CompassionWorks

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CompassionWorks CompassionWorks was founded in 1998 by Jordan Shafer, MS, LPC.

It is now a multi‑partner LLC in Texas that provides EMDR Basic Training and Continuing Education opportunities for mental health professionals. CompassionWorks LLC provides EMDR training and Continuing Education opportunities for mental health professionals. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is an evidence‑based therapy that helps individuals move beyond emotional distress so they can feel more present, grounded, and connected in their daily lives. EMDR therapy goes beyond talk therapy by helping the brain rewire how emotional experiences are linked—often reducing anxiety and opening the door to meaningful change. We offer EMDR International Association (EMDRIA)–approved EMDR Basic Training for mental health professionals, including psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, psychologists, social workers, professional counselors, and graduate students in mental health-related fields who are completing their internships. Continuing Education (CE) credits are also available for EMDR‑trained professionals.

🌐 www.CompassionWorks.com
📧 [email protected]
📞 (281) 433‑8133

EMDR trained and EMDR certified aren't the same thing.Completing an EMDRIA-approved Basic Training makes a clinician EMD...
10/08/2026

EMDR trained and EMDR certified aren't the same thing.

Completing an EMDRIA-approved Basic Training makes a clinician EMDR trained. Becoming an EMDRIA Certified Therapist™ is a separate, optional step that comes after, with its own requirements: 50 EMDR sessions with at least 25 clients, 20 consultation hours, 12 EMDRIA Credits, and three letters of recommendation.

Swipe through for the essentials, including the detail many clinicians miss about consultation hours.

The full step-by-step guide is on the CompassionWorks blog, covering eligibility, costs, renewal, and what's coming from CompassionWorks in early 2027.
Link in the comments.

From the outside, EMDR looks like one thing: following a finger with your eyes.From the inside, it's eight phases, a the...
09/30/2026

From the outside, EMDR looks like one thing: following a finger with your eyes.

From the inside, it's eight phases, a theoretical model, careful preparation, target sequencing, resourcing, and dozens of clinical decisions nobody sees.

Every EMDR clinician brings all of these into the room. The bilateral stimulation is just the part people notice.

What bubble would you add? 💬

"Certified" and "trained" are not the same thing.Completing EMDR Basic Training makes you a trained EMDR therapist. EMDR...
09/24/2026

"Certified" and "trained" are not the same thing.

Completing EMDR Basic Training makes you a trained EMDR therapist. EMDRIA Certification is a separate credential that comes later. Some providers blur the line, and that's one of five things worth checking before you enroll.

The other four: EMDRIA approval, whether the 10 consultation hours are in the price, whether you'll practice live with feedback, and who's actually teaching.

Swipe for the full checklist.

CompassionWorks' next online Basic Training: October 16–18 and November 6–8. Early-bird pricing ends October 2.

All upcoming dates for Basic Training + Advanced Workshops: https://compassionworks.com/courses/

↩️ Before reaching for a new protocol, ask an old question: when did the nervous system learn this response was necessar...
09/21/2026

↩️ 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 prepara...
09/03/2026

⚠️ 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.

08/31/2026

Boiling the water and never cooking the pasta.🍝

"I didn't have time to start Phase 4, so I just went through Phase 3."

If that sentence has ever come out of your mouth, this one's for you.

Phase 3 turns the burner on. It activates the memory. If the session ends there, the client walks out with the water boiling and nothing cooked, and nobody wants to be served crunchy pasta.

Amber's second take: don't mix the batter and skip the oven. That dough isn't sitting there getting better overnight. It's not sourdough. 🎂

👉 If there's time to open Phase 3, there needs to be time to move into Phase 4.

📥Save this for your next session prep, and send it to the colleague who's always racing the clock.

Post-conference brain is a real diagnosis.Three days in Anaheim. Too much hotel coffee. A notebook that's now 80% underl...
08/27/2026

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.
08/21/2026

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

08/21/2026

So very proud to know Dr. Jinnelle Powell and have her as a part of our CompassionWorks training team. Congratulations Dr. Powell, the Emerging Leader Award is well earned.

What happens when EMDR group protocols are delivered inside an active war zone?That's one of two questions CompassionWor...
08/05/2026

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

Address

3431 Rayford Road
Spring, TX
77386

Telephone

(972) 342-2448

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