Attachment-Focused Trauma Therapy for Adults (AFTT-A)
A 2-Part Advanced EMDR Training for Clinicians Working with Adult Attachment Trauma
A 2-Part Advanced EMDR Training for Clinicians Working with Adult Attachment Trauma
Attachment trauma shapes the internal world in ways that standard EMDR approaches don't always reach. Adults who experienced early relational disruption often struggle with fragmented personality structure, difficulty forming safe therapeutic relationships, and limited access to adaptive memory networks needed for effective EMDR reprocessing.
The Attachment-Focused Trauma Therapy for Adults (AFTT-A) training — developed by Debra Wesselmann, MS, LIMHP and Ann E. Potter, Ph.D. — provides clinicians with a structured, experiential approach for working with these clients. Grounded in EMDR's Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model and integrated with attachment theory and internal parts work, AFTT-A equips you to go beyond stabilization and help clients achieve lasting internal change.
This is a 2-part training. Both parts are required for certification; each can be taken independently for continuing education.
What you will learn
Part 1
Reconstruction of Internal Personality Parts & Attachments
This 2-day training teaches clinicians the skills to incorporate EMDR therapy into internal restructuring — creating safety and new attachment experiences for parts of self, building an effective inner resource team, and strengthening the competent adult self.
SKILLS YOU’LL DEVELOP
Creating Safe Place and Higher Power for Adult and Child parts of self
Building and installing an internal Resource Team
Time-orienting younger/other parts of self
Strengthening the Competent Adult through imagery
Generating new attachment experiences between Child and True Parent parts
Providing emotionally corrective experiences within the therapeutic relationship
Integrating AFTT-A strategies and protocols into clinical practice
Part 2
Transitioning & Integrating into EMDR Phases 3-8
This 2-day training teaches clinicians how to bridge the preparation work of Part 1 into active EMDR reprocessing, safely and effectively moving complex clients through Phases 3-8.
SKILLS YOU’LL DEVELOP
Updating the Bonding Contract to support affect regulation during reprocessing
Developing therapeutic stories using the Joan Lovett, MD format
Implementing "contained reprocessing" to prevent overwhelm in complex clients
Applying inverted protocols to enhance safety during trauma work
Using cognitive interweaves that integrate preparation-phase content into desensitization
Getting client permission and structuring the transition to Phases 3-8
EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
Both parts of the AFTT-A training include extensive experiential practice. Participants have the opportunity to examine and create changes in their own internal parts and attachments through guided experiential sessions, a key feature that distinguishes this training from lecture-only formats.
Audience, Instructors, & Licensure Credits
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AFTT-A is designed for licensed mental health professionals who have completed EMDR Basic Training, including psychologists, counselors, social workers, nurses, and other mental health and addiction professionals. It is an intermediate-level training.
With appropriate adaptations, AFTT-A protocols can be utilized within broader treatment for dissociative identity disorder (DID), though DID treatment is not the primary focus of this workshop.
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Debra Wesselmann, MS, LIMHP is a member of the faculty of the EMDR Institute and an institute basic EMDR trainer. She has provided EMDR specialty trainings related to attachment trauma in children and adults worldwide. She is on the editorial board for the Journal of EMDR Practice and Research, and has authored and co-authored multiple books, articles, and chapters — including two co-authored with EMDR founder Francine Shapiro, Ph.D.
Ann E. Potter, Ph.D. has worked for over 40 years in the mental health field as a psychiatric nurse, educator, therapist, psychologist, evaluator, researcher, writer, presenter, and consultant. She is a certified therapist and approved consultant in EMDR and a certified therapist in Radically Open DBT (RO DBT), with extensive experience in DBT as well. Dr. Potter has conducted outcome research on phase-based trauma treatment and authored books and articles on trauma treatment and EMDR therapy.
Together, Deb and Ann co-authored EMDR and Attachment-Focused Trauma Therapy for Adults (Springer, 2023).
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13 EMDRIA Credits per part (26 total for both parts)
EMDRIA Approval #: 01007-86 (Part 1) / 01007-87 (Part 2)
Licensure CEs approved through CE-Classes.com for FL, IL, NY, OH, OK, SC, TX, CA (CADTP), and additional states
Certificates issued online through CE-Classes.com after workshop completion
More information on EMDRIA Credits available here.
Attachment-Focused Trauma Therapy
for Adults (AFTT-A)
UPCOMING AFFT-A TRAINING EVENTS
AFTT-A Part 1 — Zoom (Sept 18–19)
A 2-day Zoom training introducing the AFTT-A protocol — including the Parts of Self model and preparation-phase interventions for adult attachment trauma clients. 13 EMDRIA credits. Presented by Debra Wesselmann, MS, LIMHP & Ann E. Potter, Ph.D.