EMDR Advanced Training

EMDR and Complex PTSD

Trainer: Erica Bonham

Live: May 14th and 15th | 10:00 AM Central Time | Available for synchronous, live learning

Working with Complex PTSD asks more of you as a clinician: more nuance, more patience, and a much bigger toolkit. Standard EMDR protocols don’t always hold when your client dissociates, loops, or floods the moment you approach certain targets.
This live EMDR training is an advanced complex PTSD training for trauma therapists who want practical, neuro‑informed tools - not just theory. You’ll learn how to confidently adapt EMDR for complex trauma presentations, pace treatment safely, work skillfully with parts and dissociation, and support real, sustainable change instead of re‑traumatization.

I’m Ready to Help Clients Regulate and Heal

Why TTI

Built for Learning. Designed for Belonging.

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.

Practical Skills

Practical Interventions You'll Learn

In this advanced EMDR training for trauma therapists working with complex PTSD, you’ll learn how to:

Use a neuro-informed preparation hierarchy to match EMDR interventions to each client’s functional capacity and nervous system state.
Apply Polyvagal Theory to EMDR Phases 1–2 to improve regulation, safety, and dual awareness before and during reprocessing.
Implement ego state and parts-based EMDR interventions to stabilize fragmentation and support internal cooperation in clients with complex trauma.
Integrate somatic and mindfulness techniques to increase interoception, build distress tolerance, and anchor clients in the present.
Use constricted processing strategies (EMD & EMDr) when full EMDR would be destabilizing, including symptom-focused and fractionated targeting.
Apply “taxing working memory” and other stuck‑point strategies when clients loop, avoid, or become overwhelmed during processing.

What You Get

What's Waiting for You Inside This Training

What changes when you bring complex PTSD-specific tools into your EMDR work:

Clinical Competencies in Treating Dissociative Identities (EMDR)

Match interventions to nervous system state

Use a neuro-informed preparation hierarchy to meet each client where their capacity actually is, not where the protocol assumes they should be.

Build robust Phase 1 and 2 foundations

Layer resourcing, ego state work, somatic awareness, and mindfulness skills that prepare clients with complex trauma for reprocessing.

Work skillfully with parts and dissociation

Apply ego state and parts-based EMDR interventions that stabilize fragmentation and support internal cooperation.

Use constricted processing when needed

Apply EMD and EMDr, symptom-focused targeting, and fractionated memories when full EMDR would be destabilizing.

Navigate looping and stuck processing

Move clients through avoidance, overwhelm, and stalled processing using interweaves and working memory taxation strategies.

Screen for and enhance dual awareness

Identify dissociation early and adapt EMDR to keep clients connected to the present throughout reprocessing.

Pace treatment without re-traumatization

Sequence the work to support sustainable change, not destabilization or session-after fallout.

Know when EMDR is and isn't indicated

Assess complex PTSD presentations clearly, and communicate your clinical reasoning to clients with confidence.

Is This For You?

Who Is This Training For

This EMDR advanced training is designed for EMDR‑trained clinicians who want to:

Feel more confident using EMDR with clients who have Complex PTSD, chronic developmental trauma, or long histories of fragmentation and dissociation.
Go beyond standard protocols to pace treatment, plan targets, and adapt interventions to each client’s nervous system and capacity.
Have more options when clients loop, freeze, avoid, or become destabilized during or after EMDR sessions.
Integrate somatic, mindfulness, and ego state approaches into EMDR in a clear, structured way.
Ground their work in Polyvagal Theory and the AIP model without getting lost in theory or jargon.

Whether you work in private practice, agencies, IOP/PHP programs, or community mental health, if you regularly sit with clients whose trauma histories are layered, chronic, and complex, this trauma therapist training will expand what’s possible in your EMDR work.

Meet Your Trainer

About Your Trainer

Erica Bonham

LPC

Erica Bonham is a certified EMDR clinician, consultant, and trainer, and a licensed professional counselor in Colorado. She specializes in serving the LGBTQ community, abuse recovery, and trauma related to social injustice and spiritual abuse, with a focus on somatic and attachment-based EMDR and ego state work.

She brings a blend of rigor, irreverence, and heart to everything she teaches, with a commitment to dismantling systems of oppression and contributing to a more equitable world.

Investment

Ready to Get Started?

Course Price

$247

Lifetime access to the course - Refresh your skills anytime at your own pace. Get on-demand access after the live date.
Immediate clinical application - Walk away with tools you can use in your next session.
Flexible payment plans - Options to fit your budget.
CEs - Earn EMDRIA, ASWB, and NBCC CEs.

Get Lifetime Access

Additional Information

Course Details

Schedule

Day 1:

10:00 am - 10:10 am: Welcome, objectives, and presenter introduction
10:10 am - 11:00 am: Review of CPTSD, research, and usefulness of EMDR + Polyvagal Theory interventions
11:00 am - 11:10 am: Break
11:10 am - 12:10 pm: Therapeutic presence as an intervention and Phase 1
12:10 pm - 12:20 pm: Break
12:20 pm - 1:20 pm: Dissociation & dual awareness + Introduction to Ego States
1:20 pm - 1:30 pm: Break
1:30 pm - 2:15 pm: Ego States Interventions + Mindfulness Interventions
2:15 pm - 2:30 pm: Wrap-up, key takeaways, and Q&A

Day 2:

10:0 am - 11:00 am: Q&A + Somatic Interventions
11:00 am - 11:10 am: Break
11:10 am - 12:10 pm: Treatment planning with CPTSD
12:10 pm - 12:20 pm: Break
12:20 pm - 1:20 pm: EMD & EMDr techniques + Targeting symptoms for increased stabilization
1:20 pm - 1:30 pm: Break
1:30 pm - 2:15 pm: Fractionating a memory + Taxing working memory
2:15 pm - 2:30 pm: Wrap-up, key takeaways, and Q&A

Learning Objectives

Assess the usefulness of EMDR with CPTSD presentations and review contraindications for EMDR-based interventions.
Evaluate research and recommendations for the treatment of CPTSD, common clinical symptoms, and treatment guidelines.
Analyze core principles of Polyvagal Theory and appraise their application to EMDR Phases 1 & 2.
Utilize interventions to resource and stabilize clients with CPTSD.
Determine interventions to increase somatic awareness.
Integrate at least two techniques into your clinical practice with clients to increase dual awareness.
Appraise the usefulness of EMD & EMDR techniques for working with CPTSD clients and reducing intrusive and destabilizing symptoms.
Develop an EMDR treatment plan for CPTSD clients using the fractionated target technique.

Prerequisites

EMDR Basic Training

Continuing Education

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 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. Trauma Therapist Institute 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).

Take The Next Step

Ready to Begin?

Stop hoping EMDR will work with complex PTSD. Start using it strategically.

Your clients with complex trauma deserve more than a by-the-book protocol. This training gives you the pacing, the parts work, and the polyvagal-informed adaptations to do EMDR safely and effectively with the clients who challenge you most.
Lifetime access. EMDRIA, ASWB, and NBCC CEs. Session-ready interventions you can use this week.

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