Addiction presents a discreet challenge for the EMDR clinician - particularly balancing reprocessing underlying traumatic material alongside emerging client urges to engage in unhealthy coping. Target sequencing, stabilisation, and resourcing all present challenges in these situations. Further, targeting urges directly with EMDR can feel like riding the razor’s edge that we fear may lead to relapse. The concept of the Addictive Memory offers clinicians an alternative to targeting a client’s unhealthy coping while reducing the risk for rapid destabilization.
Participants who successfully complete the training should then be able to:
Define the Addictive Memory (AM) and how it presents in individuals.
Describe how activation of the AM leads to urges/cravings and how this fits within an overall cycle of addiction
Apply the principles of the AM through Phases 1-8, with particular attention focused on Phases 1, 2, and 4.
Use of the CraveX protocol to target the AM
Date: Friday, September 18, 2026
Time: 9am-4pm CDT
Format: Virtual
Addiction presents a discreet challenge for the EMDR clinician - particularly balancing reprocessing underlying traumatic material alongside emerging client urges to engage in unhealthy coping. Target sequencing, stabilisation, and resourcing all present challenges in these situations. Further, targeting urges directly with EMDR can feel like riding the razor’s edge that we fear may lead to relapse. The concept of the Addictive Memory offers clinicians an alternative to targeting a client’s unhealthy coping while reducing the risk for rapid destabilization.
Participants who successfully complete the training should then be able to:
Define the Addictive Memory (AM) and how it presents in individuals.
Describe how activation of the AM leads to urges/cravings and how this fits within an overall cycle of addiction
Apply the principles of the AM through Phases 1-8, with particular attention focused on Phases 1, 2, and 4.
Use of the CraveX protocol to target the AM
Date: Friday, September 18, 2026
Time: 9am-4pm CDT
Format: Virtual
