Trainings & Continuing Education for Clinicians
Go Beyond the Protocol. Get Curious About What Is Happening Underneath.
Some of the most challenging moments in trauma therapy happen when we seem to be doing everything “right.”
The client has coping skills.
They understand their trauma.
They appear regulated.
They say they are ready.
And yet, something isn't moving.
Maybe the client becomes disconnected when you approach traumatic material. Maybe they can talk about their experiences but have difficulty feeling them. Maybe they are highly insightful, agreeable, and engaged in therapy—but you find yourself wondering whether what looks like regulation is actually regulation.
These are the clinical questions that interest me most.
My trainings are designed for clinicians who want to deepen their understanding of complex trauma, dissociation, EMDR, attachment, somatic regulation, and protective responses—and translate that understanding into what they actually do in the therapy room.
The goal isn't simply to add more techniques.
It's to help us become more curious about why something is happening before we decide what to do about it.
Current Trainings
Somatic Stabilization in EMDR Therapy
Moving Beyond Coping Skills in Phase 2
Preparation for trauma processing involves more than whether a client can name and demonstrate coping skills.
Can the client notice what is happening inside their body?
Can they recognize changes in activation?
Can they remain connected to the present while approaching difficult material?
Can they move between activation and settling without becoming overwhelmed or disconnected?
Somatic Stabilization in EMDR Therapy explores how somatic awareness and nervous-system regulation can be integrated into EMDR preparation and stabilization.
We look at the Window of Tolerance, Polyvagal-informed concepts, dual awareness, nervous-system tracking, titration and pendulation, and practical somatic interventions that can help clinicians assess and strengthen a client's capacity to remain present during trauma work.
The training also explores ways somatic interventions can be incorporated beyond Phase 2, including the thoughtful use of somatic interweaves when processing becomes stuck.
This training explores:
Somatic stabilization within EMDR preparation
Window of Tolerance and nervous-system regulation
Polyvagal-informed concepts
Dual awareness
Tracking activation and settling
Titration and pendulation
Body-based resources
Somatic and movement-based interweaves
Recognizing subtle shifts in presence and regulation
Integrating somatic awareness across EMDR treatment
Courses Learning Objectives:
1) Recognize signs of nervous system dysregulation in clients, including hyperarousal, hypoarousal, and dissociation, to guide clinical intervention.
2) Demonstrate somatic stabilization techniques that help clients regulate arousal and expand their window of tolerance.
3) Integrate somatic interventions into EMDR preparation to enhance client safety and optimize therapy effectiveness.
4) Apply strategies to manage client overwhelm and support engagement in trauma processing.
3 Continuing Education Hours
3 EMDRIA Credits
3 NYSED Social Work Continuing Education Hours
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Beyond Readiness
Recognizing Subtle Dissociation and Hidden Barriers to EMDR Processing
What does it actually mean for a client to be ready for trauma processing?
We often look for familiar markers.
The client understands EMDR.
They have coping skills.
They can identify a target.
They can provide a SUD.
They appear regulated.
They want to proceed.
But what if readiness is more complicated than that?
Beyond Readiness looks at the clinical presentations that can be easy to miss—particularly when a client is highly functioning, insightful, agreeable, emotionally controlled, or very good at being a “good therapy client.”
This training explores subtle dissociation, compliance-based adaptations, attachment-preserving strategies, protective self-states, and the difference between appearing regulated and remaining genuinely connected to one's internal experience.
Rather than asking only:
“Is this client ready?”
we begin asking:
“What am I assessing beyond the client's verbal agreement to proceed?”
This training explores:
Subtle presentations of dissociation
Over-functioning and emotional over-regulation
Compliance-based protective adaptations
Attachment and relational safety
Protective parts and self-states
Performative stabilization vs. embodied regulation
Dual awareness and capacity for trauma processing
Hidden barriers to EMDR processing
Recognizing when something changes during processing
When to pause, reassess, stabilize, or modify treatment
Working with protection rather than against it
Treatment planning for complex trauma and dissociation
The emphasis throughout the training is not on labeling every difficult response as dissociation.
It is on becoming more attentive to the patterns, shifts, discrepancies, and protective responses that may tell us there is more happening underneath the client's presentation.
Learning Objectives:
1) Identify at least four indicators of subtle dissociation in highly functional trauma survivors.
2) Differentiate apparent readiness from actual readiness for EMDR trauma processing.
3) Describe how compliance-based adaptations may interfere with dual attention and adaptive information processing.
4) Apply at least three Phase 2 stabilization interventions designed to increase embodiment and present-moment awareness.
5) Explain how attachment-based survival strategies can contribute to dissociative presentations in EMDR treatment.
6) Utilize clinical decision-making strategies to modify pacing and treatment planning when subtle dissociative adaptions are present.
3 Continuing Education Hours
3 EMDRIA Credits
3 NYSED Social Work Continuing Education Hour
Anticipated in February 2027
Continuing Education
Karen A. Dwyer-Tesoriero, LCSW provides continuing education programs for mental health professionals with a focus on trauma, dissociation, EMDR, somatic stabilization, attachment, and complex trauma treatment.
EMDRIA
Somatic Stabilization in EMDR Therapy and Beyond Readiness: Recognizing Subtle Dissociation and Hidden Barriers to EMDR Processing have been approved for 3 EMDRIA Credits each.
EMDRIA Credits are available to clinicians who have completed an EMDRIA-approved EMDR basic training.
New York State Continuing Education
Karen A. Dwyer-Tesoriero, LCSW is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers.