A powerful question a therapist can ask is not “How do I fix this?” but “Why is this happening?”
In this short conversation, Deany Laliotis sits down with Center Faculty Ami Allen, MS, LMFT, to talk about what changes when we move beyond symptom relief and into real case conceptualization.
Ami’s new blog explores the discipline of staying curious, especially when the patterns feel familiar and the answer seems clear.
That kind of curiosity is not something we learn once. It is something we keep returning to, through training, through consultation, and through colleagues who push our thinking.
If you’ve been feeling the limits of treating what’s most visible, two ways to take this work further:
🌱 Thinking AIP and Using EMDR, our advanced training with Deany this July, where we go deep into case conceptualization and the difference between the symptom and the problem.
🌱 Our ongoing case consultation groups, where clinicians sharpen their thinking alongside experienced consultants.
Read Ami’s blog and learn more about both at the link in bio.
The Center for Excellence in EMDR Therapy
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Our forward-thinking EMDR training center combines all the field’s clinical wisdom around trauma treatment and transformation into a comprehensive healing therapy.
05/19/2026
What if the symptom isn’t the problem?
In her new blog, Center Faculty Ami Allen, MS, LMFT, writes about the moment her clinical work shifted.
She stopped asking “How do I reduce this symptom?” and started asking “Why is this client experiencing these symptoms?”
That shift, from intervention to inquiry, is where real case conceptualization begins.
Ami writes about the discipline of not knowing too quickly, the role of the future as a clinical anchor, and a case that taught her the difference between symptom relief and transformation.
If you’ve ever felt the limits of treating what’s most visible, this one is for you.
🌱 Read the blog at the link in bio.
05/12/2026
Our clients carry experiences they once had to face alone.
In EMDR therapy, we are not asking them to go back there by themselves.
We are going with them.
Our attunement, our presence, the steadiness of the relationship itself becomes part of what makes the work possible.
The past cannot be changed. But it can be revisited differently, with someone alongside.
✨ We co-create the conditions of safety that make it possible for our clients to remember, and to reprocess, what they once had to face alone.
05/08/2026
Memory is more than something we recover. It is something we work with.
In EMDR therapy, the memories that drive a client’s present-day struggles are not obstacles to bypass.
They are the entry point. The doorway. The way in.
When we slow down and listen to what memory is telling us, we begin to see how the past is shaping the present, and where the work needs to begin.
🌱 “Memory is the raw material of our work. We use it as a doorway, a portal into change.”
- Lisa Garcia, LCSW-C Center Faculty and EMDRIA-Certified Trainer
psychotherapist
Registration closes soon.
The Dance of Attachment: An Introduction to Relational EMDR Therapy® begins May 15, and this is your chance to join us.
Some of the most important work in EMDR therapy with complex trauma does not happen during reprocessing.
It happens in the relationship itself, in the moment-to-moment dance between therapist and client that makes it possible for our clients to go where they need to go.
This Master course examines the therapeutic alliance as a strategic part of the treatment plan, explores the Self of the therapist, and asks what it means to be real with our clients as part of the healing journey.
🗓️ May 15 to 17, 2026 (begins 11:00 am ET)
18 CEs
Open to clinicians who have completed Basic Training in EMDR therapy. We recommend at least a year of practice before stepping into a Master course. Certification is not required.
Registration closes May 10th.
We hope you’ll join us. Link in bio.
We sit with clients whose histories cannot be rewritten.
The neglect, the loss, the harm, the years of going at it alone. None of that can be undone. And yet, something can shift.
What lives inside our clients can change. The shame can soften. The body can settle. The story they tell themselves about who they are can begin to come back into focus.
That is the work.
✨ “We can’t change what happened to our clients. But we can change how it lives inside of them.”
Deany Laliotis, LICSW Founder & CEO, The Center for Excellence in EMDR Therapy
traumatherapy psychotherapist
How we show up in the room is part of the work itself.
In this video, Deany shares what makes The Dance of Attachment: An Introduction to Relational EMDR Therapy® different from other advanced courses, and why the therapeutic relationship sits at the center of the work with complex trauma.
Beyond protocol and procedure, we are co-creating a corrective emotional experience with our clients.
We are tracking moment by moment. We are noticing what gets activated in us, too.
Watch Deany talk about this Master training, then join us.
🗓️ May 15 to 17, 2026
18 CEs
Open to clinicians who have completed Basic Training and have at least a year of EMDR practice.
Certification not required.
Registration is open. Link in bio.
Ethics in EMDR is not just a requirement.
It is how we show up for our clients.
Join Deany Laliotis at the Virtual EMDRIA Summit on April 25th for a powerful conversation on the ethical considerations that shape our work and strengthen our clinical presence.
This is about more than doing EMDR right.
It is about being fully present, grounded, and responsible in the therapy room.
If you are committed to offering your clients the highest standard of care, this is a session you do not want to miss.
👇 Tell us in the comments
What is one ethical consideration you find yourself coming back to in your EMDR work?
03/26/2026
Is AIP Case Conceptualization easier said than done?
In her latest article in Go With That Magazine (published by EMDR International Association), Deany Laliotis, LICSW offers a perspective that can transform how we think about EMDR case conceptualization.
One of the most common challenges Deany hears from EMDR therapists is this:
“I know the model… but with more complex cases, I’m not sure what to focus on.”
We offer our clients symptom relief, which is the “what.” But we also need to understand the “why” the client is struggling with these symptoms that often persist long after the traumas were endured.
Here’s the shift that changes everything:
👉 It’s not just about what happened.
👉 It’s also about what happened next.
When we focus only on past events, we risk missing the adaptations clients developed to survive.
These are the patterns of response that helped our clients survive, that are now driving present-day symptoms.
As Francine Shapiro taught us, these experiences shape beliefs about the self.
But in complex cases, it’s not just about resolving confusions about our role in these formative childhood memories. It’s also about what we learned to do or inhibit doing that has taken on a life of its own independent of the root causes.
And these adaptations may or may not be informed by the same distorted beliefs about the self because it’s the solution to an untenable problem.
The real question is:
What is informing the client’s current lived experience that is problematic for them?
If we keep our focus on the bigger picture which includes a client’s self-identity, their adaptations, and developmental growth, we can shift our focus from symptom relief to growth and change.
And this is where EMDR becomes not just a method to treat trauma, but a comprehensive psychotherapy approach.
Deany is curious how you integrate the “why” into your case conceptualization.
📖 Read more https://hubs.la/Q048xxtm0 in the March 2026 issue of Go With That Magazine.
03/06/2026
Why this?
Why now?
Curiosity is not a soft skill in EMDR therapy. It is a clinical compass.
In moments of profound grief, curiosity can feel counterintuitive.
And yet, it is often the doorway.
The Power of Being Curious explores how listening beneath the surface through the AIP model helps us attune to what the nervous system is communicating.
Through case reflection, this piece highlights body based cues, consultation, and the significance of slowing down long enough to discover what is ready to be processed.
We invite you to read and reflect.
https://hubs.la/Q045Lvm90
Written by Shannon Schiefer, MA, LPC, Center Faculty and EMDRIA Certified Therapist™ and Consultant.
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