Summit: From Trauma to Transformation — The EMDR & Applied Neuroscience

Session 1 — Embodied Integration: Deepening the EMDR Installation Phase with Somatic Interventions
Josie Dove · 60-minute experiential session

Explore how integrating somatic embodiment practices into the Installation phase of EMDR deepens therapeutic impact, enhances regulation, and supports more durable integration of adaptive memory networks. Through interoception, posture, breath, movement, and felt sense, learn to help clients embody positive cognitions rather than simply think them — creating a clear internal state they can return to between sessions.

Session 2 — Brainspotting: Healing Through the Neuroexperiential Lens
Dr. David Grand · 60-minute experiential session

The developer of Brainspotting reviews its origins and Neuroexperiential Model (NEM). A relational brain-body mindfulness trauma model, Brainspotting uses ocular nervous system positions to access seven other subdivisions of the nervous system — releasing unprocessed trauma. Includes a discussion of frame, mutual holding of uncertainty, and how culture comes before science.

Session 3 — Staying with Emotion: How Somatic Support Deepens EMDR Work
Sergio Ocampo · 60-minute experiential session

EMDR is powerful for resolving traumatic memory, but intense emotions can interrupt processing. Sergio shares how simple, precise somatic interventions help emotions settle and discharge without pausing EMDR — accelerating trauma resolution, deepening regulation, and reinforcing the therapeutic relationship.

Session 4 — Interrupting the Cycle: A Somatic + EMDR-Informed Approach to Addiction and Recovery
Dr. Phylis Wakefield · 60-minute experiential session

A practical overview of how EMDR supports clients struggling with addiction and those in early recovery. Explore the neurobiological, somatic, and emotional dynamics of addiction, learn two visual models for conceptualizing recovery, and walk away with at least one applied EMDR resource you can use immediately. No EMDR certification required.

Session 5 — EMDR Strategies for Treating Cultural Stress and Trauma
Dr. Chinwé Williams · 60-minute experiential session

Practical, culturally responsive strategies for supporting diverse communities experiencing elevated stress and anxiety. Learn structured assessment questions to broach race-related and systemic factors, plus EMDR and somatic interventions that regulate the body's stress response and strengthen embodied resilience for navigating personal and systemic stressors.

Bonus — The Body Keeps the Score: EMDR and Trauma
Dr. Bessel van der Kolk and Dr. Scott Lyons, interviewed by Karee Powers · 90-minute interview session

Dr. Bessel van der Kolk explores EMDR's transformative potential — its development, effectiveness, and limitations — and how it integrates with somatic practice and other modalities for acute and complex trauma. Includes physiological tracking, cultural paradigms in therapy, psychodrama, and psychedelic-assisted approaches.

Bonus — Somatic EMDR Therapy for Symptoms of Chronic Pain and Illness
Dr. Arielle Schwartz · 45-minute experiential session

A biopsychosocial approach to somatic EMDR for chronic pain and illness — helping clients increase their sense of control, self-efficacy, and self-regulation around disturbing physical symptoms.

• Deepen the EMDR Installation phase with somatic embodiment practices
• Use Brainspotting and the Neuroexperiential Model to access unprocessed trauma
• Integrate somatic awareness to keep EMDR processing fluid through intense emotion
• Apply EMDR-informed tools to addiction, recovery, and craving regulation
• Use culturally responsive EMDR strategies for race-related and systemic stress
• Address chronic pain and illness with biopsychosocial somatic EMDR
• Track physiological states and recognize cultural paradigms in therapy
• Explore innovative directions including psychodrama and psychedelic-assisted therapy
• Translate trauma neuroscience into immediately applicable clinical tools