Dr. Pria Alpern

09/16/2025

After trauma, the body’s alarm can blur the line between trigger and intuition. Triggers feel sudden and urgent with a racing heart and thoughts like I’m not safe. Intuition is quieter and steadier and gives you space to choose.

09/14/2025

When you’ve been through something overwhelming, your brain adapts to keep you safe. The amygdala goes on high alert, memory systems get disrupted, and logical thinking takes a back seat.

But here’s the good news: your brain is neuroplastic. With approaches like EMDR, therapy, and consistent support, it can build new pathways and find balance again.

09/05/2025

3 grounding tools you can use anywhere

08/24/2025

✨Registration is open (go to my beacons 🔗 to reserve your spot)!

EMDR Basic Training (Virtual)
Training Dates
Part 1: Dec 5-7, 2025; Part 2: Feb 6-8, 2026
✨EMDRIA-approved Basic Training with Dr. Pria Alpern: 50 hours combining lecture, practicum, and consultation to build competence in the eight phases of EMDR therapy (ASWB ACE + NY State approved for 40 Contact Hours). Payment plan available

08/21/2025

Save the date! I’m facilitating an EMDRIA approved EMDR basic training this winter at the Manhattan Center for Trauma Studies (virtual). More details via the link here:

Enhance your therapy skills with our 50-hour EMDR Basic Training. This course includes 20 hours of lecture on trauma neurobiology, EMDR methodology, and treatment phases, 20 hours of supervised practicum, and 10 hours of case consultation. Ideal for mental health professionals seeking evidence-based...

08/14/2025

✨Go to my beacons 🔗 to learn more and grab your spot! (This grp is open to therapists and therapists in training)✨

During this study group we will explore Janina Fisher’s influential work on dissociation in the everyday lives of trauma survivors. Together, we’ll discuss how dissociation can show up in subtle ways, how it affects clinical work, and how we might begin to respond more effectively. The conversation may touch on theory, case dynamics, ethical challenges, and practical interventions, depending on where the group wants to go.
Upon registration, participants will receive:

✨A summary of the reading
✨A copy of: Fisher, J. (2001, May). Dissociative phenomena in the everyday lives of trauma survivors. Paper presented at the Boston University Medical School Psychological Trauma Conference, Boston, MA.

08/06/2025

Traumatic dissociation can best be understood as a defense-driven fragmentation of consciousness and identity, rooted in the need to survive or mentally escape traumatic experiences.

08/01/2025

Looking for EMDR group consultation? My incredible colleague is starting a group this fall! Meaghan is an EMDRIA approved consultant and a talented clinician. This is a wonderful opportunity for EMDR trained therapists! Email: meaghan@meaghanwarnock.com for more information.

07/19/2025

✨New up on my Substack✨

“We often minimize cheating. “It’s not like someone died,” people say. But the truth is that infidelity is a relational death. And in some cases, it’s experienced as more traumatic than divorce, illness, or even bereavement (Gordon, Baucom, & Snyder, 2004).

As a psychologist, I’ve worked with people who have described feeling physically ill after discovering a partner’s affair. They can’t sleep, eat, or concentrate. They feel relentlessly sick to their stomach. They have panic attacks. One thing I know is that this distress is undeniably grounded in lived expeirence and neurobiological evidence. Research shows that infidelity can register as a traumatic event in the body and brain. Infidelity is trauma.”

05/13/2025

New on my Substack
“For decades, the “bystander effect” has painted a chilling picture: when emergencies unfold, the presence of others correlates with inaction. Psychologists have taught this principle in classrooms, cited it in publications, and invoked it in public discourse. But a new study analyzing the murder of George Floyd dismantles that narrative in the most painful, visible way.”

04/05/2025

✨EMDR & Complex Trauma: Enhancing Stabilization (5/1/25, 12-2pm ET, Virtual, 2 EMDRIA CEUS)
✨Register via 🔗 in BEACONS
✨Learn three essential stabilization skills, blending DBT and experiential techniques for emotion regulation. Reframe “resistance” as an adaptive response, equipping complex trauma clients for reprocessing and integrating positive affect.