CompassionWorks

Some feedback gets filed 📥
Some gets framed 🖼️

We got the "framed" kind this month — from a clinician with 25 years of EMDR experience and 20+ years of training under their belt. Swipe to read what they said.

Here's the thing about feedback from senior clinicians: it's usually careful. Measured. Generous, but contained ✨.

When someone with that much time in the field reaches for a word like "EXCELLENT" — and writes it in all caps — that's not the kind of message that goes in a folder.

That's the kind we sit with for a minute ☕.
It's also the standard we want every cohort walking away with.

Our 2026 cohorts run year-round: online, in-person, and hybrid EMDR foundational training, advanced specialty workshops, supervision and consultation intensives — all built for licensed clinicians who take their craft seriously.

🔗 Curious what's currently open? Browse the full 2026 catalog at https://compassionworks.com/courses/

"Online EMDR training is the lesser version of in-person." 🤔

It's one of the most common assumptions we hear from therapists weighing their basic training options — and one of the easiest to take apart once you look at the actual EMDRIA standards.

But the format question turns out to be the wrong question.

✨ The variable that actually predicts whether you'll leave basic training ready to use EMDR with a real client is something else entirely.

📚 Swipe through for the short version.
🔗 Full breakdown on the blog (link below): EMDRIA standards, the research caveat the marketing usually skips, and how to choose between online, in-person, and hybrid.

https://compassionworks.com/online-vs-in-person-emdr-training/

If compassion has started to feel performed instead of felt—that's clinical data, not personal failure. 🧠

Burnout in therapists isn't a sign you're bad at your job. It's a sign the workload is unsustainable and the system around you isn't catching you.

A distinction worth keeping clear:

🔶 Burnout: emotional exhaustion + depersonalization + reduced sense of effectiveness. Tied to workload and systemic conditions.

🔷 Vicarious trauma / Secondary Traumatic Stress: trauma-like symptoms (intrusions, avoidance, hyperarousal) from repeated exposure to clients' material.

You can have one, the other, or both.

Early signs clinicians miss:

▪️ Dreading specific clients
▪️ Emotional numbing in session
▪️ Cynicism about clients or outcomes
▪️ Sunday-night dread that starts Saturday
▪️ Intrusive images from session content

What helps isn't a bubble bath. It's consultation groups, real clinical supervision, caseload audits, body-based practices between sessions, and changes to the conditions themselves.

You are not a bottomless resource.

📌 Save this for the week you need it. 🔁 Share it with the colleague you've been worried about.

May's animal is the hummingbird. 🐦

Beautiful. Fast. Constantly moving. And quietly exhausted.

Hummingbirds are the only birds that have to enter torpor — a deep rest state — just to survive the night. Without it, their bodies would give out from their own pace.

👀 Sound like anyone you know? Maybe a client. Maybe yourself.

High-functioning isn't free. Every sympathetic push has a cost — and rest isn't a reward for productivity. It's the thing that makes productivity possible.

👉 Do you recognize the "hummingbird crash" in your clients — or in yourself? Let's discuss in the comments.

Save this and share it with someone who needs the reminder. 💚

Your 2026 EMDR training roadmap is here. 🗺️

Whether you learn best online, in-person, hybrid, or on your own schedule — we built a format for every kind of clinician.

✔️ 4 Live Online cohorts (summer + fall)
✔️ 2 In-Person Texas locations
✔️ 3 Hybrid options (on-site + online combined)
✔️ 6 Live Online workshops
✔️ 4 On-Demand workshops you can start today

Save this post so you don't lose it. Share it with the colleague who keeps saying "I really need to get EMDR trained."

Comment ROADMAP and we'll DM you the full syllabus + direct registration links for every course. 💌

😴 Trauma + sleep: what's hardest in your room right now?

Sleep disruption is one of the most stubborn symptoms in complex PTSD — and one of the least responsive to standard sleep hygiene when the nervous system stays in hyperarousal.

We want to take a pulse on what the CompassionWorks community is facing.

👉 Comment 1, 2, 3, or 4 to vote.

💬 Bonus — if you have a go-to clinical move or psychoeducation tool for your pick, drop it below. Let's share resources.

💡 Next week we publish a clinical breakdown of the top-voted symptom.

What makes a training?
The space?
The information?
The snacks (you know Amber loves snacks!)?
It’s the people to learn with, the live demos, and lots of laughs.

Thank you to everyone who joined us in Houston for Utilizing EMDR with Grief with Dr. Roger Solomon.

We are already planning for next year!

EMDR training that holds up when you're back in the room with a real client.

💬 "I was prepared enough after the training to work with two clients in Phases 1 and 2. The notes made sense when I went back to them." — Trainee, EMDR Basic Training, Houston (Katy), TX, 2025.

That's the bar we train to at CompassionWorks: not just passing the course, but walking into your next session knowing what to do.

EMDR Basic Training and advanced workshops, multiple formats, new cohorts throughout the year — built for licensed therapists who want trauma-informed skills that transfer directly into clinical practice.

📌 Comment Roadmap and we'll send you the full syllabus + upcoming training dates.