EMDR Intensives for Athletes and Performers: From Protocols to Performance
December 5, 2026
Live Webinar
Course Description:
Athletes and other high-performing individuals often face unique barriers to accessing mental health care, including demanding schedules, travel requirements, competitive seasons, privacy concerns, and limited availability for traditional weekly therapy. In addition to addressing mental health concerns, clinicians working with performance populations are often asked to help clients navigate performance blocks, confidence issues, injury recovery, leadership challenges, and other factors that may interfere with optimal functioning. Unresolved trauma, injury-related distress, maladaptively stored memories, and nervous system dysregulation can significantly impact both well-being and performance, often presenting as challenges that are not immediately recognized as appropriate targets for EMDR therapy. Emerging research on intensive EMDR treatment models suggests that concentrated treatment formats can be both effective and efficient for appropriate clients. This training explores the rationale for utilizing EMDR intensives with athletes and high performers and examines how intensive models may increase access to care while supporting both clinical recovery and performance enhancement goals.
Participants will implement the standard eight-phase EMDR protocol within an intensive treatment format while maintaining fidelity to the EMDR model. The course will provide practical guidance on screening and determining appropriateness for intensive treatment, identifying contraindications, assessing readiness, case conceptualization, treatment planning, and treatment mapping for performance-focused populations. Attendees will gain a structured framework for designing and delivering half-day, full-day, and multi-day EMDR intensives in both in-person and virtual settings, including pre-intensive preparation and post-intensive integration strategies. The training will also explore how to conceptualize performance challenges through a trauma-informed Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) lens, work effectively within the athlete’s broader system of support, and incorporate performance-focused EMDR interventions, future templates, and specialized EMDR protocols when clinically appropriate. Additional topics will include foundational business and marketing strategies to support the ethical implementation of an intensive practice. By the conclusion of the training, participants will gain practical tools, templates, and clinical frameworks to confidently integrate EMDR intensives into their work with athletes and other highperforming clients.
Presenter Bios:
Whitney Dittmar, MA, LPC is a Licensed Professional Counselor, EMDR Certified Therapist, EMDR Consultant, and founder of EMDR Intensives for Athletes, Coaches and Leaders in Centennial, Colorado. With more than 20 years of clinical experience, she specializes in supporting elite high school, collegiate, and professional athletes in overcoming performance blocks, such as the yips, anxiety, injury recovery challenges, identity transitions, and nervous system dysregulation that impact performance and well-being. As a former Division I athlete, she brings both clinical expertise and lived experience of high-performance environments to her work with athletes, coaches, and leaders navigating the psychological and physiological demands of competition and leadership.
Whitney is known for integrating EMDR therapy, nervous system regulation, and performance-focused interventions within an intensive treatment model designed for meaningful, efficient change in high-achieving populations. In her training, she teaches clinicians how to conceptualize performance challenges through a trauma-informed, Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) lens and how unresolved stress and maladaptive memory networks can directly impact performance, confidence, and emotional regulation. Her course, EMDR Intensives for Athletes and Performers: From Protocols to Performance is designed to help EMDR clinicians feel confident and equipped to implement EMDR intensive models with performance populations—offering practical frameworks, case conceptualization strategies, and applied tools to expand their effectiveness and impact in this specialized and growing area of practice.
Timeline:
8:45-9:00 PST Check in
9:00-9:30am 30 minutes Introduction and overview of the course (Why a need for intensives)- an engagement exercise- finding your own Why and using HeartMath (What- working intensively can look like)
9:30-10:30am 60 minutes (How) The Basics of Implementing Intensive work while maintaining fidelity to the 8 phases of EMDR- screening, readiness and resourcing, treatment planning/mapping.
10:30-10:45am 10 min Break
10:45-11:45am 60 min Case conceptualization, systems considerations and foundational business and marketing strategies
11:45-12:15 30 min Additional Resources to consider, another experiential exercise and Q & A
Learning Objectives:
Upon completion of the training, participants will:
- Describe the clinical rationale and emerging research supporting the use of EMDR intensive treatment models with athletes and other high-performing populations.
- Identify screening, readiness, and case conceptualization factors that determine appropriateness for EMDR intensives and inform treatment planning for performance-focused populations.
- Describe the framework for implementing the standard eight-phase EMDR protocol within an intensive treatment format, including treatment mapping, session structure, and integration strategies for athletes and high performers and have an understanding and guide for how to implement the marketing and business strategies for this specialized work.
To register for this live workshop please visit: https://emdr-professional-training.thinkific.com/courses/EMDR-Intensives-for-Athletes-and-Performers-Protocols-Performance
This course content is based on a publication that has been peer-reviewed, the scientific standard for evaluating academic work. All studies and scientifically derived evidence have limitations that should be considered. If you have any questions about the accuracy or limitations of the content, please contact us at
support@ce-classes.com and we will get back to you.
