Stepping Into the Shadows

December 4-5, 2025

10am- 5pm EST both days

A 2-Day Advanced Workshop for EMDR-Trained Therapists
Approved for 12 EMDRIA Credits (CEs)

Stepping Into the Shadows invites EMDR-trained clinicians to explore what often goes unnamed - the body’s memories, ancestral echoes, and systemic wounds that shape trauma expression and healing. This 2-day advanced workshop expands EMDR practice beyond the individual, illuminating how historical, cultural, and intergenerational trauma live in the nervous system and influence the therapeutic process.

Grounded in EMDR’s 8 Phases, this training integrates somatic storytelling, cultural attunement, and liberation psychology to deepen both clinical skill and personal embodiment. Participants will learn to navigate the intersections of trauma, identity, and power through a framework that honors resilience, ancestral connection, and the art of liberation.

Through lectures, embodied exercises, and small-group dialogue, clinicians will explore how to work with what the client’s body already knows - transforming EMDR from a procedural model into a living, relational practice that centers cultural context, narrative repair, and community healing.

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Reconnect with the 8 Phases of EMDR Therapy through a somatic and liberation-centered lens.
• Identify how systemic, intergenerational, and identity-based trauma show up in the body and inform reprocessing.
• Apply somatic storytelling within EMDR case conceptualization and target selection.
• Utilize adaptive interweaves that center empowerment, voice, and cultural grounding.
• Integrate rituals of grounding, rhythm, and narrative as resources throughout the EMDR process.
• Reflect on therapist identity, positionality, and embodiment as clinical tools.
• Strengthen the capacity to create spaces of liberation, safety, and belonging for trauma-impacted clients.
   

This advanced workshop is open to:

• Clinicians who have completed an EMDRIA-Approved Basic Training.
• Therapists seeking to refresh or deepen their EMDR practice through a somatic and liberation framework.
• Practitioners interested in integrating ancestral awareness, cultural humility, and systemic understanding into EMDR work.
   

Duration: 2 Full Days (12 total training hours)
CE Credit: 12 EMDRIA-Approved Continuing Education Hours

Day 1Entering the Work: Revisiting the 8 Phases of EMDR through a somatic and liberation-centered lens. Participants will explore how trauma lives in the body and how ancestral memory, culture, and systemic harm impact reprocessing. Includes live demonstration, case discussion, and guided reflection.

Day 2Integration & Practice: Applied learning through case conceptualization labs, practice with liberation-focused interweaves, reflective dialogue, and embodied techniques for grounding and repair. The day closes with an integration ritual connecting personal, collective, and ancestral healing threads. 

Delivery Options:
Live online via secure Zoom or in-person at Sankofa Healing Studio
Includes access to a digital workbook, curated readings, and reflection guides.

1. Short lectures blending neurobiological, somatic, and cultural frameworks.
2. Case presentations from clinical practice.
3. Guided experiential and movement-based exercises.
4. Peer reflection and storytelling circles.
5. Somatic resourcing and grounding practices that model client application.
    

After completion, participants will be able to:

• Integrate somatic storytelling into EMDR case conceptualization and treatment planning.
• Conceptualize trauma as both personal and collective within EMDR’s Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model.
• Apply liberation-centered adaptive interweaves that emphasize voice, agency, and embodiment.
• Use culturally responsive language and interventions to enhance client safety and empowerment.
• Reflect critically on the therapist’s own body, history, and bias as part of the healing relationship
• Develop treatment goals that foster restoration, connection, and collective healing.
   

This workshop is approved by EMDRIA for 12 Continuing Education Credits.
Attendance and participation in both full days are required to receive credit.
Partial credit will not be awarded.

Jacqui Johnson, LPC, ATR-BC, ACS, PMH-C, CCMHC
EMDRIA-Approved Trainer • Founder, Sankofa Healing Studio

Jacqui is a licensed professional counselor, board-certified art therapist, play therapist, hip-hop therapist, and EMDRIA-Approved Trainer whose work bridges clinical practice, creative expression, and ancestral healing. She integrates EMDR, Brainspotting, Expressive Arts, somatic therapy, Reiki, Sound Healing, and Ketamine-assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) to create transformative, culturally resonant spaces for healing.

Her facilitation style is interactive, grounded, and deeply reflective - centering the voices and lived experiences of practitioners who serve trauma-impacted, system-affected, and historically excluded communities.

As a healing justice practitioner, Jacqui’s teaching emphasizes embodied liberation, creative expression, and the reclamation of joy as resistance and restoration.

Selina Stanford, LPC
Director of Clinical Services & Co-Facilitator, Sankofa Healing Studio

Selina is a licensed professional counselor, EMDR and Brainspotting practitioner, Reiki practitioner, Spiriual Herbalist, and Sound Healer. She brings a deeply holistic approach to trauma healing that bridges clinical practice with ancestral medicine, somatic awareness, and spiritual care.

As a Death Doula, Selina honors the natural cycles of life, death, and rebirth - guiding clinicians and clients toward presence, grounding, and reconnection. Her leadership at Sankofa ensures that all programs remain ethical, trauma-informed, and culturally attuned.

Selina’s facilitation is heart-centered and embodied, inviting participants to slow down, listen to their nervous systems, and engage the work with reverence and truth.

Together, Jacqui and Selina bring a teaching energy that is relational, restorative, and rooted in both evidence-based and ancestral ways of knowing. Their co-facilitation invites participants to experience EMDR, Brainspotting, and somatic storytelling not only as clinical frameworks - but as living, breathing rituals of collective healing and liberation.

For more information about both facilitators, visit SankofaHealingStudio.org.

Investment: $333
CEs: 12 EMDRIA-Approved Continuing Education Hours (pending)
Includes access to all training materials, recordings (if applicable), and CE documentation.

Payment plans and group discounts available.
Space is limited to maintain an interactive, small-group learning experience.

For questions, contact: admin@sankofahealingstudio.org

• Completion of EMDRIA-Approved Basic Training is required.
• Full attendance is mandatory for CE credit.
• Refunds and cancellation policies follow Sankofa Healing Studio’s posted policy.
• Certificates of completion will be issued within 14 days of the workshop.