EMDR & Parts Work for Treating Complex Trauma – Free Training with Arielle Schwartz
Complex trauma work can become difficult when defensiveness, dissociation, internal conflict, or emotional dysregulation interrupts the treatment process. Clinicians may understand the client’s history while still needing practical ways to support safety, engagement, and careful trauma processing.
This free one-day training explores how elements of EMDR, parts work, somatic psychology, and relational awareness can be integrated when working with complex trauma. The emphasis is on understanding the client’s protective responses rather than treating resistance as a failure of motivation.
Through step-by-step teaching and applied skills, you will examine assessment, case conceptualization, preparation for reprocessing, co-regulation, containment, self-compassion, and resilience. The training presents these approaches as adaptable clinical education, not as a replacement for professional judgment or individualized treatment planning.
Whether you already work with complex trauma or are strengthening your trauma-informed foundation, the program offers a structured opportunity to consider how multiple approaches may support safer and more responsive care.
Why Attend “EMDR & Parts Work for Treating Complex Trauma: Somatic Techniques to Decrease Defensiveness and Facilitate Trauma Processing”
Complex trauma can involve dissociation, fragmented self-states, shame, attachment wounds, and protective responses that complicate treatment. When these concerns are approached through a single method without sufficient preparation or flexibility, clients may struggle to remain present and engaged.
This training examines how parts work, modified EMDR approaches, somatic psychology, interpersonal neurobiology, and relational awareness may be used together. The integrated framework can help clinicians think more carefully about assessment, stabilization, co-regulation, and readiness for trauma processing.
The purpose is not to offer a universal protocol or guarantee a particular clinical result. Instead, the program provides practical concepts and skills that you can evaluate within your scope of practice, training, client needs, and professional responsibilities.
Who Should Attend
This training is designed for clinicians and helping professionals who work with trauma, complex PTSD, dissociation, emotional dysregulation, attachment concerns, or protective client responses. It may be particularly relevant for practitioners who want a clearer framework for integrating relational, somatic, parts-based, and EMDR-informed concepts.
The material includes both foundational concepts and applied interventions, but it does not replace formal training, supervision, consultation, or profession-specific requirements. Participants should evaluate every technique according to their credentials, competence, setting, and the needs of each client.
- Psychologists and clinical counselors working with trauma
- Marriage and family therapists supporting clients with complex histories
- Clinical social workers seeking integrative trauma-treatment concepts
- Trauma therapists interested in parts work and somatic psychology
- EMDR-trained clinicians exploring modifications for complex presentations
- Practitioners working with dissociation or emotional fragmentation
- Clinicians supporting clients affected by shame and attachment wounds
- Helping professionals interested in resilience-informed care
What You’ll Learn
Complex trauma often requires attention to more than the traumatic memory itself, and you’ll explore how neurobiology, dissociation, attachment, and protective self-states can shape the course of treatment.
From there, the training connects parts work with modified EMDR concepts, so you can consider ways to support containment, dual attention, mindfulness, self-compassion, and preparation before trauma reprocessing.
The program also looks beyond symptom management by addressing co-regulation, relational awareness, resilience, and post-traumatic growth. Throughout the day, the emphasis remains on thoughtful clinical application rather than a rigid or guaranteed treatment formula.
- How complex PTSD and dissociation may affect trauma treatment
- Ways polyvagal theory can inform social engagement and co-regulation
- How to assess chronic, repeated, developmental, and sociocultural trauma
- How parts, ego states, and protective defenses can create barriers to change
- Strategies for understanding emotional dysregulation as a part of self
- How modified EMDR protocols may support complex trauma treatment
- Ways to build choice, containment, mindfulness, and self-compassion
- How relational and somatic skills can support trauma-informed care
- How resilience practices may help clients move beyond learned helplessness
Event Schedule
The live training is presented by Arielle Schwartz, PhD, CCTP-II, E-RYT, EMDR-C, and includes more than six hours of instruction across four course areas.
The published event time is 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM Central Time. That corresponds to 7:30 AM to 3:00 PM Pacific Time.
A 40-minute lunch is scheduled from 12:30 PM to 1:10 PM Central, or 10:30 AM to 11:10 AM Pacific. The program also includes one 15-minute morning break and one 15-minute afternoon break.
Thursday, October 22, 2026
- EMDR & Parts Work for Treating Complex Trauma: Somatic Techniques to Decrease Defensiveness and Facilitate Trauma ProcessingPresented by Arielle Schwartz, PhD, CCTP-II, E-RYT, EMDR-C — 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM Central / 7:30 AM to 3:00 PM Pacific
- Understanding Complex Trauma: The Neurobiology of PTSDStress, trauma, complex PTSD, dissociation, interpersonal neurobiology, somatic psychology, social engagement, polyvagal theory, relational awareness, and co-regulation
- How to Assess for a Complex Diagnosis: History Taking and Case ConceptualizationDevelopmental and sociocultural trauma, betrayal trauma, insecure attachment, dissociation, parts, defenses, shame, emotional dysregulation, and the adult self
- Moving Clients Forward: Modified EMDR and Parts Work for Complex PTSDThe eight phases of EMDR therapy, neural networks, ego states, bilateral stimulation, dual attention, preparation, containment, repair scenarios, reprocessing, and positive state installation
- The 6 Pillars of Resilience: For Post-Traumatic Growth and HealingTrauma recovery, resilience as a process and outcome, learned optimism, and creating a resilience recipe
About Arielle Schwartz, PhD
Arielle Schwartz, PhD, CCTP-II, E-RYT, EMDR-C, is a clinical psychologist, teacher, therapeutic yoga instructor, and author whose work focuses on PTSD, complex trauma, and integrative approaches to trauma recovery.
She is the author of six books, including The Complex PTSD Workbook, The Post Traumatic Growth Guidebook, A Practical Guide to Complex PTSD, EMDR Therapy and Somatic Psychology, The Complex PTSD Treatment Manual, and Therapeutic Yoga for Trauma Recovery.
Her teaching brings together EMDR, somatic psychology, parts work therapy, mindfulness-based interventions, interpersonal neurobiology, and resilience-informed care. This combination reflects her broader mind-body approach to understanding trauma and supporting recovery.
Dr. Schwartz is the founder of the Center for Resilience Informed Therapy in Boulder, Colorado, where she maintains a private practice and provides psychotherapy, supervision, and consultation. She also draws from her long-term meditation and yoga practice in her professional work.
Free Gifts for Attendees
Complete Course Materials
- The complete set of materials provided for the course
- Resources connected to the concepts and skills taught during the training
- Materials available to registered participants through the event platform
Three-Day Replay Access
- On-demand access to the training recording for three days
- Replays expected to become available within the week after the training
- Access provided through the same account portal used for the live event
Frequently Asked Questions
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If you purchase Live CE, please note you would need to watch the presentations that are being presented live in order to receive live credit.
This training is not affiliated with EMDRIA and does not qualify towards EMDRIA credits or training.
Join Arielle Schwartz, PhD, for practical education on EMDR, parts work, somatic psychology, dissociation, co-regulation, and resilience-informed trauma care.
- Oct 22 2026
- 7:30 am - 3:00 pm
Local Time
- Timezone: America/New_York
- Date: Oct 22 2026
- Time: 10:30 am - 6:00 pm
More Info
- Worldwide
