EMDR Advanced Training

EMDR and Animal-Assisted Therapy

Integrating the Human-Animal Bond

Trainer: Alison Leslie

On-Demand: Available with lifetime access for asynchronous learning. | This course was recorded on May 8th, 2025.

The human-animal bond is more than just companionship, it’s a powerful source of safety, regulation, and attachment. For many trauma survivors, animals serve as co-regulators, providing a sense of stability that traditional therapeutic approaches may struggle to replicate. But how do you ethically and effectively integrate this bond into EMDR therapy? This course bridges that gap, giving you the tools to honor and incorporate clients' deep connection to their animals into trauma processing.

You’ll learn how to recognize when an animal’s presence or memory can serve as a resource, how to weave attachment-based interventions into EMDR, and how to navigate grief and loss when a client’s animal has passed. Whether you work directly with therapy animals or simply want to integrate the human-animal bond into your practice, this course provides a framework for deepening the healing process in an ethical and trauma-informed way.

Alison Leslie Trainer Trauma Therapist Institute

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

This training introduces specific somatic skills and body-based interventions that integrate directly into your existing EMDR practice across all 8 phases. Each technique is taught with a clear clinical rationale and practical application.

Pendulation and Titration: Core somatic techniques for safely navigating client activation and expanding tolerance for internal experience.
Interoception and Somatic Awareness: How to develop client interoception as a Phase 2 Preparation tool, building the body-based foundation EMDR requires.
Witnessing the Body as a Processing Channel: New ways of tracking and responding to somatic cues across all phases, including during Phase 4 desensitization.
Implicit and Explicit Memory Mapping: How somatic cues and implicit memory patterns are held in the body, and how to use this understanding in EMDR case conceptualization.
Threat Response Cycle Integration: Apply the threat response cycle to case conceptualization to identify where a client is stuck and how to support resolution.
Somatic Interweaves for Stuck Processing: Body-based interweave techniques for Phase 4 Desensitization, including how to help the body register that it survived.
Healthy Touch and Self-Touch Protocols: Evidence-informed strategies for self-touch with clients during preparation and processing phases.
Working with Dissociation Somatically: Extra support for clients who override or disconnect from body experience, including somatic strategies for increased safety.

What You Get

What's Waiting for You Inside This Training

On-demand integrative EMDR training, polyvagal-informed teaching, and a supportive clinician community.

Animal connection across 8 phases

Integrate the human-animal bond into every phase of the EMDR protocol - therapy animal not required.

Phase 2 adaptive network building

Use the bond with clients' animals to build resourcing and strengthen adaptive memory networks.

Phase 4 animal-informed interweaves

Apply the human-animal bond interweaves to support dual attention and presence during desensitization.

Q&A and Chat

Submit questions and connect with peers through the on-demand course community.

Pet loss and grief support

Hold space for pet loss with trauma-informed strategies that honor the depth of the bond.

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 a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, EMDRIA-approved trainer, and animal-assisted services specialist.

Free community membership

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

Is This For You?

Who Is This Training For

This training is for EMDR-trained therapists who want to thoughtfully integrate animal-assisted therapy into trauma treatment. If you have completed EMDR Basic Training and are looking for practical, ethically grounded ways to incorporate animal-assisted interventions into your EMDR sessions, this course was built for you.

You will get the most out of this training if you are:

Integrate somatic therapy techniques across all eight phases of EMDR, from history taking through reevaluation, so body-based work is woven throughout treatment rather than added on
Apply the threat response cycle and polyvagal framework to understand how trauma is stored and experienced in the body, and use this to inform your clinical decisions at every phase
Develop client interoception and somatic awareness as a core Phase 2 preparation strategy, building the internal attunement clients need before reprocessing begins
Use pendulation, titration, and tracking of the internal experience to support clients in tolerating and processing somatic material without overwhelm
Support Phase 4 completion through body-based observation and somatic interweaves, including helping the body register safety after reprocessing
Identify how implicit memory, somatic cues, and self-protective responses are held in the body, and apply that understanding to case conceptualization and stuck-point work

Meet Your Trainer

About Your Trainer

Alison Leslie

LCSW, SEP

Alison is a licensed clinical social worker who lives in Bloomington, IN, and owns her own private practice, Empower Healing Counseling and Consultation.

Alison approaches therapy through the lens of presence and attunement and believes in being a guide to help clients find their own internal healing powers. She has a background in animal-assisted services and includes the human-animal bond and nature in the therapeutic experience. Alison Leslie is a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner and Transforming Touch Therapist as well as an EMDRIA-approved therapist, consultant, and trainer.

In consultation, Alison likes to meet the consultee where they are at and support helping the consult become embodied in the work they are doing and lean into their own internal guide as she supports their growth.

Investment

Ready to Get Started?

Bring body-based work into every phase of EMDR with a framework that holds up in real sessions. Lifetime access means you can return whenever a case calls for it.

Course Price

$140

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.
CEs - Earn EMDRIA, ASWB and NBCC CEs.

Additional Information

Course Details

Agenda

Introduction to the Human Animal Bond and Animal Assisted Services; animal welfare consideration; Neurobiological impact across the lifespan
Phase 1: History taking through the lens of the Human Animal Bond; Phase 2: Creating adaptive neural networks (experiential activity)
Animals as the guide to healing; phase 4 interweaves dual attention and closure strategies (experiential activity)
Special Topics: understanding calming signals in our animals; pet loss; exploring next steps in animal-assisted services

Learning Objectives

Examine the application of human-animal interventions throughout the 8 Phases of EMDR.
Analyze at least three Phase 2 Preparation interventions to support the development of adaptive memory networks.
Assess the impact of the human-animal bond on memory networks throughout a client's lifetime.
Analyze at least three human-animal bond based interweaves to apply to Phase 4 Desensitization.
Prepare a treatment plan that integrates the human-animal connection as an intervention for reducing and stabilizing symptoms.

Prerequisites

EMDR Basic Training

Continuing Education

4 CEs are available upon completion of all course material.

Trauma Therapist Institute is an approved continuing education provider. ACE and NBCC 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 4 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. Kase & CO is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.

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).