At Talking Therapies UK, we are passionate about equipping professionals with the knowledge, confidence, and compassion to support mental health across diverse settings. With decades of combined experience in clinical practice, public health leadership, and service transformation, our training programmes are rooted in evidence-based approaches and real-world application.
We specialise in delivering high-impact, trauma-informed mental health training tailored to the needs of health, education, social care, and voluntary sector teams. From safeguarding and suicide prevention to emotional resilience and therapeutic communication, our courses are designed to empower practitioners at every level—whether you’re frontline staff, a strategic commissioner, or part of a multi-agency partnership.
Our facilitators bring many years clinical expertise , and a deep understanding of the social determinants of mental health. We prioritise co-production, reflective practice, and inclusive learning environments that foster curiosity, empathy, and professional growth.
Whether you’re looking to upskill your workforce, embed mental health into your organisational culture, or meet statutory training requirements, we offer flexible delivery formats including in-person workshops, webinars, and bespoke consultancy.
Together, we can build psychologically safe, responsive systems that promote wellbeing, reduce inequalities, and improve outcomes for individuals, families, and communities. Let’s shape the future of mental health—one conversation, one training, one transformation at a time..
Trauma-Informed Practice & EMDR Awareness · Foundation
EMDR Foundations
The adaptive information processing model and the eight phases
This comprehensive foundation course offers a rigorous introduction to Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) for clinicians and trainees new to the approach. The curriculum is built upon the Adaptive Information Processing model, which provides the essential theoretical framework for understanding how EMDR facilitates the resolution of traumatic memories. You will examine the robust evidence base supporting EMDR within national trauma treatment guidelines, gaining clarity on its efficacy and appropriate application. The training proceeds through the eight-phase standard protocol, guiding you from the initial history-taking and case conceptualisation to the critical phase of preparation, where Resource Development and Installation are prioritised to ensure client safety. You will learn to identify targets using the Subjective Units of Disturbance (SUDs) scale and navigate the complex process of Desensitisation utilising Dual Attention Stimuli. The course concludes with detailed instruction on Installation, the Body Scan, Closure, and Re-evaluation, ensuring a complete understanding of the therapeutic journey. By mastering these phases, you will develop the professional and ethical competence required for client selection and readiness assessment, providing the vital conceptual grounding necessary before undertaking supervised skills practice. This seven-hour programme is designed to meet the standards of recognised EMDR training, equipping you with the knowledge to begin integrating this powerful trauma therapy into your practice.
▶ See inside the digital classroom1 minute 36 seconds · how a course is laid out, how each lesson is taught, and how the tutor helps
Before you start
This is a Foundation course in the EMDR pathway. It assumes nothing: it is written for someone meeting the approach for the first time. What it adds is the working model, its vocabulary and its evidence base, so that the Practitioner course can assume them; it revisits the foundations only as far as it needs to before building on them, so it does not repeat the course below.
When you have completed it, EMDR in Practice is the next step in the pathway.
The EMDR pathway. The model, the evidence and the eight-phase protocol of EMDR, then its practice and its use with complex trauma. These courses teach knowledge of the method; they are not accredited EMDR practitioner training and do not confer accreditation.
14 study hours14 CPD hours certified6 months of accessAI tutor in every lessonCertificate on completion (pass mark 70%)
What you will be able to do
✓Explain the adaptive information processing model and what it says trauma symptoms are
✓Describe all eight phases of the standard EMDR protocol and each one's function
✓Explain bilateral stimulation and the evidence on its role honestly
✓Take a trauma history and build a target sequence plan
✓Prepare clients properly: resourcing, safe place and informed consent
✓State clearly what EMDR practice requires by way of accredited training and supervision
What you will study
Module 1: The model and the evidence
Adaptive information processing and EMDR's place in trauma treatment.
The adaptive information processing modelMaladaptively stored memory
Evidence and indicationsThe evidence base and guidelines
Neurobiological Mechanisms and the Role of Bilateral Stimulation in EMDRBilateral stimulation reduces the vividness and emotional intensity of traumatic memories by taxing the visuospatial working memory, consistent with the working memory model.
AIP‑informed case conceptualisation and target selectionAIP case conceptualisation organises presenting problems into past touchstone memories, present triggers, and future templates.
Working Memory Theory and the Mechanisms of Bilateral Stimulation in EMDRBilateral stimulation functions as a working‑memory load that competes with the sensory and emotional components of traumatic memories, reducing their vividness and intensity.
Module 2: The eight-phase protocol
History, preparation, assessment, desensitisation and beyond.
Phases one to threePhase 1: history and planning
Phases four to eightPhase 4: desensitisation
Integrating the Eight Phases: Case Conceptualisation, Treatment Planning and Clinical Decision‑MakingCase conceptualisation using the AIP model directs target selection and sequencing across all eight phases.
Resource Installation and Stabilisation in EMDR for Complex TraumaResource Development and Installation (RDI) strengthens adaptive neural pathways, enhancing safety before desensitisation.
Module 3: Case conceptualisation and target planning
History-taking shaped for EMDR, the three-pronged selection of targets and the written treatment plan, the negative and positive cognitions, and the assessment phase measurement set delivered precisely.
History-taking for EMDRPhase one looks for four things: the targets, the capacity, the obstacles and the aims, and a history that gathers only the story has done a quarter of the work
Selecting and ordering targetsThe three-pronged protocol targets past events, present triggers and future situations, and a plan missing the third leaves the person able to remember without flinching and still unable to act
The negative and positive cognitionsA negative cognition is a present-tense, irrational, generalised statement about the self, not a description of the event or a feeling
The assessment phase measurement setThe seven components are image, negative cognition, positive cognition, validity of cognition, emotion, subjective units of disturbance and body location, taken in that order for a reason
Module 4: Preparation, readiness and safety
The preparation phase and its five required elements, the contraindications and cautions, screening for dissociation and recognising it in session, the relationship inside a protocol, and what to do when a session abreacts, blocks or runs out of time.
Preparation and resourcingPreparation has five required elements: the explanation, the stop signal, affect tolerance, at least one reachable internal resource, and a plan for the week
Contraindications, cautions and consentThe absolute positions are few; most of what practitioners treat as contraindications are cautions requiring a different plan rather than no plan
Screening for dissociationDissociation is the reason a treatment that helps most people can harm a minority, and the failure mode is silent: a person deep in a dissociative state can look like a person processing quietly
The relationship inside a protocolThe relationship provides the warrant for the risk, the regulation the person borrows during processing, and the standing requi
