(Live) EMDR for First Responders & Secondary Traumatic Stress (2 Hours)

Course Description:

First responders, emergency medical staff, and veterinary teams are trained to contain emotion, stay logical, and keep moving — and that protective “armor” is often the very thing that stalls EMDR reprocessing when Phase 4 nears the pain. This training explores how secondary traumatic stress presents in emergency personnel, and how protective adaptations like “The Rock” and “The Hero” function as the client’s “Answer” within the S.A.F.E. EMDR framework. Drawing on Trauma Center Trauma-Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY), participants will learn a body-based “interoceptive pause” and a S.A.F.E.-informed cognitive interweave that meet survival responses — logic, anger, and dissociation — with safety and choice, helping guarded clients stay within the window of tolerance and move through desensitization rather than brace against it. The session includes screening and safety guidance for body-based trauma and a demonstration of the interweave. This workshop builds upon knowledge obtained in EMDR therapy training.

This training does not qualify you to practice EMDR

Learning Objectives

1. Identify at least three physiological and behavioral presentations of secondary traumatic stress in emergency personnel.
2. Describe the clinical rationale for a TCTSY-informed “interoceptive pause,” including how interoceptive awareness and invitational language support nervous-system regulation and keep clients within the window of tolerance.
3. Demonstrate a S.A.F.E.-informed cognitive interweave that integrates TCTSY invitational language to address survival responses (logic, anger, dissociation) during EMDR Phase 4.
4. Apply appropriate screening and safety considerations, including history-taking for body-based trauma, before introducing interoceptive or somatic invitations.