Advanced Training: EMDR & Parts Work

Move beyond ‘talking about parts’ to working confidently with parts in EMDR therapy

This two-day advanced workshop will be taking place in September 2025 in beautiful Christchurch, New Zealand, hosted by a local organisation. It’s a great opportunity to combine professional development with a working holiday.

This workshop is designed for EMDR therapists who would like to build greater confidence, fluidity, and creativity in working with a client’s internal ‘parts’ within the EMDR framework. You’ll learn how to move beyond structured scripts towards a more intuitive use of parts interventions across all phases of EMDR therapy.

Why attend this workshop?

Even with a strong grasp of the EMDR protocol, many therapists find it difficult to apply parts work with confidence—especially when clients seem disengaged, parts interventions fall flat, or structured scripts feel too rigid. This workshop addresses these common challenges by offering a practical and affirming framework for working experientially with parts across all EMDR phases.

Whether you’re navigating ambivalence, internal conflict, or clients with dissociative presentations, you’ll learn how to work fluidly with the parts of the personality—enhancing your ability to support clients with shame, fear of change, or self-sabotaging behaviours. This training helps bridge the gap between understanding parts theory and using it effectively in EMDR therapy, particularly with clients who process information differently or find traditional interventions hard to connect with.

What you’ll learn: Advanced skills for complex cases

  • Integrating parts work throughout all EMDR phases so it complements, rather than competes with, the EMDR process

  • How to work experientially with parts – even when clients struggle with abstract concepts, visualisation, or emotional awareness

  • Strategies to adapt parts interventions for neurodivergent clients or those with more concrete, literal thinking styles

  • How to move from structured scripts to a more intuitive, responsive use of parts-informed interventions

  • Approaches to reduce shame, avoidance, and internal conflict so clients feel safer to engage in trauma reprocessing

Workshop topics

  • An affirming and non-pathologising approach to dissociation and parts work — reflections on this evolving space

  • Understanding and applying the theory of structural dissociation

  • Using parts work for dissociative and non-dissociative clients alike

  • Fraser’s Dissociative Table Technique and other creative parts-focused interventions

  • Working therapeutically with dissociative parts, voices and phobias

  • Parts interventions to address internal conflict, avoidance and ambivalence

  • Adapting parts work for clients who struggle with abstract concepts, metaphor, visualisation, or emotion identification

  • ‘Microprocessing’ interventions to enable safe trauma reprocessing with dissociative clients

Workshop details

This workshop is being hosted by an organisation in New Zealand, and registration is through them directly. You’ll find instructions on how to register below.

Duration: 2 days of training, 9am to 5pm both days

Locations: Commodore Hotel, 449 Memorial Avenue, Christchurch, New Zealand.

Fee: $835 NZD (including GST). Use this currency converter to check the current exchange rate in AUD.

Inclusions: Morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, and comprehensive training materials

Venue information: The Commodore Hotel offers lovely on-site accommodation, making it easy to stay close to the training venue. It’s also just a 5-minute drive from Christchurch Airport, making travel convenient for those flying in.

To register: Email the hosting organisation at attachmentrainingbycaroline@gmail.com with your name, location, and dietary requirements. They will issue an invoice for your workshop payment and your place will be secured once payment has been received.