Insights From The 2025 EMDRIA Conference

Me at the 2025 EMDRIA Conference

In September, I was lucky enough to get to attend the annual EMDR International Association (or EMDRIA) Conference; this year in sunny Anaheim, CA. 1,700 therapists in one location who geek out just as much as I do about all things EMDR. It was awesome! Having keynote speaker Christopher Lee, PhD highlight recent, robust meta-analysis research showing how EMDR is one of the top two most effective therapies for PTSD was great validation for what I see day in and day out in my practice (Youitri et al, 2023). (Spoiler: EMDR and Cognitive Processing Theory or CPT were found to be the two most effective treatments, with EMDR edging out CPT in short-term effects.)

However, the conference also left me reeling for a bit trying to figure out how to take all of what I learned and incorporate it into my own clinical practice. (A big thank you to everyone who listened to me try to verbally process my experiences; I probably could have benefited from some EMDR myself to help consolidate my learning! 🙂) While every new-to-EMDR clinician gets trained on and needs to have thorough understanding of the basic protocol (and most basic training programs look very similar), there have been many brilliant contributions and expansions to Francine Shapiro’s original work with numerous additional protocols, philosophies, techniques, and therapeutic combinations to be able help clients make progress, whatever they are bringing in. This means that more advanced EMDR can look quite different from one clinician to another based on how the practitioner believes clients can be best helped and for EMDR to be able to help more and more clients, with more presenting issues. (In case you didn’t know, research has proven EMDR to be effective for anxiety, depression, OCD, chronic pain, addictions, and more (Maxfield, 2019). The breakout sessions at this year’s EMDRIA Conference really showed the wide spectrum of today’s EMDR therapy.

At the Conference, I was particularly blown away with sessions from two of the field’s current leaders who are pushing the boundaries of EMDR in nearly opposite ways. Deborah Korn, PsyD – who along with Deany Laliotis, LICSW has worked to develop Relational EMDR Therapy – showed EMDR as a beautiful, awe-inspiring dance with the therapist gently guiding the client to and then through the deepest hurts of the trauma, using the therapist-client relationship and human connection to deepen the work. Dr. Korn actually showed a video from an entire 60 minute EMDR session with a real client, annotated with her in-the-moment thoughts about her clinical decision making in the session. (When do we ever get to see that? It was such a gift!) Seeing how she used her vast knowledge, skill, and clinical interweaves to lead the client to the pain that the client had not been able to access for decades was like watching a prima ballerina seemingly float effortlessly through moves that – what some part of your mind knows – takes immense strength and skill. Even though I’ve done trainings in Relational EMDR before, it was still astonishing to watch. 

On the other end of the EMDR style spectrum, Ad de Jongh, PhD – who developed EMDR 2.0 with Suzy Matthijssen, PhD – showed immensely effective EMDR work that sets up the therapist and client as opposing forces. EMDR 2.0 focuses on working memory taxation which means that the client might be engaging in multiple forms of stimulation to process the memory more efficiently (not just eye movements or tappers, but in one example he shared the client was using eye movements, lateral dance moves, tappers in the clients pockets, and spelling a cue word backwards, all at the same time, all while doing memory reprocessing). In his presentation, Dr. de Jongh showed how he informs the client that he will be competing with them by trying to distract them as much as he can while the client tries to hold onto the trauma memory as much as they can. The sessions he showed were more like an athletic trainer challenging an athlete through a grueling workout to help them be their best. EMDR 2.0 is somewhat controversial dividing the community between skeptics and total believers; however, it is hard to not be intrigued when their research shows that in their intensive treatment – which includes multiple EMDR 2.0 sessions a day – they are seeing 80% of their clients who come in with severe PTSD (meaning with 5 or more DSM Criteria A trauma events) lose their PTSD diagnosis with only 4 days of treatment, which are mind-blowing numbers (Matthijssen et al, 2024). (Oh, and they are also showing preliminary, but similarly mind-blowing results for complex trauma and personality disorders with intensive EMDR treatment.)

The wide contrast between these two presenters – who are both exceptional practitioners at the top of their game – is what left me reeling. Seeing these 2 versions of EMDR, who should I follow to move my skills forward? There is no way that these two different styles can show up in the same session, can they? Which one would best help my clients? (Or even just where do I next focus my time, energy, and training budget?) Deborah Korn happened to be two rows in front of me in Ad de Jongh’s presentation, and I was so curious what she was taking with her from his presentation. Maybe someday I’ll get the chance to ask her. 

With some time, trying things out in client sessions, and lots of talking about it, I realized that (at least for me) aspects of Relational EMDR and EMDR 2.0 don’t show up in the same sessions, and maybe not even with the same client. However, as someone who got her start in community mental health where clients were assigned their therapist without any choice, I’ve always believed it is my job to be pretty adaptable to give the client what best helps them. And even though I’ve specialized as an EMDR therapist, I still want to be able to help every client who chooses me – since now my clients do choose me – meet their goals to live the life they want. 

In the end, more than anything, what I took away from the conference was further confirmation in my long-held belief that there is no one right way and there are so many different ways to do great therapy – and great EMDR therapy. What I can do to best help a client heal can look very different from another clinician’s best, and we can both still be highly effective. Being curious about why and how another clinician does something and then working to incorporate what fits into your own practice in your own voice and values always works better than attempting to mimic the trainer or blindly discounting it as something that won’t work. So, I’m going to learn more about both (and all the other things I saw at the conference), and incorporate all the pieces that I can. And hopefully, go back to the EMDRIA Conference again next year. 

Yunitri, N., Chu, H., Kang, X. L., Wiratama, B. S., Lee, T. Y., Chang, L. F., Liu, D., Kustanti, C. Y., Chiang, K. J., Chen, R., Tseng, P., & Chou, K. R. (2023). Comparative effectiveness of psychotherapies in adults with posttraumatic stress disorder: A network meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. Psychological Medicine, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291722003737

Maxfield, L. (2019). A clinician’s guide to the efficacy of EMDR therapy. Journal of EMDR Practice and Research [Editorial], 13(4), 239-246.

Matthijssen, S. J. M. A., Menses, S. D. F. (2024). Case report: Intensive online trauma treatment combining prolonged exposure and EMDR 2.0 in a patient with severe and chronic PTSD. Frontiers in Psychiatry, (15), 1370358.