Dr. Pria Alpern

04/30/2026

A technique I use regularly in my EMDR practice and teach in Basic Training - now available as a free resources. 🔗 in bio!

04/29/2026

My former EMDR consultee just published a book and I could not be prouder. Self-Directed Complex PTSD Exercises for Women by is full of valuable body-based practices for safety, stability, and self-love. If you support women navigating complex trauma, this belongs on your shelf.

04/29/2026

Five things I wish someone had told me early in my trauma training, and honestly, things I still come back to now.
Save this one.

04/29/2026

Trauma therapists who consult regularly do better work. Not because they have more training, but because the material gets processed somewhere outside the session room. Countertransference gets named,
stuckness gets troubleshooted, and isolation gets interrupted. I’ve been in consultation groups at every stage of my career, and I will be in them until I stop practicing. Swipe for what consultation helps with and what to look for when you’re building your consultation
structure.

04/28/2026

I love this song #23

04/28/2026

I use both. They serve different functions. Here’s how I think about the difference, clinically. Training opens July 17 - 🔗 in bio.

Comment below: what’s the clinical question you’d most want answered before starting EMDR training?

04/27/2026

There are four spots left in my EMDR office hours consultation meeting on May 8 from 12 to 2 PM Eastern on Zoom. Go to Mike Beacon link to grab a spot.

04/27/2026

EMDR for Birth Trauma, May 2026:
This live training series teaches the EMDR Protocol for Recent Birth Trauma, focusing on evidence-based techniques to address postpartum PTSD and improve perinatal mental health outcomes. *EMDRIA & PSI approved (6 CEUS)*

This live training series teaches the EMDR Protocol for Recent Birth Trauma, focusing on evidence-based techniques to address postpartum PTSD and improve perinatal mental health outcomes. *EMDRIA & PSI approved (6 CEUS)*

04/27/2026

Vicarious trauma is an occupational reality of trauma work – and the research has been clear on this for decades.
Pearlman and Saakvitne (1995) describe shifts in how trauma therapists see safety, trust, and the world – not burnout, but transformation of your internal world through your clients’ material. This is why supervision, personal therapy, and being in community with clinicians who understand the work are so important.

04/24/2026

In trauma work, pacing is a clinical skill, and one that doesn’t get enough attention.
We are trained to assess for safety. We learn diagnostic frameworks and “evidence-based” protocols. But the question of how fast to move, when to press the accelerator and when to push on the brake is the most clinically sophisticated thing you can offer. That’s learned from experience, consultation, and a deep understanding of the nervous system.

Fast is not better. And a client who processes one small piece of a traumatic memory and returns to a regulated state has done meaningful work, even if neither of you touched the core of the trauma that day.

Well-paced trauma work builds a tolerance for the work itself. The client learns they can go there and come back, and that trust is foundational.

Save this for the week you feel like you’re not moving fast enough.

04/24/2026

“This question comes up often in my EMDR trainings and consultation groups, and it covers a broad range of scenarios.

There is the adult child who moved her mother into the spare bedroom after her stroke. There is the person whose grandparent was emotionally vicious throughout their childhood but now needs help getting to doctor’s appointments. There is the person who grew up with a violent father, left as soon as he could, and has spent twenty years managing the relationship from a careful distance (holidays, phone calls, the occasional visit) because cutting contact entirely feels impossible or too costly. There is the person whose older cousin was the abuser, who now finds himself at the same Thanksgiving table every year. There is the mother whose abusive ex is now her co-parent.

The specifics vary, but the common thread in these situations is that the abuse happened, it is not happening now, and the person who did it has not exited the picture. The relationship continues in some form, which means the nervous system continues to encounter the person associated with the original wound. Not the memory of that person, but the actual person, on a recurring basis.”