Advanced course
EMDR & Parenting
For therapists who work with parents, kids, teens and whole families. Bring the attachment lens of Emotionally Focused Family Therapy into your EMDR work, so the people who share a home can stop fighting and start reaching for each other.
- EFFT + EMDRFamilies, through an attachment lens
- EMDRIA creditsAdvanced EMDR training
- FormatAnnounced with each date
- Small groupsReal cases, slowed down
The idea
Most family fights are attachment cries in disguise.
A parent gets angry because they are scared for their child. A teenager slams a door because being seen feels unbearable. Underneath the noise, somebody is asking, “Are you there for me?” and not getting an answer they can hear.
Emotionally Focused Family Therapy gives you the map: the attachment needs, the blocks that keep parents from responding, and the moves that turn a standoff into a reach. And often, what blocks a parent isn’t the child at all. It’s the parent’s own history, showing up in the room. That is where EMDR earns its keep.
“EMDR is a very useful tool when relationships are distressed.”
Kathleen
“A father and son came in fighting, baring teeth. The son had been cut from a team and sat around for two days. Dad showed his compassion by getting angry and calling him a quitter. I slowed it down and asked Dad if he had ever been rejected. He flooded with memories. The son, wide-eyed, told his dad he was sad for him. Then he laughed: ‘Dad, you’ve had a lot of little t’s. Maybe you should pick one.’ We set up a full reprocessing. As they left, I saw the dad drape his arm around his son’s shoulders.”
Who this is for
EMDR-trained therapists who see families, or wish they could.
This is an advanced course. It assumes you know your EMDR protocols and are using them. You don’t need prior EFFT training; you’ll learn the moves here.
You’ll be at home here if:
- You’ve completed a full EMDRIA-approved Basic Training and use EMDR with clients.
- You work with children, teens or parents, and the family keeps landing in your office one way or another.
- You see the parent’s own story getting in the way, and you want a respectful way to work with it.
- You want tools for the session where everyone is talking at once and nobody is listening.
Not sure whether you qualify? Ask Kathleen. She’ll tell you straight.
What you’ll explore
The attachment lens, applied to the whole family.
- Family distress from an attachment perspective: needs, fears and the patterns that keep everyone stuck
- The core moves of Emotionally Focused Family Therapy: de-escalating the cycle, restructuring the parent’s response, and helping the child reach
- Spotting parental blocks, and when the block is the parent’s own unprocessed history
- EMDR resourcing that helps a frightened parent or child settle enough to stay in the room
- Weaving slow, short bilateral stimulation into family moves, so people can feel the shift in their bodies
- Choosing a specific memory to reprocess when a parent’s past is running the present, and how to do it with the family’s support
Short teaching, then practice. You’ll work in small groups, taking turns as therapist, parent and child, with a debrief after every practice so nobody leaves holding something alone.
By the end, you will
- See family conflict as attachment distress, and be able to reframe it that way with the family
- Have practiced the core EFFT moves
- Know how to resource parents and kids in the room using EMDR
- Have practiced weaving slow BLS into family work
- Have a plan for when, and how, to reprocess a parent’s own memory
- Earn EMDRIA credits, plus slides, handouts and protocols
How it works
Slow it down. Pick one. Reprocess.
The rhythm of the course is the rhythm of the work.
-
1
Slow it down
See the cycle
Learn to interrupt the fight kindly, name the pattern, and help each person hear what the other is really asking for.
-
2
Find the block
Often, the parent’s past
When a parent can’t respond, look for the memory underneath. Guide the meandering, and help them pick one specific moment.
-
3
Reprocess, then reach
EMDR in service of the bond
Resource, reprocess, and come back to the family with a parent who can finally be there. Then practice the reach.
Next cohort
Dates & details
EMDR & Parenting
This course runs when a small group is ready. Leave your name and you’ll hear the moment a date is set.
Your trainer
Taught by someone from an enormous family.
Kathleen Fitzgerald is an EMDRIA Approved Trainer and Approved Consultant, and a Certified EFT, EFIT and EFFT Therapist. She spent years working with relationships and attachment, especially with families where learning differences and ADD were part of the picture.
Before she was a therapist, she was a teacher. She comes from an enormous family and tries her best to make each youngen think she loves them best of all. She knows what a kitchen-table fight feels like from every chair.
Read Kathleen’s storyQuestions
Before you sign up
Do I need EFT or EFFT training first?
No. You’ll learn the core moves of Emotionally Focused Family Therapy in this course. If you already have EFT or EFFT training, you’ll go deeper on weaving EMDR into it.
Is this a course on doing EMDR with children?
Not exactly. The focus is the family system: parents, kids and the pattern between them. You’ll learn to resource children and parents in the room and, most of all, to work with what blocks a parent from responding. If you want child-specific EMDR protocols, ask Kathleen what she recommends.
Online or in person?
The format is announced with each date. Some cohorts run live online; some run in person in North Carolina. Either way, the practice happens in small groups with a debrief.
Do I have to have finished Basic Training?
Yes. This is an advanced course. Participants must have completed a full EMDR Basic Training, received a Certificate of Completion, and be using EMDR with clients.
Are there EMDRIA credits?
Yes. The number of credits matches the length of the cohort and is listed with each date.
Help families stop fighting and start reaching.
Seats are limited so the practice groups stay small. Ask Kathleen anything before you decide.
The Lavender Letter
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An occasional note from Kathleen with one EMDR teaching tip, upcoming training dates, and a little news from the garden. Seats are limited, and subscribers hear first.
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