Summary

Oftentimes clients who have experienced trauma are referred out to clinicians who specialize in EMDR/PTSD. While ethically sound, this practice often leaves traumatized clients on long wait lists or simply unable to find a clinician comfortable working with their history or symptoms. This training will empower clinicians with psychoeducation about how trauma is stored in the brain, offer valuable and trauma-informed resources, somatic approaches, and preparatory mindfulness exercises to help clients prior to specialized treatment such as EMDR. Clinicians will develop a strong foundational understanding of how to work with the traumatized nervous system, offer resources for somatic healing, and ways to support their client prior to and/or during their specialized treatments.

Course Objectives:

• Objective 1:
  Clinicians will gain a functional understanding of how trauma memories are stored in the brain and nervous system.
• Objective 2:
  Clinicians will learn about the Window of Tolerance and how to explore this concept with clients from both a top-down and bottom-up approach.
• Objective 3:
  Clinicians will be able to experience and explore options for expanding a client's Window of Tolerance using somatic focused mindfulness exercises and development of somatic awareness.