CompassionWorks

CompassionWorks CompassionWorks was founded in 1998 by Jordan Shafer, MS, LPC.

It is now a multi‑partner LLC in Texas that provides EMDR Basic Training and Continuing Education opportunities for mental health professionals. CompassionWorks LLC provides EMDR training and Continuing Education opportunities for mental health professionals. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is an evidence‑based therapy that helps individuals move beyond emotional distress so t

hey can feel more present, grounded, and connected in their daily lives. EMDR therapy goes beyond talk therapy by helping the brain rewire how emotional experiences are linked—often reducing anxiety and opening the door to meaningful change. We offer EMDR International Association (EMDRIA)–approved EMDR Basic Training for mental health professionals, including psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, psychologists, social workers, professional counselors, and graduate students in mental health-related fields who are completing their internships. Continuing Education (CE) credits are also available for EMDR‑trained professionals.

🌐 www.CompassionWorks.com
📧 [email protected]
📞 (281) 433‑8133

08/31/2026

Boiling the water and never cooking the pasta.🍝

"I didn't have time to start Phase 4, so I just went through Phase 3."

If that sentence has ever come out of your mouth, this one's for you.

Phase 3 turns the burner on. It activates the memory. If the session ends there, the client walks out with the water boiling and nothing cooked, and nobody wants to be served crunchy pasta.

Amber's second take: don't mix the batter and skip the oven. That dough isn't sitting there getting better overnight. It's not sourdough. 🎂

👉 If there's time to open Phase 3, there needs to be time to move into Phase 4.

📥Save this for your next session prep, and send it to the colleague who's always racing the clock.

Post-conference brain is a real diagnosis.Three days in Anaheim. Too much hotel coffee. A notebook that's now 80% underl...
08/27/2026

Post-conference brain is a real diagnosis.

Three days in Anaheim. Too much hotel coffee. A notebook that's now 80% underlined.

What stays with us isn't just the slides. It's the hallway conversations. The clinician two seats over who's been sitting with the same hard case you have. The reminder that the work is heavy and nobody's doing it alone.

We came home tired, a little fired up, and with a longer list of questions than we flew in with.

Which is exactly what a good conference does.

Were you there? Tell us the best thing you took home 👇

Dr. Jinnelle Powell Accepting her Emerging Leaders Award at the EMDRIA conference.
08/21/2026

Dr. Jinnelle Powell Accepting her Emerging Leaders Award at the EMDRIA conference.

08/21/2026

So very proud to know Dr. Jinnelle Powell and have her as a part of our CompassionWorks training team. Congratulations Dr. Powell, the Emerging Leader Award is well earned.

What happens when EMDR group protocols are delivered inside an active war zone?That's one of two questions CompassionWor...
08/05/2026

What happens when EMDR group protocols are delivered inside an active war zone?

That's one of two questions CompassionWorks is bringing to the EMDRIA Conference 2026.

1️⃣ Assessing the Impact of EMDR Group Protocols in Ukraine's Active War Zones
Amber Quaranta-Leech, Ph.D., LPC-S with Dr. Cindy P***n, LPC, NCC and Olya Zaporozhets, Ph.D.

Research from years one through two of the large-scale invasion, comparing EMDR G-TEP and EMDR-IGTP-OTS-R across trauma symptomology, resilience, and well-being.

2️⃣ Relational Neuroscience in EMDR
Jinnelle Powell, Ph.D. with Jessica Blakeslee, LPC-Associate.

How do relationships shape the way trauma is experienced — and healed? Relational-Cultural Theory and neuroscience brought together to sharpen case conceptualization and inform therapeutic presence.

📍 Anaheim Marriott, Anaheim, CA
🗓️ August 21–23 · Trainer & Consultant Day, August 20

Registration details at emdriaconference.com

⚠️ The protocol isn't the problem. The fit is.In 2022, 56.1% of White adults with any mental illness received mental hea...
07/29/2026

⚠️ The protocol isn't the problem. The fit is.

In 2022, 56.1% of White adults with any mental illness received mental health treatment — compared to 39.6% of Hispanic, 37.9% of Black, and 36.1% of Asian adults (SAMHSA, 2022 NSDUH).

That gap isn't about need. It's about fit and access.

Culturally responsive EMDR isn't a separate protocol. It's the eight phases you already know, adapted in five specific places:

➡️ where the bilateral stimulation comes from
➡️ whose world the resources are built out of
➡️ whether the cognitions actually fit the client's framework
➡️ what language distress gets measured in
➡️ and the posture the clinician brings to all of it

Swipe through all five. Then read #5 twice — humility is a practice, not a credential.
July is Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month.

📥 Save this for your clinical toolkit and share it with a colleague who's adapting protocol on the fly.

🗨️ Then tell us: how do you adapt trauma work across the clients you serve?
👇 Companion guide in the comments.

Silent for 17 years. Then, all at once — it surfaces.If July Were an Animal, it would be a cicada. 🦗 Some memories work ...
07/10/2026

Silent for 17 years. Then, all at once — it surfaces.

If July Were an Animal, it would be a cicada. 🦗

Some memories work the same way. When an experience overwhelms the brain's processing system, it isn't stored like an ordinary one — it's held raw, locked with the emotions and sensations of the moment it happened.

And like the cicada waiting for the soil to reach 64°F, it surfaces only when the present feels stable enough to hold it. 🌱

That's not a setback. It's the system signaling it's ready — and in EMDR, that's where the work begins: a memory processed and integrated, not erased.

👇 What's something that only surfaced once you were finally ready to meet it?
📌 Save it for a session. Send it to a colleague who works in trauma.

🔷 Online. In-Person. Hybrid. On-Demand. EMDR training in 2026 doesn't have to bend around one rigid format. 💡 Four deliv...
07/08/2026

🔷 Online. In-Person. Hybrid. On-Demand.

EMDR training in 2026 doesn't have to bend around one rigid format.

💡 Four delivery options mean licensed clinicians can build the credential around the practice they already run — not the other way around.

Basic Training cohorts are open now (a few locations are already flagged LAST SPOTS), plus specialized workshops all year: Bilingual Refresh, Equine-Assisted, Parts Work, and more.

📌 Save this so the dates are here when you're ready.

↗️ Send it to a colleague who's been meaning to get trained.

🗨️Comment "ROADMAP" and we'll DM the direct registration links + full syllabus.
Full schedule at the link in first comment.

EMDR and CBT both work for trauma. The real question is how they work. 🔍🔷 Trauma-focused CBT changes symptoms top-down —...
07/01/2026

EMDR and CBT both work for trauma. The real question is how they work. 🔍

🔷 Trauma-focused CBT changes symptoms top-down — restructuring appraisals and extinguishing the fear response through deliberate cognitive and exposure work.

🔶 EMDR targets the stored memory itself, reprocessing it through bilateral stimulation.

One builds new learning that outcompetes the old fear (extinction). The other is theorized to update the memory itself (reconsolidation). Same goal — two different engines.

We broke down the mechanisms, the evidence, and when to reach for which (with a side-by-side table) in the new article.

📌 Save this for your next treatment-planning decision.

🔗 Full breakdown in our blog: https://compassionworks.com/emdr-vs-cbt-trauma-treatment/
(Link in bio)

06/24/2026

🌱 "My client has so much trauma, I don't even know where to start."

If you've thought it mid-session, you're not alone — it's one of the questions Amber hears most.

Her reframe: think of memory as a garden. And the metaphor isn't random — Amber grew up with a landscape architect for a mother, watching overgrown gardens get brought back to life. An overgrown garden never gets cleared all at once. You sort first.

🔷 Which plants do we keep? → the adaptive, resilience memories

🔶 Which have taken over? → the maladaptive memories that aren't serving the client anymore

From there, there are two ways in — and which one you choose depends on what you can get hold of first. (That part's in the reel. 🌿)

💬 Where do you usually start with a complex history — the first memory, the worst, or the one most present right now?

📌 Save this for your next complex intake.
(Keep an eye out for the four-legged guest who makes a cameo. 🐾)

Address

3431 Rayford Road
Spring, TX
77386

Telephone

(972) 342-2448

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