Integrate Prior Research into Personal Style: Clinicians will learn to incorporate established EMDR couple therapy research and existing protocols (such as EFT, Imago, or Somatic approaches) into their own unique clinical style by using Polyvagal Theory as a foundational framework. Apply Polyvagal Theory as a “Matchmaker”: Participants will be able to explain how the core tenets of Polyvagal Theory—specifically neuroception, the hierarchy of autonomic states, and the social engagement system—serve as the essential bridge connecting EMDR with couples therapy. Execute the Role of Active Director and Co-regulator: Clinicians will develop the skills to use their own self-regulation as a physiological anchor to help couples move from reactive survival responses toward a secure connection, balancing support for each partner through multidirected partiality. Adapt EMDR Phases 1 and 2 for Relational Stability: Attendees will learn to adapt history-taking and preparation to identify maladaptive memory networks, assess individual autonomic blueprints, and implement resourcing to stabilize the relationship before reprocessing. Utilize Conjoint Witnessing for Empathy Building: Participants will learn to facilitate conjoint witnessing in Phases 3 and 4, coaching the observing partner to act as a “Compassionate Witness” who provides the working partner with a corrective emotional experience during EMDR desensitization and reprocessing. De-personalize and Externalize Relational Conflict: Clinicians will be equipped to help couples identify archaic survival responses (such as stonewalling or flooding) as autonomic reactions to perceived threats rather than intentional attacks, thereby reframing trauma as the primary antagonist in the relationship.

EMDR with Couples: Clinical Decision-Making and Protocol

Q: Continuing Education

6 CEs are available upon completion of all course material. Trauma Therapist Institute is an approved continuing education provider. ACE, NBCC and EMDRIA CEs are available for this course. APA CEs are not available for this course. Participants must complete the full training to receive credit. ACE Approved Provider Trauma Therapist Institute, #1869, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 1/16/25 - 1/16/28. Social workers completing this course receive 6 clinical continuing education credits. NBCC Approved Provider Trauma Therapist Institute has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7033. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. TTI is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. EMDRIA Approved Provider Trauma Therapist Institute is an EMDRIA Approved Training Provider. TTI courses are individually approved. CE Certificate will contain course approval number.

Most therapists who do EMDR work with couples eventually hit the same wall. You know the protocol. You know how to facilitate reprocessing. But in the couple's room, the rules change. One partner floods while the other shuts down. Trauma responses look like relationship conflict. And the standard EMDR protocol, designed for individual work, doesn't have a built-in answer for what to do next.

This training fills that gap. In this full-day EMDR training with Dr. Grace Chen, PhD, LMFT, you will learn a Polyvagal-informed framework for adapting EMDR to the couples therapy room: how to assess relational readiness, how to move through the EMDR phases with two clients present, how to use conjoint witnessing as a vehicle for corrective emotional experience, and how to make the complex clinical decisions that standard EMDR training simply doesn't prepare you for.

Dr. Chen brings a rare combination of credentials to this work: an EMDRIA Approved Consultant, AAMFT Clinical Fellow, and a couples specialist whose entire clinical identity sits at the intersection of EMDR and relational therapy. This isn't adapted content. This is her actual clinical practice.

Shame-Free Space for Learning™

Because the best learning happens when you feel safe. Ask freely, show up fully, and learn in a relational, non-judgmental environment built for practitioners like you.

Expert Clinical Training

Expect real case examples, clear guidance, and a teaching style that makes even complex topics feel approachable so you can confidently use what you learn in session right away.

Where Learning Meets Community

Join a community of clinicians learning side by side, sharing real case insights and peer support so you can grow your skills with confidence alongside your peers in meaningful connection.

In this EMDR couples therapy training, you will learn how to:

Screen couples for EMDR suitability using a structured exclusion criteria framework, covering active domestic violence, affect tolerance, psychiatric stability, and willingness to engage in the process.
Evaluate how the couple's relational dynamics, including attachment patterns, capacity for repair, and power dynamics, will either support or actively work against EMDR reprocessing, so you can make an informed clinical decision before beginning.
Use your own autonomic nervous system as a physiological anchor to maintain multidirected partiality, providing co-regulation when a couple is locked in survival responses and neither partner can access their social engagement system.
Conduct an Integrated Relational History-Taking process using the Gottman Relationship History Interview to identify significant attachment injuries, map a traumatic history of the relationship, and screen for exclusion criteria including active domestic violence and limited affect tolerance.
Facilitate Relational TICES and State Naming in Phase 2, helping partners notice and name their physiological reactivity so that conflict can be externalized as an archaic survival response rather than an intentional attack.
Implement Advanced Dyadic Resourcing techniques, including building internal nurturing relationships for partners with early trauma and creating Positive Pro-Attachment Timelines to stabilize the present relationship before addressing feeder memories.
Navigate reprocessing setup in Phases 3 through 7, including the clinical distinction between conjoint witnessing and joint bilateral stimulation, and the use of relational interweaves when processing stalls.
Apply Future Template work to reinforce adaptive information and address anticipatory anxiety around relational challenges such as communication patterns, co-parenting dynamics, and the facilitation of forgiveness.

Incorporate established EMDR couples therapy research and existing relational protocols (including EFT, Imago, and somatic approaches) into your own clinical style, using Polyvagal Theory as a unifying framework across modalities.
Explain how the core tenets of Polyvagal Theory, specifically neuroception, the hierarchy of autonomic states, and the social engagement system, serve as the essential bridge connecting EMDR with the relational dynamics of couples work.
Adapt EMDR Phases 1 and 2 for relational stability by identifying maladaptive memory networks in each partner, assessing individual autonomic blueprints, and implementing resourcing strategies that stabilize the couple system before any reprocessing begins.
Facilitate conjoint witnessing in Phases 3 and 4, coaching the observing partner to act as a Compassionate Witness who provides the working partner with a corrective emotional experience during desensitization and reprocessing.
Help couples de-personalize and externalize relational conflict by identifying stonewalling, flooding, and other archaic survival responses as autonomic reactions to perceived threat rather than intentional relational attacks, reframing trauma as the primary antagonist in the relationship.
Make confident, informed clinical decisions at each phase of the EMDR process when two nervous systems are present in the room.

Expect a full day of practical, clinically grounded content with protocols, scripts, and frameworks you can bring directly into your couples work.

Couples EMDR readiness screening

Use a structured exclusion criteria framework covering DV, affect tolerance, and stability.

Integrated Relational History-Taking

Apply the Gottman Relationship History Interview to map attachment injuries and the trauma history of the relationship.

Advanced Dyadic Resourcing

Build internal nurturing relationships and Positive Pro-Attachment Timelines for couples with early trauma.

Live Q&A and chat

Connect with Dr. Grace Chen and peers in real time. Ask questions, share insights.

Relational interweaves

Apply interweaves designed for the couples room when reprocessing stalls between two nervous systems.

Learn on your schedule

On-demand access means you go at your own pace. Lifetime access is included, so you can return whenever you need it.

Expert clinical insight

Case-grounded teaching from an EMDRIA Approved Consultant, AAMFT Clinical Fellow, and couples specialist.

Free community membership

Join TTI's shame-free community of practitioners for ongoing conversations, support, and resources. No cost, no catch.

Confidently adapt the EMDR protocol for couples without abandoning the standard phases or improvising your way through complex sessions.
Understand how Polyvagal Theory explains what's happening in the room when one partner shuts down, and the other escalates, and know exactly what to do next.
Work with couples where individual trauma histories are driving relational conflict, and move beyond surface-level communication interventions.
Use dyadic resourcing and conjoint witnessing as structured, evidence-informed techniques rather than improvised supports.
Make sound clinical decisions about when to proceed with reprocessing, when to return to stabilization, and how to hold the therapeutic frame when both partners need you at once.
Integrate your existing modalities (whether EFT, Gottman, somatic, or IFS-informed approaches) with EMDR in a way that feels cohesive and clinically grounded.

Whether you work in private practice, a group setting, or a community agency, if you are bringing EMDR into the room with couples and want a clear, structured, Polyvagal-informed approach, this training was built for you.

Prerequisites note: Participants should have completed EMDR Basic Training. Prior couples therapy training is beneficial but not required.

Dr. Grace Chen is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, EMDRIA Approved Consultant, and AAMFT Clinical Fellow whose clinical practice sits entirely at the intersection of trauma and relational therapy. EMDR is her primary treatment model. Gottman's Method is her relational framework. And attachment theory is the foundation underneath both.

Dr. Chen specializes in working with individuals and couples navigating complex trauma, PTSD, anxiety, communication breakdown, and infidelity recovery. As a Taiwanese immigrant, she is a bilingual (English and Mandarin Chinese) and bicultural therapist with deep experience supporting immigrant couples and those navigating cross-cultural relationships. She brings both clinical precision and genuine relational warmth to everything she teaches.

Schedule - Central Time

9:00 am - 9:10 am: Welcome, objectives, and presenter introduction
9:10 am - 10:00 am: Overview of EMDR in Couples Therapy
10:00 am - 10:10 am: Break
10:10 am - 11:10 am: Polyvagal Theory and the Nervous System in Relationships
11:10 am - 11:20 am: Break
11:20 am - 12:30 pm: Trauma as the Root of Relational Conflict
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm: Lunch
1:30 pm - 2:30 pm: Identifying Maladaptive Interaction Cycles in Couples
2:30 pm - 2:40 pm: Break
2:40 pm - 3:30 pm: EMDR Preparation and Resourcing with Couples
3:30 pm - 3:40 pm: Break
3:40 pm - 4:15 pm: EMDR Reprocessing and Future Templates in Couples Therapy
4:15 pm - 4:30 pm: Wrap-up, key takeaways, and Q&A

Learning Objectives

Integrate Prior Research into Personal Style: Clinicians will learn to incorporate established EMDR couple therapy research and existing protocols (such as EFT, Imago, or Somatic approaches) into their own unique clinical style by using Polyvagal Theory as a foundational framework.
Apply Polyvagal Theory as a “Matchmaker”: Participants will be able to explain how the core tenets of Polyvagal Theory—specifically neuroception, the hierarchy of autonomic states, and the social engagement system—serve as the essential bridge connecting EMDR with couples therapy.
Execute the Role of Active Director and Co-regulator: Clinicians will develop the skills to use their own self-regulation as a physiological anchor to help couples move from reactive survival responses toward a secure connection, balancing support for each partner through multidirected partiality.
Adapt EMDR Phases 1 and 2 for Relational Stability: Attendees will learn to adapt history-taking and preparation to identify maladaptive memory networks, assess individual autonomic blueprints, and implement resourcing to stabilize the relationship before reprocessing.
Utilize Conjoint Witnessing for Empathy Building: Participants will learn to facilitate conjoint witnessing in Phases 3 and 4, coaching the observing partner to act as a “Compassionate Witness” who provides the working partner with a corrective emotional experience during EMDR desensitization and reprocessing.
De-personalize and Externalize Relational Conflict: Clinicians will be equipped to help couples identify archaic survival responses (such as stonewalling or flooding) as autonomic reactions to perceived threats rather than intentional attacks, thereby reframing trauma as the primary antagonist in the relationship.

Prerequisites

EMDR Basic Training

Continuing Education

6 CEs are available upon completion of all course material.

Trauma Therapist Institute is an approved continuing education provider. ACE, NBCC and EMDRIA CEs are available for this course. APA CEs are not available for this course.

Participants must complete the full training to receive credit.

ACE Approved Provider

Trauma Therapist Institute, #1869, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 1/16/25 - 1/16/28. Social workers completing this course receive 6 clinical continuing education credits.

NBCC Approved Provider

Trauma Therapist Institute has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7033. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. TTI is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.

EMDRIA Approved Provider

Trauma Therapist Institute is an EMDRIA Approved Training Provider. TTI courses are individually approved. CE Certificate will contain course approval number.

Course Completion

To receive a CE certificate, participants must complete the entire course, complete the post-test with a score of 80% or above, and complete the course evaluation. You may retake the post-test as needed. Once completed, a CE certificate will auto-populate to your online account.

Cancellation Policy

Please reference our cancellation policy here (bottom section of this page).

EMDR Advanced Training

EMDR with Couples

Clinical Decision-Making and Protocol

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