EMDR training
Practitioner programs
Trauma training
EMDR Advanced Training
EMDR with Adolescents
Parts Work, Modified Processing, and High-Risk Behaviors
Working with adolescents is different. Most therapists know this. What’s harder to articulate is exactly how EMDR needs to be different, and what to do when the standard protocol stops working.
Teens don’t process the way adults do. Their brains are in the middle of a structural renovation, back-to-front, with reward circuitry running ahead of impulse control and prefrontal regulation still years away from completion. When you add complex trauma, dissociation, and high-risk behaviors to that picture, the standard EMDR script isn’t just insufficient. It can push clients away from therapy entirely.
This five-module on-demand training with Jon Roberts, LCSW, CAS gives you a complete, developmentally grounded framework for EMDR with adolescents aged 13 to 18. You will learn how to adapt preparation, work with parts, modify phase 3, and apply specialized protocols for the teens whose risk behaviors are both symptom and barrier. The course is built around a continuous case study of a 15-year-old client named Riley, moving from intake through treatment so you can see every adaptation applied in real clinical context.
Practical Skills
Practical Interventions You'll Learn
You will learn how to:
- Adapt standard EMDR preparation using titrated, concrete, and creative alternatives to cliche exercises that teenagers are most likely to reject
- Build a Safe/Calm Estate, a teen-appropriate memory palace that functions as a container for resourcing across sessions
- Map and contact parts using an IFS-informed, structurally dissociative framework adapted for adolescent presentations
- Use concrete scaling, such as lumps of Play-Doh instead of 0-10 numbers, to avoid triggering school anxiety during phase 3
- Apply titration techniques, including the Walkie-Talkie and Videotape approaches, to prevent working memory overload during processing
- Use the Feeling-State Protocol to target the emotional drivers beneath high-risk behaviors
- Apply DeTUR (Desensitization of Triggers and Urge Reprocessing) for adolescents with substance use and addictive patterns
- Use the LOU-A (Level of Urge to Avoid) protocol for avoidant and shutdown presentations
- Conduct Internal Healing Dialogues between teen parts to resolve internal phobias and unblock processing
What You Get
What's Waiting for You Inside This Training
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Adapted EMDR preparation for teens
Use titrated, concrete, and creative alternatives to the standard exercises that adolescents are most likely to reject.
Parts work for adolescents
Map and contact parts using an IFS-informed, structurally dissociative framework adapted for teen presentations.
Modified phase 3 assessment
Activate traumatic memory networks using adaptations built for adolescent attention spans, nervous system states, and processing styles.
Protocols for high-risk behaviors
Apply DeTUR, the Feeling-State Protocol, and LOU-A for teens presenting with substance use, self-harm, or avoidance.
Continuous case study with Riley
Follow a 15-year-old client from intake through treatment to see every adaptation applied in real clinical context.
Internal Healing Dialogues
Facilitate dialogues between teen parts to resolve internal phobias and unblock stalled processing.
Lifetime on-demand access
Go at your own pace and return to the material whenever a teen client's presentation 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
Jon Roberts
LCSW, CAS
Jon Roberts is a licensed clinical social worker, certified addictions specialist, and EMDRIA Approved Consultant based in Colorado. He specializes in bringing EMDR to children, adolescents, and their families, with a caseload that routinely includes complex trauma, dissociation, and relational distress. He has a strong foundation in family systems and brings both clinical rigor and creative flexibility to his work, drawing on the approaches of Ana Gomez, Jim Knipe, Sue Johnson, and Richard Schwartz.
Jon’s approach is grounded in the belief that effective EMDR with adolescents requires genuine adaptation, not just simplified adult protocols. He strives to bring play and imagination into treatment and consultation, and to meet teens where their nervous systems actually are rather than where a protocol expects them to be.
Jon’s approach is grounded in the belief that effective EMDR with adolescents requires genuine adaptation, not just simplified adult protocols. He strives to bring play and imagination into treatment and consultation, and to meet teens where their nervous systems actually are rather than where a protocol expects them to be.
Free Resource
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Take The Next Step
Ready to Begin?
Meet Teens Where Their Nervous Systems Actually Are
Standard EMDR wasn't built for adolescent brains in the middle of structural renovation. This training gives you the preparation adaptations, parts work, and high-risk behavior protocols to do EMDR with teens in a way they will actually stay in.
Lifetime access. EMDRIA, ASWB, and NBCC CEs. A continuous case study showing every adaptation in real clinical context.