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. 

Trainer Information

Christine MacInnis is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in California, Arizona, and Ohio, and the owner of Transcends Family Therapy in Torrance, CA. Her practice focuses on LGBTQIA-affirming and neurodivergent-affirming trauma work, as well as neurodivergent-affirming relationship coaching.

She is certified in EMDR, an EMDRIA Approved Consultant, and provides advanced training, education, and consultation on neurodivergent-affirming EMDR practices.

Christine is the co-author of EMDR for Autistic and ADHD Clients: Neurodivergent Paths to Healing, being published by Norton in May 2027. More information about her work can be found at www.transcendstherapy.com

Day 1: Friday, November 13, 2026
10:30am – 3:45pm EST
Understanding the Why

10:30–11:30 a.m.: What Does It Really Mean to Provide Neurodiversity-Affirming EMDR?
This opening section expands neurodiversity-affirming EMDR beyond procedural adaptations and in-session accommodations. Participants will explore how ableism, disability inclusion, advocacy, and societal expectations may influence the therapeutic relationship, EMDR case conceptualization, treatment goals, and definitions of adaptive resolution. Emphasis will be placed on prioritizing each client’s individual needs throughout EMDR therapy rather than using treatment to reinforce conformity to neuro-normative standards. 

11:30–11:45 a.m.: 15-Minute Break

11:45 a.m.–12:45 p.m.: Breakout Activity: Where Are Your Blinders? Discussion: What Did You Learn and Discover?
Participants will reflect on how they define progress, motivation, functioning, and successful treatment within EMDR therapy. Small-group and large-group discussions will invite clinicians to examine assumptions related to productivity, independence, communication, emotional regulation, eye contact, and social conformity, and how these assumptions may influence EMDR case conceptualization and perceptions of client readiness, resistance, and treatment progress. 

12:45–1:30 p.m.: Showing Up as an Advocate: Discussion, Video Demonstration, and Other Ways to Advocate
Through discussion and a video-based example, participants will examine how EMDR clinicians can challenge ableist language and productivity expectations that contribute to clients’ distress and internalized beliefs. The section also explores advocacy with families, colleagues, schools, workplaces, and other professionals; helps clients recognize internalized ableism; and determines when to incorporate affirming resources, accommodations, or environmental changes alongside EMDR treatment. 

1:30–2:00 p.m.: 30-Minute Meal Break

2:00–2:20 p.m.: Review of the Ways Autistic and ADHD Clients Experience Harm
Participants will receive an overview of common sources of harm experienced by autistic and ADHD clients, including misdiagnosis, medical invalidation, chronic microaggressions, unrealistic productivity expectations, communication mismatches, and misunderstood sensory needs. Attention will be given to how these experiences may contribute to traumatic memory networks and emerge as relevant experiences during EMDR history taking, case conceptualization, and target identification. 

2:20–3:10 p.m.: Deep Dive: Exploring How Harm Is Experienced and Sharing Additional Participant-Identified Areas
This section examines how diagnostic bias, healthcare barriers, chronic invalidation, the double-empathy problem, productivity culture, social expectations, interoceptive differences, ARFID, and sensory experiences may contribute to distress and trauma. Participants will also identify additional areas of harm encountered in their own clinical work. This exploration provides the clinical context needed for the EMDR case-conceptualization discussion that follows. 

3:10–3:30 p.m.: Applying the Day’s Framework to EMDR Therapy
Participants will connect the day’s cultural and clinical framework to EMDR case conceptualization. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the experiences underlying clients’ trauma, strengthening attunement, and attending to neurodivergent-specific experiences across the past, present, and future prongs of EMDR therapy.

3:30–3:45 p.m.: Questions, Answers, and Integration
Questions are welcome throughout the workshop; this final period will address any remaining questions and integrate key takeaways from the day.

Day 2: Saturday, November 14, 2026; 10:30am – 3:45pm EST
Transforming the How

10:30–11:15 a.m.: From the Why to the How of Neurodiversity-Affirming EMDR
Day 2 moves from the “why” of neurodiversity-affirming practice to its clinical application within EMDR therapy. Participants will examine how complex trauma may overlap with and intensify neurodivergent experiences, including masking, PDA, and autistic burnout. Using common needs and concerns of autistic and ADHD clients as a starting point, participants will consider how individualized adaptations can support access to the Adaptive Information Processing system across EMDR’s 8 phases. Particular attention will be given to neurodivergent masking, including its relationship to chronic invalidation, exhaustion, unmet needs, perfectionism, dissociation, and burnout. Participants will explore how masking may affect therapeutic trust, self-report, SUD and VOC ratings, access to traumatic memories, and engagement in EMDR processing, as well as adaptations that may support greater authenticity, attunement, and safety. 

11:15–11:45 a.m.: Breakout Activity: Where Are Your Blinders?
Using a clinical case, participants will consider whether the identified problem is located within the client, the environment, or the interaction between them. Groups will explore possible EMDR targets and distinguish reprocessing needs from needs for advocacy, accommodation, boundaries, or environmental change.

11:45 a.m.–12:00 p.m.: Large-Group Discussion
Participants will share observations from the breakout activity and discuss how neurodiversity-affirming case conceptualization can change target selection and treatment planning.

12:00–12:15 p.m.: 15-Minute Break

12:15–1:00 p.m.: Monotropism: Identification, Trauma, EMDR, and Metaphor-Based Intervention
Participants will explore monotropism, attention tunnels, attention inertia, and the potential effects of forced transitions and repeated social shaming. Clinical applications include preparing for transitions, individualizing bilateral stimulation, allowing sufficient time to enter and leave processing, and using the runway and taxi-room metaphor to support EMDR preparation and closure.

1:00–1:30 p.m.: PDA: Definition, Trauma, and EMDR Interventions
This section introduces the persistent demand for autonomy profile and examines the shame, relational conflict, and nervous-system activation that may arise when autonomy needs are misunderstood. Participants will explore declarative language, choice-based interventions, collaborative pacing, and safety checks throughout EMDR therapy.

1:30–2:00 p.m.: 30-Minute Meal Break

2:00–2:30 p.m.: Group Activity: PDA, Hierarchy, and Collaborative Tools
Participants will identify ways EMDR may unintentionally become hierarchical through target selection, numerical ratings, bilateral stimulation, cognitive interweaves, interpretations of blocked processing, and definitions of successful resolution. The group will then develop more collaborative, autonomy-supportive alternatives.

2:30–3:15 p.m.: Autistic Burnout: Trauma, EMDR Interventions, and Case Conceptualization
Participants will examine features of autistic burnout, its overlap with depression and complex trauma, and the effects of exhaustion, sensory overload, reduced access to skills, isolation, and productivity-based shame. The section addresses readiness for reprocessing, pacing, shorter sets, attunement, and the role of rest, reduced demands, and supportive intervention.

3:15–3:30 p.m.: Target-Sequencing Planning for Autistic Burnout
Using a clinical case, participants will develop a target-sequencing plan for trauma associated with autistic burnout while considering the client’s current capacity, environmental demands, underlying trauma, and readiness for EMDR reprocessing.

3:30–3:45 p.m.: Questions, Answers, and Integration
Questions are welcomed throughout the workshop; this final period will be dedicated to addressing any remaining clinical questions and integrating the workshop’s neurodiversity-affirming framework into participants’ future EMDR practice.