EMDR training
Practitioner programs
Trauma training
Free Course
Introduction to Somatic EMDR
From Survival to Flourishing
Your clients are doing EMDR. Their bodies are doing something else entirely.
You follow the protocol. You pace carefully. You do everything right. And yet some clients go blank the moment you approach a target. Others flood hours after a session. Some stay stuck in the same place for weeks, no matter how thoughtful your preparation.
This isn't a failure of your training. It's a signal from the body that standard protocol alone isn't reaching everything that needs to be reached.
This free one-hour course is an introduction to Somatic EMDR: what it is, why it matters, and how integrating somatic awareness into your EMDR practice can open new pathways to healing for the clients who need it most.
Taught by Alison Leslie, LCSW, SEP, clinician and somatic EMDR specialist, this course gives you a grounded foundation in the principles that bridge body-based therapy and EMDR's evidence-based protocol, without abandoning fidelity to either.
It is also the starting point for the full Somatic EMDR Practitioner Program, an EMDRIA-approved advanced training for EMDR therapists ready to bring the body fully into their work.
Practical Skills
Practical Interventions You'll Learn
In this free introduction to Somatic EMDR, you'll learn how to:
- Understand how EMDR and somatic therapy complement each other to support bottom-up and top-down healing
- Apply the Nest Metaphor as a body-based framework for understanding how a client's history shaped their nervous system, and how present-day triggers connect to that history
- Recognize the difference between escapable and inescapable threat, and how incomplete threat response cycles show up as stuck or dysregulated EMDR processing
- Use curiosity as a clinical guide in Phase 2, slowing the pace so the body can lead through interoception and felt sense
- Apply the Finding the Whispers technique to help clients notice comfortable sensations alongside uncomfortable ones and build interoceptive capacity
- Use Finding the Edge to gently identify the boundaries of activation, staying just at the edge to observe what unfolds without flooding
- Teach clients to track moment-to-moment body changes using naming and noticing skills drawn from Kathy Kain's work
- Practice somatic self-of-the-therapist awareness, tracking countertransference in real time to stay grounded and present with your clients
What You Get
What's Waiting for You Inside This Training
.webp)
EMDR and somatic integration
See how the two approaches complement each other to support both bottom-up and top-down healing.
The Nest Metaphor
Use this body-based framework to map how a client's history shaped their nervous system.
Escapable vs. inescapable threat
Recognize how incomplete threat response cycles drive stuck or dysregulated EMDR processing.
Finding the Whispers
Help clients notice comfortable sensations alongside uncomfortable ones to build interoceptive capacity.
Finding the Edge
Identify the boundaries of activation and stay just at the edge to observe what unfolds without flooding.
Somatic self-of-the-therapist awareness
Track countertransference in real time to stay grounded and present with your clients.
Lifetime on-demand access
Go at your own pace and return to the material whenever a client's somatic work calls for it.
Free community membership
Join TTI's shame-free community of practitioners for ongoing conversations, support, and resources. No cost, no catch.
Meet Your Trainer
About Your Trainer
Alison Leslie
LCSW, SEP
Alison Leslie, LCSW, SEP, is a trauma-informed clinician, trainer, and consultant based in Bloomington, IN. She is the owner of Empower Healing Counseling and Consultation and one of a small number of practitioners working at the intersection of EMDR, somatic therapy, and the healing power of the human-animal bond.
Alison is known for her warm, curiosity-based teaching approach and for creating learning environments where therapists feel genuinely supported, not evaluated. She specializes in helping mental health professionals reconnect with their clinical confidence and trust their intuitive wisdom, especially when working with complex cases.
She leads the Somatic EMDR Practitioner Program at the Trauma Therapist Institute, an EMDRIA-approved advanced training for EMDR therapists ready to integrate somatic principles into their full clinical practice.
Take The Next Step
Ready to Begin?
Your Clients Are Doing EMDR. Their Bodies Are Doing Something Else.
When clients freeze, flood, or stay stuck despite careful preparation, the body is signaling that standard protocol alone is not reaching everything that needs to be reached. This free introduction gives you the Nest Metaphor, the threat response framework, and the somatic awareness foundations to begin bridging EMDR and the body.
Free. Lifetime access. ASWB and NBCC CEs.