By integrating the EMDR 8-phase protocol with Jaak Panksepp’s affective circuits and cultivating the observing self, this advanced workshop offers therapists a neuro-affective roadmap to deepen trauma processing and facilitate affective integration and organization smoothly.

We will target clients’ protective affective states—FEAR (anxiety), PANIC/GRIEF (despair), and RAGE (anger)—each with its unique signature of body sensations, cognitions, and subjective experience. Understanding how these protective affects develop and become stuck enables therapists to identify and work effectively with trauma responses.

The workshop then shifts to positive affective systems—SEEKING (curiosity), CARE (connection/compassion), PLAY (joy and regulation), and LUST, which support healing, resilience, and forward movement. These affects will be engaged when using EMDR interweaves, such as activating SEEKING/curiosity or CARE/compassion to facilitate processing.

EMDR’s bilateral stimulation and the observing stance help engage these affective pathways, bringing clients into the here-and-now to restore affective flow and support integration. We aim to help clients move fluidly between affects while creating a new, coherent narrative. We will also examine the brain mechanisms activated during this process.

Finally, the workshop will include work with interweaves and the inner child, especially for clients with complex trauma.