and leave both client and therapist feeling frustrated.
This workshop with Janina Fisher, PhD offers a practical, body-centered roadmap to overcome those challenges. You’ll learn how to integrate somatic interventions from Sensorimotor Psychotherapy into your EMDR work, making trauma processing possible for even the most dysregulated clients. These strategies help regulate the nervous system, keep clients grounded, and transform moments of overwhelm into opportunities for healing.
By the end, you’ll have concrete skills to:
Recognize and address dysregulation that blocks EMDR’s effectiveness.
Use grounding, centering, and somatic interweaves to stabilize clients.
Enhance resource development for safe, effective trauma processing.
Whether you work with highly traumatized, dissociative, or emotionally fragile clients, this training equips you with immediately applicable techniques to make EMDR safer, more accessible, and more transformative.
Meet the Course Expert:
She is past president of the New England Society for the Treatment of Trauma and Dissociation, an EMDR International Association Credit Provider, Assistant Educational Director of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, and a former instructor, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Fisher lectures and teaches nationally and internationally on topics related to the integration of the neurobiological research and newer trauma treatment paradigms into traditional therapeutic modalities.
She is co-author with Pat Ogden of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Interventions for Attachment and Trauma (2015) and author of Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors: Overcoming Internal Self-Alienation (2017) and the forthcoming book, Working with the Neurobiological Legacy of Trauma (in press). Janina is the 2024 recipient of the Psychotherapy Networker Lifetime Achievement Award.
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