EMDR with Dementia and Caregivers: Clinical Adaptations, Case Conceptualization, and Ethical Practice

Saturday, September 26, 2026 9am - 1 pm Eastern Time

Skill Level: Moderate

3.5 CEs (Connect is an APA & NBCC approved CE provider)

3.5 EMDRIA Credits Requested

Instructor: Carla Archuletta, LPC/MHSP-S

This is a live, virtual training held via Zoom.

Audience: Mental Health Professionals including Psychologists, Social Workers, Counselors, graduate students and pre-licensed therapists who are on a track to licensure.

Prerequisite: Participants must have completed EMDR Basic Training with an EMDRIA-approved training provider.

About This Course:

This advanced training explores the application of the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model and Standard EMDR Therapy protocol with clients experiencing neurocognitive decline and with caregivers supporting individuals living with dementia.

The instructor, a Fellow in Thanatology and End-of-Life Doula with years of hospice experience, will emphasize maintaining fidelity to the EMDR model while modifying pacing, target selection, and intervention strategies based on client capacity, cognitive functioning, readiness, and stability. Clinical application includes working with caregiver distress, anticipatory grief, and burnout using EMDR informed approaches.

Participants will examine how dementia impacts memory systems, including disruptions in declarative and episodic memory, while recognizing the continued accessibility of implicit and emotionally encoded memory networks. Through an AIP framework, clinicians will explore how distressing experiences may remain maladaptively stored and continue to influence emotional and behavioral responses in both individuals living with dementia and their caregivers.

The training will also introduce brief, in the moment EMDR informed approaches, including adaptations of On-the-Spot EMDR, for addressing distress related behaviors when standard reprocessing is not feasible due to cognitive or communication limitations.

Ethical considerations, scope of practice, interdisciplinary collaboration, and contraindications for EMDR use with neurodegenerative conditions will also be addressed.

This course assumes foundational competence in EMDR Therapy, including familiarity with the AIP model, the eight phase protocol, and the three-pronged approach. Basic EMDR procedures will not be taught. Instead, the focus is on adapting existing EMDR skills to support clinical decision making, case conceptualization, and ethical practice with this complex population.

Fees: $125

Cancellation policy: full refund minus credit card processing fee if canceled more than two weeks prior to training. No refund available after September 12, 2026.

Learning Objectives:

Upon completion of this training, participants will be able to:

Describe dementia related symptoms and caregiver distress using the Adaptive Information Processing model.
Differentiate between trauma related dissociation and neurocognitive decline in clinical presentation.
Apply the standard three pronged EMDR protocol to cases involving dementia and caregiving.
Describe several pacing, target selection, and intervention strategies within the eight phase EMDR model based on client capacity, cognitive functioning, readiness, and stability.
Identify indicators of readiness and contraindications for EMDR therapy in clients with neurodegenerative conditions.
Utilize EMDR informed strategies, including brief in the moment interventions, to address maladaptively stored distress in clients and caregivers.

About The Presenter: Carla Archuletta, LPC/MHSP-S

Carla Archuletta is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Mental Health Service Provider with Approved Supervisor status in Tennessee (LPC/MHSP-S), Fellow in Thanatology (FT), EMDR Certified Therapist, EMDRIA Consultant-in-Training, and Facilitator for EMDR Basic Training. She maintains a private practice where her clinical work focuses on EMDR therapy, grief and trauma treatment, and compassionate support for individuals navigating health and medical challenges, serious illness, and complex life transitions.

Carla is a trained end-of-life doula and instructor in the University of Vermont’s End-of-Life Doula Professional Certificate Program. Though her clinical expertise includes death, dying, and bereavement, she works with clients experiencing a wide range of emotional and psychological concerns.

In addition to her clinical and educational roles, Carla is a sought-after speaker and co-author of Health-Medical Challenges and Grief: Group EMDR Therapy for Patients and Caregivers in EMDR Group Therapy: Emerging Principles and Protocols to Treat Trauma and Beyond (Springer Publishing).

Schedule – Eastern Time Zone

9:00 am - 10:15 am: Welcome and Lecture

10:15 am - 10:30 am: Break

10:30 am - 11:30 pm: Lecture, Case Example, Demonstration, and Guided Application of Learning

11:30 am - 11:45 pm: Break

11:45 am - 1 pm: Lecture, Case Example, Guided Application of Learning, Q&A, Wrap Up.

ADA Assistance

Our in-person trainings are held in facilities that are in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Closed Captions are also available as a Zoom viewing option for our live, virtual trainings. Please contact Claire at Claire@ConnectEMDR.com or (407) 970-7915 if accommodation is required for this virtual training.

Statement of Proactive Commitment to Inclusion & Diversity

Connect welcomes trainees and consultees from all cultural, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds, sexual and gender orientations. We are committed to providing a safe and inclusive learning environment for all trainees and consultees, including Black People, People of Color, Indigenous People, and LGBTQ People. We pledge to proactively address issues of cultural competence and culturally-based trauma during every phase of professional development.

Attendance Requirement

Per EMDRIA, participants must attend the training in its entirety and actively participate in all supervised practice exercises in order to receive a certificate of completion for their training. Those who miss more than 15 minutes of any portion of the training, at any point during the training, may be dismissed from the training at the discretion of the staff and will not receive a certificate of completion, CE credits, or a refund.

CEs

Connect is approved by:

The American Psychological Association (APA). Connect is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Connect maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
The National Board of Certified Counselors. Connect has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7534

While most states and licensing boards accept course work that has been approved by nationally recognized certifying bodies, such as APA, licensed professionals should contact their regulatory board to determine course approval.

Florida Clinicians: Under 64B4 - 6.002, the 491 rules permit the National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC) and the American Psychological Association (APA) to be approved continuing education providers for all 491 licensees. You will simply upload your CE certificate to CE Broker.

https://naswfl.socialworkers.org/Professional-Development/Licensure/Licensing-Test-Prep/Florida-Licensing-Requirements#:~:text=A%3A%20Under%2064B4%20%2D%206.002%2C,providers%20for%20all%20491%20licensees.

Grievances:

Connect seeks to ensure equitable treatment of every person and to make every attempt to resolve grievances in a fair manner. Please submit a written grievance to info@ConnectEMDR.com. Grievances would receive, to the best of our ability, corrective action in order to prevent further problems.

There is no known conflict of interest nor commercial support for this program.