CompassionWorks
CompassionWorks was founded in 1998 by Jordan Shafer, MS, LPC.
🏔️ EMDR phases 4–6, explained as climbing a mountain.
A question I get from EMDR therapists in consultation:
"My client hit SUDs 0, VOC was already a 7, body scan was clear. We closed out. Is there anything I could have done differently?"
Short answer: yes — slow down phases 5 and 6.
Here's the analogy I use: We're Sherpas walking our clients up a memory mountain.
🔹 Phase 4 → the climb (reprocessing toward SUDs 0)
🔹 Phase 5 → the summit (don't rush past it — let the positive cognition land)
🔹 Phase 6 → the descent (body scan confirms the path down is clear)
Once your client reaches the top, let them stand there. Strengthen the connection between the memory and the new positive cognition. Add a few bilateral sets while they're in that calm, integrated state. Let them feel the work they just did.
Then walk them down the mountain — don't push them off the summit and onto the bus.
💡A clean session isn't just hitting the metrics. It's giving your client time to actually land in the new state.
📌 Save this for your next phase 5.
🔁 Share it with your EMDR consult partner.
05/14/2026
If compassion has started to feel performed instead of felt—that's clinical data, not personal failure. 🧠
Burnout in therapists isn't a sign you're bad at your job. It's a sign the workload is unsustainable and the system around you isn't catching you.
A distinction worth keeping clear:
🔶 Burnout: emotional exhaustion + depersonalization + reduced sense of effectiveness. Tied to workload and systemic conditions.
🔷 Vicarious trauma / Secondary Traumatic Stress: trauma-like symptoms (intrusions, avoidance, hyperarousal) from repeated exposure to clients' material.
You can have one, the other, or both.
Early signs clinicians miss:
▪️ Dreading specific clients
▪️ Emotional numbing in session
▪️ Cynicism about clients or outcomes
▪️ Sunday-night dread that starts Saturday
▪️ Intrusive images from session content
What helps isn't a bubble bath. It's consultation groups, real clinical supervision, caseload audits, body-based practices between sessions, and changes to the conditions themselves.
You are not a bottomless resource.
📌 Save this for the week you need it. 🔁 Share it with the colleague you've been worried about.
Utilizing EMDR with Grief and Mourning, Houston Texas.
04/22/2026
EMDR training that holds up when you're back in the room with a real client.
💬 "I was prepared enough after the training to work with two clients in Phases 1 and 2. The notes made sense when I went back to them." — Trainee, EMDR Basic Training, Houston (Katy), TX, 2025.
That's the bar we train to at CompassionWorks: not just passing the course, but walking into your next session knowing what to do.
EMDR Basic Training and advanced workshops, multiple formats, new cohorts throughout the year — built for licensed therapists who want trauma-informed skills that transfer directly into clinical practice.
📌 Comment Roadmap and we'll send you the full syllabus + upcoming training dates.
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3431 Rayford Road
Spring, TX
77386
