Dealing with Avoidance in EMDR Therapy:
Blocking Beliefs, Defenses, and Getting Unstuck
A Pre-Recorded Asynchronous Distance Learning Course!
$199 USD
7.5 hours of on-demand training + 7 clinical demonstrations
+ 20-page EMDR Clinical Handouts + 7.5 CE credits
365 day access to complete course!
Many EMDR clinicians encounter moments when trauma reprocessing becomes slowed, blocked, or difficult to access. A client may genuinely want to heal—and yet another protective response seems to pull them away from the very material they came to therapy to address.
Avoidance, dissociation, shame, idealization, and other trauma-related defenses can leave even experienced EMDR clinicians wondering: What is getting in the way of processing—and what do I do next?
Presented by EMDR Basic Trainer Crystal Whitlow, LCSW, course explores practical strategies for recognizing and working with defenses that create barriers to EMDR reprocessing.
Drawing from Jim Knipe’s EMDR Toolbox and additional EMDR and parts-informed approaches, the course moves beyond simply identifying that a client is “blocked.” You’ll explore ways to assess what may be interfering with processing and consider interventions that support stabilization, present orientation, dual awareness, readiness, and forward movement in EMDR therapy.
The course explores five trauma-related defenses described in Jim Knipe’s work—avoidance, dissociation, idealization, shame, and addictive behaviors—and introduces practical approaches including the Blocking Beliefs Questionnaire, Level of Urge to Avoid (LoUA), Level of Positive Affect (LoPA), CIPOS, Targeting Future First, Loving Eyes, and parts-informed strategies.
The goal isn’t to push clients past their defenses. It’s to better understand what those defenses may be doing, what the client needs in order to safely approach difficult material, and how EMDR can be adapted when standard targeting isn’t enough.
Designed for On-Demand Learning
This course was created from two live trainings presented in 2026—February 12–13 and August 26–27—and has been carefully edited and reorganized specifically for the on-demand learning experience.
Rather than simply giving you a recording of a two-day Zoom workshop, we reviewed both trainings and selected the strongest lectures, clinical demonstrations, case examples, clinical consultations, and teaching moments from each to create a more focused and comprehensive on-demand course.
The material has been reorganized into 13 focused chapters so you can move through the training in manageable sections. Significant pauses, technology transitions, breakout-room time, screen-sharing setup, and other unnecessary downtime from the original live trainings have been edited out so you can focus your time and attention on the clinical content.
The course includes a combination of focused lectures, experiential exercises, clinical demonstrations, case examples, clinical consultation, and participant Q&A, drawing from the strongest material across both live trainings.
The Course Chapters
Chapter 1: Foundations for Working with Avoidance and Stuck Processing
Explore what happens when standard EMDR isn’t enough, including the therapeutic relationship, the Processing Continuum, and the role of avoidance and defenses in stuck processing.
Chapter 2: Blocking Beliefs
Learn to recognize beliefs that may be interfering with readiness or movement in EMDR, including use of the Blocking Beliefs Questionnaire and a clinical demonstration of how it can be applied.
Chapter 3: Resourcing and Preparation
Explore grounding and resourcing strategies, including Tree Guided Imagery and Creating a Helping Resource, with opportunities for experiential participation and clinical demonstration.
Chapter 4: Common Post-Traumatic Psychological Defenses
Examine common protective responses following trauma, with particular attention to avoidance, idealization, shame, addictive behaviors, and other defenses that may interfere with trauma processing.
Chapter 5: Dissociation and Present Orientation
Explore dissociation as a protective response and learn strategies for assessing and strengthening present orientation, including the Back of the Head Scale and CIPOS (Constant Installation of Present Orientation and Safety).
Chapter 6: Additional Approaches for Stuck Processing
Explore additional options when direct processing is difficult, including Targeting Future First, with clinical demonstration and discussion.
Chapter 7: Targeting Avoidance
Learn to work directly with the urge to avoid using Jim Knipe’s Level of Urge to Avoid (LoUA) approach, including demonstration, clinical discussion, troubleshooting, and Bridging the Gap when direct processing feels too difficult.
Chapter 8: Targeting Idealization
Explore how positive attachment or affect can itself become a barrier to processing and how Level of Positive Affect (LoPA) can be used when working with idealization.
Chapter 9: Shame and Loving Eyes
Examine shame as a psychological defense and explore Jim Knipe’s Loving Eyes intervention for working with shame and protective responses.
Chapter 10: Integrating Parts Work with EMDR
Explore parts-informed EMDR, including how to identify and engage protective parts, increase access to Self-energy, and use unblending to better understand what protective responses may need.
Chapter 11: Reevaluation and Integration
Return to Phase 8: Reevaluation and explore how to determine what has changed, what remains unresolved, and which tools or strategies may be useful when treatment continues to feel stuck.
Chapter 12: Clinical Consultation
Watch Crystal apply the concepts from the training to four de-identified clinical cases.
Chapter 13: Closing Reflections
Bring together key themes from the course and consider how the different strategies can be integrated into clinical practice.
More Than Just the Videos
The chapter-based format is intentionally designed to make this course easy to use both as a training now and as a clinical resource you can return to later.
Clearly organized sections allow you to revisit a particular defense, intervention, or EMDR strategy when it becomes relevant in your clinical work—whether you’re trying to understand why a client continues to avoid a target, looking for ways to strengthen present orientation, working with shame or protective parts, or deciding how to approach processing that has become stuck.
And the learning doesn’t stop with the videos.
You’ll also receive an extensive collection of practical handouts, scripts, clinical exercises, and quick-reference tools designed to help you translate what you’ve learned into your EMDR practice.
What You’ll Receive
In addition to the complete chapter-based on-demand course, you’ll receive:
- Complete PowerPoint Slides & Bibliography
- Comprehensive Course Handouts — Your registration includes a 20-page collection of clinical handouts and tools spanning preparation, resourcing, dissociation, avoidance, idealization, shame, parts work, reevaluation, and additional EMDR approaches. Included in the Course Handouts
- The Processing Continuum Cheat Sheet
A visual clinical reference developed by Roy Kiessling for comparing Standard EMDR, contained processing, and restricted EMD across the phases of EMDR therapy. - Blocking Beliefs Questionnaire
A Jim Knipe tool for identifying beliefs that may be interfering with readiness or movement around a problem and helping clients identify a preferred belief before beginning processing. - Tree Guided Imagery
A grounding exercise using imagery and connection to the body to support calm, strength, clarity, and present-moment regulation. - Creating a Helping Resource with Extended Resourcing
A resource-building exercise adapted from RDI approaches that helps clients identify a needed skill or quality, strengthen access to it with BLS, and extend the resource through past rescripting and future rehearsal. - Light Stream Calming Technique
A guided imagery exercise that can support calming, grounding, and regulation during preparation work. - CIPOS: Constant Installation of Present Orientation and Safety
A structured approach for clients who experience overwhelm, dissociation, or difficulty maintaining present orientation, using brief contact with disturbing material alongside deliberate strengthening of present safety. - Targeting Future First
An adapted EMDR targeting strategy for approaching a future fear or concern before moving directly into difficult past material, with options for titrating the intensity of processing. - Targeting Avoidance Worksheet
Jim Knipe’s structured approach for identifying and directly targeting the Level of Urge to Avoid (LoUA) when a client wants to address an issue but experiences a strong internal urge to move away from it. - Targeting Idealization or Positive Affect Script
Jim Knipe’s approach for identifying and targeting positive affect connected to a person, substance, behavior, or situation when idealization itself may be interfering with trauma processing. - Bridging the Gap Exercise
An experiential and visual exercise that helps clients represent where they currently feel caught between a distressing experience and a more adaptive response, then use BLS while tracking movement across that continuum. - Loving Eyes Script
A Jim Knipe intervention designed to help a present-oriented adult ego state witness painful affect held by a younger child ego state while maintaining adult presence. - Unblending with IFS & EMDR
A parts-informed exercise adapted from Joanne Twombly and IFS that helps clients notice protective parts, create greater internal space, access Self-energy, and understand what protective responses may need before moving forward. - Phase 8: Reevaluation Questions
A practical guide for reassessing avoidance, blocking beliefs, target resolution, behavioral changes, resourcing needs, and progress across the past-present-future three-pronged approach. - DeTUR Protocol Script
A two-page clinical reference for A.J. Popky’s Desensitization of Triggers and Urge Reduction (DeTUR) protocol. DeTUR is not specifically taught in this course; Crystal included the protocol as an additional clinical reference.
- The Processing Continuum Cheat Sheet
Together, these materials give you tools you can return to during actual clinical work—whether you’re preparing a client for trauma processing, trying to understand what’s keeping processing stuck, strengthening resources, working with dissociation or avoidance, addressing shame or idealization, or determining how to safely move treatment forward.
Workshop Facilitator
Crystal Whitlow, LCSW, is an EMDR Basic Trainer, EMDRIA Approved Consultant, and IFS Certified Therapist and IFS Institute Approved Clinical Consultant based in South Bend, Indiana. She began her career working in domestic violence and sexual assault crisis centers before moving into community mental health and, ultimately, private practice.
Since opening her private practice in 2008, Crystal has specialized in the treatment of PTSD and complex trauma, with a particular focus on EMDR therapy. Today, she divides her professional time between maintaining a small clinical practice, teaching EMDR trainings and advanced workshops, and providing consultation to EMDR therapists seeking to deepen their skills and confidence.
Crystal also authored a chapter titled “Integrating Knipe’s EMDR Toolbox Skills to Enrich Your IFS Practice” in the volume titled IFS-Informed EMDR: Creative and Collaborative Approaches edited by David Polidi.
In 2023, Crystal began teaching IFS-Informed EMDR through the Syzygy Institute, integrating the wisdom of both models into her clinical work, consultation, and training.
Known for her practical teaching style and engaging demonstrations, Crystal helps clinicians translate EMDR theory into confident clinical practice.
Level of Content: Intermediate
Format: Pre-recorded Asynchronous Distance Learning
Intended Audience: Master’s level social workers, counselors, marriage and family therapists; psychologists, and other licensed mental health professionals trained in EMDR.
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.
Course Interaction: This course is delivered in an asynchronous, self-paced online format through the Thinkific learning management system. Participants access recorded video instruction, downloadable course materials, and a learner assessment at their own pace. Learners may pause, stop, and return to the course as needed and are not required to attend at a specific date or time.
Course Completion Requirements: You have 365 days from enrollment to complete the course. To earn CE credit, participants must watch the entire course, take a 36-question post-test, and obtain a 75% pass rate. You can take it as many times as needed. You must also fill out an evaluation of the course. Certificates of completion will be generated and email after your evaluation is completed.
Learning Objectives:
- Differentiate trauma-related defenses that create barriers to EMDR reprocessing.
- Apply the Blocking Beliefs Questionnaire to identify barriers to EMDR readiness.
- Apply EMDR preparation strategies to address defenses and avoidance prior to EMDR reprocessing.
- Analyze clinical presentations of dissociation and select EMDR strategies that support dual awareness and present orientation.
- Organize EMDR target selection to address client avoidance and defensive responses safely.
- Apply EMDR strategies that target the positive affect associated with idealization defenses.
- Apply parts-informed interventions to identify and address shame that interferes with EMDR processing.
- Relate Internal Family Systems (IFS)-informed parts language to the treatment of shame in EMDR therapy.
Continuing Education (CE) Credit Information
CE Credits Available
Participants will receive 7.5 hours of continuing education (CE) credit upon completing this program. Carefully look at the approvals/acceptances that have been secured for the training for which you are registering.
This workshop qualifies for 7.5 continuing education clock hours as required by many national, state, and local licensing boards and professional organizations Many states do not require specific approvals; several states require specific approvals; many accept national organization approvals or providers from other states. Save this workshop advertisement and certificate of completion, and contact your own board or organization for specific requirements.
By registering for this course, you agree to check in to and be knowledgeable about the continuing education approvals that are required for members of your profession in your state. You may contact Multiplicity of the Mind Learning Center with any questions PRIOR to the workshop.
EMDRIA : 7.5 Credits
Multiplicity of the Mind Learning Center is an approved EC Provider (#24005) and this Asynchronous Distance Learning program (#24005-DL21) is approved for 7.5 EMDRIA Credits. Eligibility for EMDRIA Credits is restricted to those who have completed an EMDRIA-Approved Basic EMDR Training. Multiplicity of the Mind Learning Center maintains responsibility for this program and its content in accordance with EMDRIA requirements.
ASWB ACE: 7.5 CEs
Multiplicity of the Mind Learning Center, #2113, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 07/23/2025 – 07/23/2028. Social workers completing this course receive 7.5 clinical continuing education credits.
What states accept ASWB ACE clock hours? LINK
NBCC: 7.5 CEs
Multiplicity of the Mind Learning Center has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7522. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Multiplicity of the Mind Learning Center is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
Additional Registration Information
Registration Fee: $199 USD
Will sales tax be added?
Depending on your location, applicable sales tax may be added at checkout as required by law.
Cancellation and Refund Policy: No refunds will be given for this online course.
Disability Related Accommodations and Services (click to expand)
In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990), Multiplicity of the Mind Learning Center will make reasonable adjustments or modifications to practices, policies and procedures. To start this process, participants can complete the Request for Reasonable Accommodation Form and email it info@multiplicityofthemind.com.
System Requirements (click to expand)
Operating Systems: Windows XP or higher, MacOS 9 or higher, Android 4.0 or higher
Internet Browser: Internet Explorer 9.0 or higher, Google Chrome, Firefox 10.0 or higher
Broadband Internet connection: Cable, High-speed DSL & any other medium that is Internet accessible.
Complaints and Grievances (click to expand)
The goal at Multiplicity of the Mind Learning Center is to provide an effective distance learning experience for all participants. if you have a problem with registration-related issues, e.g., issues with the registration form, payment, website, promotional materials, emails, you are expected to email Katie Wine-Appleton (info@multiplicityofthemind.com), as soon as possible.
During and after the course completion, complaints and grievances regarding course content, promotional or educational materials, facilitator’s behaviors, workshop site, facilities, technological resources, or any other course-related issues, shall be presented in writing to Katie Wine-Appleton, LPCC-S, Founder, Multiplicity of the Mind Learning Center. Licensed Social Workers: Should social workers have a specific grievance, these grievances will be addressed by Helen Hill, LISW-S, the social work consultant for Multiplicity of the Mind Learning Center.
Multiplicity of the Mind Learning Center’s approach in resolving grievances is always from the perspective of what is the fairest way to resolve the matter. All complaints and grievances are reviewed within 5 working days. Formal grievances are required to be written and emailed to info@multiplicityofthemind.com and will be responded to within 10 business days.
There are no known conflicts of interests for this workshop.
Contact Information for Questions and Assistance
Please contact Katie Wine-Appleton, Owner/CE Director for Multiplicity of the Mind Learning Center, with questions, concerns, etc. She can be reached at info@multiplicityofthemind.com