Adapting EMDR for Demand-Avoidant Clients:
A Neurodiversity-Affirming Approach

The only training available on doing EMDR with Demand Avoidant or PDA clients, from lived experience by a PDA clinician.

Beyond the Basics: Navigating Complex Presentations in EMDR with Autistic and ADHD Clients -Advanced Level

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This will be the most in-depth training of its kind. Learn WHY you adapt and then HOW you can do it on your own with each client. 

WHEN:
Friday, November 13 and Saturday, November 14, 2026
10:30 am – 3:45 pm EST (both days)

HOW:

Live, interactive webinar on Zoom

Facilitator: Christine MacInnis, LMFT, EMDRIA Approved Consultant
EMDRIA: 9 credits
NBCC / ASWB: 9 CE hours
Live workshop limited to 50 participants.
All participants will receive access to the workshop recording for 60 days.
All live participants will receive access to the workshop recording for 60 days.
The recording-only option provides on-demand access to the lecture content only and does not include live participation, experiential segments, or CE credit.

To SIGN UP                             or to go to:

https://multiplicityofthemind.com/advanced-nd-affirming-emdr/

Neurodiversity-affirming EMDR is about more than adjusting bilateral stimulation, modifying rating scales, or offering sensory accommodations. It requires clinicians to understand the broader cultural, relational, and systemic experiences that shape the traumatic memory networks of autistic and ADHD clients—and to examine how neurotypical expectations can quietly influence case conceptualization, treatment goals, and definitions of progress.

In this interactive, advanced workshop, participants will explore how ableism, misdiagnosis, medical invalidation, chronic microaggressions, communication differences, misunderstood sensory needs, and societal expectations related to productivity can contribute to traumatic stress. Through clinician reflection, small-group conversations, case examples, and large-group discussion, participants will examine their own assumptions and consider what it means to advocate for neurodivergent clients inside and outside the therapy room. 

The second day moves from the “why” into the “how.” Participants will examine neurodivergent masking, monotropism, persistent demand for autonomy (PDA), autistic burnout, and the ways these experiences may be intensified by complex trauma. Rather than memorizing a fixed menu of adaptations, clinicians will learn to recognize clients’ individual needs and develop collaborative EMDR interventions in the moment. The course will cover history taking, therapeutic attunement, target selection, bilateral stimulation, cognitive interweaves, pacing, transitions into and out of processing, therapeutic hierarchy, and readiness for reprocessing.

Experiential activities and case applications will help participants distinguish what may be appropriate for EMDR reprocessing from what may require advocacy, accommodation, boundary-setting, or environmental change. Participants will also practice developing an individualized target sequence for trauma associated with neurodivergent burnout.
Join us for this special training, and let’s geek out together on the tools we have to assist our clients!

 

Intended Audience: EMDR Trained Master’s level social workers, counselors, marriage and family therapists; psychologists; and other EMDR Trained licensed mental health professionals.

Prerequisite and Recommended Preparation
As the title suggests, Beyond the Basics is designed for clinicians with a working knowledge of neurodiversity-affirming EMDR practices. This workshop will not review foundational adaptations across EMDR’s eight phases in depth. Participants should have received prior foundational training in neurodiversity-affirming EMDR before attending.

This workshop builds upon a foundational training presented by Christine MacInnis on July 10, 2026. Clinicians interested in completing that training—or reviewing its curriculum to determine whether they have the recommended background—can learn more by visiting the on-demand course information and registration page. 

This advanced workshop is especially appropriate for clinicians who are ready to move beyond basic phase-specific adaptations and deepen their understanding of the cultural, relational, and systemic experiences shaping EMDR case conceptualization and treatment with autistic and ADHD clients. Participants will apply this framework to masking, monotropism, persistent demand for autonomy, autistic burnout, complex trauma, advocacy, target selection, clinical collaboration, and individualized intervention planning. 

Eligibility Requirements: PARTIAL EMDR TRAINING
This workshop is open to clinicians who are at least partially trained in EMDR which means they have completed part of an EMDRIA Approved Basic EMDR Training and/or still finishing their 10 hours of required consultation. It is recommended that participants have completed the full EMDR Basic Training and have experience in using EMDR with clients. This workshop is not an EMDR Basic Training.

Course Interaction
This workshop will include didactic lecture, facilitated discussion, video demonstration, clinical case analysis, and case-based learning. Participants will engage in guided reflection, small-group breakout activities, and practical application exercises focused on examining clinician assumptions, identifying neurodivergent experiences of harm, distinguishing reprocessing needs from needs for advocacy or accommodation, and developing neurodiversity-affirming approaches to EMDR case conceptualization, target selection, treatment planning, and target sequencing. Participants are encouraged to ask questions, share clinical insights, and engage in instructor-led dialogue throughout the training.

Level of Content: Intermediate (ASWB)

Workshop Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Organize an individualized EMDR target sequence addressing trauma associated with neurodivergent burnout while accounting for pacing, client autonomy, current capacity, and relevant environmental stressors.

• Differentiate neurodiversity-affirming EMDR from approaches that prioritize neurotypical expectations, conformity, or externally defined measures of functioning and treatment success.

• Analyze how diagnostic and medical harm, chronic invalidation, communication differences, sensory needs, and productivity expectations may contribute to traumatic stress among autistic and ADHD clients.

• Select advocacy strategies that EMDR clinicians can use to address ableism, internalized neuronormative beliefs, unmet accommodation needs, and environmental barriers affecting autistic and ADHD clients. 

• Apply the AIP model and EMDR’s three-pronged approach to distinguish potential reprocessing targets from concerns requiring advocacy, accommodation, boundary-setting, or environmental change. 

• Analyze how neurodivergent masking and co-occurring complex trauma may affect therapeutic trust, self-report, dissociation, access to traumatic memory networks, and engagement in EMDR processing.

• Select individualized EMDR adaptations for clients with monotropic processing styles, including modifications to preparation, transitions, bilateral stimulation, pacing, and entry into and closure of reprocessing. 

• Apply autonomy-supportive and declarative language to EMDR history taking, target selection, bilateral stimulation, cognitive interweaves, pacing, and safety check-ins with clients who have a pathological demand avoidance/persistent demand for autonomy (PDA) profile.

• Differentiate clinical features associated with autistic burnout from those associated with depression to inform decisions about readiness and capacity for EMDR reprocessing. 

 

This workshop will be recorded.
If you can't attend live, you can purchase the recording before the training date. Continuing education credits are for live participation only.

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