As 2025 draws to a close, we find ourselves reflecting not just on how much weโve doneโbut how deeply weโve grown.
This was a year marked by presence. Not just in sessions, but in classrooms, communities, and conversations that reached far beyond the training space. Whether it was showing up for each other, reaching across cultures and time zones, or honoring the tender, often invisible work of becoming, 2025 reminded us that real impact rarely looks flashy. It looks like connection. It looks like care.
And this year, it looked like our community in motion.
In June, Dr. Amber Quaranta-Leech took the stage at the EMDR Europe Conference in Prague. But she wasnโt just presenting researchโshe was honoring the strength and insight of Ukrainian clinicians working in active war zones.
Her presentation, focused on the remote application of EMDR-IGTP-OTS-R during wartime, reflected not only clinical rigor but CompassionWorksโ ongoing commitment to culturally responsive, community-centered care. The findings she shared were more than data pointsโthey were a testament to whatโs possible when EMDR meets courage, innovation, and compassion in the field.
In September, our community celebrated a milestone that was both personal and collective. Dr. Jose Carbajal was honored with the 2025 EMDRIA Ambassador Awardโa recognition of his years of service, mentorship, and leadership within the EMDR community.
Joseโs work has always extended beyond curriculum. Whether teaching, supervising, or simply being present with trainees, he holds space for growth that is rigorous, relational, and real. This award felt like an echo of what we already knew: that his presence shapes lives far beyond the classroom.
This year also marked the beginning of Founderโs Corner: Nondual Wisdom and Psychotherapy, a new blog series written by our founder, Jordan Shafer.
Each post invited readers into a deeper reflection on the inner landscape of therapyโexploring presence, identity, and transformation through a nondual lens. Jordanโs writing touched on the ineffable moments that donโt make it into training manuals: the silences, the unraveling, the softening that happens when awareness is allowed to lead.Through pieces like โWhen the Nervous System Rewrites Its Scriptโ and โLife is Butter Dream,โ he offered not just insight, but companionship for those navigating the spiritual and clinical depth of EMDR practice.
And while big moments made headlines, it was the quiet ones that grounded us.
In 2025, we launched Real Voices. Real Impact., a monthly series that shared reflections from trainees around the country. These werenโt polished testimonialsโthey were honest accounts of transformation, uncertainty, and growth, told in the words of those living it.
At Delta State University, we piloted our first-ever hybrid EMDR training for graduate students, expanding access to those entering the field with a hunger to serve early.Throughout the year, we continued deepening our commitment to culturally responsive careโoffering bilingual refresher trainings and expanding our blog content to explore the needs and strengths of both the Hispanic/Latinx and BIPOC communities. These efforts werenโt just about inclusionโthey were about meeting the nervous system with cultural respect, humility, and relevance.
While the work of transformation is hard to quantify, this year we saw growth not only in depthโbut in reach.
🌐 23 EMDR Trainings were held in 2025:
💡 We introduced 4 brand new advanced workshops, expanding the range of topics and tools available to clinicians.
💪 446 clinicians engaged with our programming throughout the yearโeach one contributing to a wider ripple of trauma-informed care across communities.
Each number represents a real personโcommitted to learning, to their clients, and to a trauma-informed world grounded in compassion.
And in between the trainings, we stayed connectedโthrough newsletters, blog posts, and social media updates that lifted up new research, explored tricky questions, celebrated your achievements, and offered space for reflection and renewal.
Because connection doesnโt only happen in sessions. It happens in the stories we tell, the questions we ask, and the spaces we holdโtogether.
Through all of itโtrainings, workshops, blog posts, celebrationsโone thing remained constant: our belief that the heart of this work is connection. Connection to self. Connection to community. Connection to whatโs unfolding within and around us.
2025 asked us to stay close to what matters. To listen more deeply. To teach with care. To lead with humility. And to remember that behind every protocol, every training cohort, every professional milestone, there is a human being choosing presence over perfectionโagain and again.
To each of you who made this year what it wasโthank you.
Youโre the reason CompassionWorks isnโt just a training organizationโitโs a living, breathing community.
We canโt wait to keep growing with you in 2026.💙
The CompassionWorks Team
💬 What did 2025 open for youโpersonally or professionally? Drop a reflection in the comments. Weโd love to hear your voice as we close the year together.
Amanda Martin holds a PhD in Family Therapy and is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Supervisor, and EMDRIA Approved Consultant. With over 14 years of experience, she specializes in trauma therapy for individuals and families in residential and outpatient settings. Amanda also provides supervision for EMDR certification, EMDR consultants-in-training, and LMFT-Associates. Her mission is to help people find a healthy, joyful, and fulfilling path in life. Her warm, supportive, and interactive counseling style incorporates Symbolic Experiential Therapy, Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, EMDR, HeartMath, Animal-Assisted Therapy, Neurofeedback, and Collaborative Problem Solving.
Dr. Jose Carbajal, a U.S. Army veteran, earned his bachelorโs and masterโs degrees in social work and a masterโs in theological studies from Baylor University, and a Ph.D. in Social Work from the University of Texas at Arlington. With over 15 years of clinical experience and extensive teaching experience, Jose specializes in trauma, sexual abuse recovery, domestic violence, and substance abuse. His research focuses on trauma interventions, neuroscience, and faith. He is EMDR Certified, an Approved Consultant, and an EMDRIA Approved Trainer, with numerous publications and professional presentations to his name.
Amber holds a PhD in Counselor Education and Supervision from Regent University. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor in both Texas and Oklahoma and holds Supervisor credential for Texas. Amber is an EMDRIA consultant and trainer. She has over a decade of experience in the trauma field in work with uniformed services, domestic violence, childhood trauma and abuse, and recent mass trauma events. Amber provides consultation for EMDRIA certification, for consultants-in-training, and supervision for LPC-Associates. Amber continues to research the benefits of EMDR therapy with a variety of populations. Her goal is to help build strong clinicians who are well versed in trauma interventions to better support their clients. Amber sees a limited number of clients with a focus on trauma work, she is also a Certified Career Counselor and Certified through EAGALA to provide equine-assisted therapy.ย
Amber holds a PhD in Counselor Education and Supervision from Regent University. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor in both Texas and Oklahoma and holds Supervisor credential for Texas. Amber is an EMDRIA consultant and trainer. She has over a decade of experience in the trauma field in work with uniformed services, domestic violence, childhood trauma and abuse, and recent mass trauma events. Amber provides consultation for EMDRIA certification, for consultants-in-training, and supervision for LPC-Associates. Amber continues to research the benefits of EMDR therapy with a variety of populations. Her goal is to help build strong clinicians who are well versed in trauma interventions to better support their clients. Amber sees a limited number of clients with a focus on trauma work, she is also a Certified Career Counselor and Certified through EAGALA to provide equine-assisted therapy.ย
Dr. Jose Carbajal, a U.S. Army veteran, earned his bachelorโs and masterโs degrees in social work and a masterโs in theological studies from Baylor University, and a Ph.D. in Social Work from the University of Texas at Arlington. With over 15 years of clinical experience and extensive teaching experience, Jose specializes in trauma, sexual abuse recovery, domestic violence, and substance abuse. His research focuses on trauma interventions, neuroscience, and faith. He is EMDR Certified, an Approved Consultant, and an EMDRIA Approved Trainer, with numerous publications and professional presentations to his name.
Amanda Martin holds a PhD in Family Therapy and is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Supervisor, and EMDRIA Approved Consultant. With over 14 years of experience, she specializes in trauma therapy for individuals and families in residential and outpatient settings. Amanda also provides supervision for EMDR certification, EMDR consultants-in-training, and LMFT-Associates. Her mission is to help people find a healthy, joyful, and fulfilling path in life. Her warm, supportive, and interactive counseling style incorporates Symbolic Experiential Therapy, Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, EMDR, HeartMath, Animal-Assisted Therapy, Neurofeedback, and Collaborative Problem Solving.
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