I take as many continuing education classes as I can, and I try to learn about an extremely broad range of Mental Health topics, from teachers from the broadest range of backgrounds as possible. I like to learn from teachers of different races, ethnicities, from different countries, different genders and sexual orientations. Here are just some of the classes I’ve taken in the past few years, so that I can better serve my clients:

• How to Talk about Race in a Session with Thema Bryant, PhD Shelly Harrell, PhD, and about a dozen others. This is one of the best things I’ve seen in a long time, and it was so good that it needed its own blog post. You can find that here.

• The Ethics of Trauma Coaching with Athena Phillips, LCSW, PsyD Candidate. Covered the reasons why coaching is helpful and needed (there is a huge need for more mental health care in the world, and coaches can be a cost-effective way of sharing the load and providing more access to care. Talked about the research behind the efficacy of coaching. Talked about informed consent, conflicts of interest, cultural competence and humility, confidentiality, expectations, and did a great job of covering the differences between therapy and coaching.

• Treating Racial Trauma: Strategies for Working with the Wounds of Racism with Thema Bryant, PhD Howard Stevenson, PhD  Beverly Greene, PhD  Daryl Rowe, PhD  Usha Tummala-Narra, PhD  Kevin Nadal, PhD  Anneliese Singh, PhD, LPC  Raymond Rodriguez, LCSW-R  Shena Young, PsyD  Adriana Alejandre, LMFT  Jeffrey Ring, PhD and others. I think that most people know that racism in America traumatizes non-white Americans, but as a white person, I’m always trying to get a better understanding of the lived experience of BIPOC folks. This course talked about how racism in our country brings about exhaustion, fear, anxiety, and hypervigilance for many folks who are racially marginalized. It helped me get more comfortable asking questions about race, and about racialized trauma. I learned more about the micro-aggressions, micro-insults, micro-invalidations, and micro-assaults that BIPOC folks so often endure, and how these harmful things can be so exhausting to the folks being targeted by them. I know that I have to earn my clients’ trust, and I hope that this kind of education helps me to be more trustworthy.

• Integrative Medicine and Nutrition for PTSD and Complex Trauma with Leslie Korn, PhD, MPH, LMHC, ACS, RPP, NTP, NCBTMB. This 33-hour course looked at trauma’s effect on the body, and how we can help the whole person to heal. I learned nutritional strategies, recipes, exercise and movement strategies, the use of supplements, the link between trauma, gut health and autoimmune disorders, and so much more.

• Unresolved Trauma and Addiction Disorders: Why Do They Go Hand in Hand? with Janina Fisher, PhD, looking at how addictions (such as binging, purging, food-restricting, substance use, sex addiction, and self-harm) so often start out not as pleasure-seeking activities but as survival strategies. We want to self-soothe, self-regulate, and help our traumatized selves to function or feel safer in the world. In cases of self-harm, we can get addicted to our own body’s chemicals (adrenaline, endorphins, etc.) after using them as a coping strategy for dealing with our unresolved traumas. We need to understand that recovering from either one (the addiction or the trauma) requires recovering from both.

• Psychodrama and Experiential Interventions for Treating Childhood Wounds in Adult Clients, a 6-hour class from Tian Dayton, PhD. This class was full of amazing exercises that can be used with individuals and groups, to help us use the power of COMMUNITY to heal our attachment wounds together.

• Gaslighting: Help Clients Escape and Rebuild from a Narcissist's Emotional Abuse, a AMAZING 6-hour class from Stephanie Moulton Sarkis, PhD, NCC, DCMHS, LMHC, a psychotherapist specializing in anxiety, gaslighting, narcissistic abuse, and ADHD.

• “Treating Complex Trauma with Internal Family Systems”, a 12.5 hour program from Frank Anderson, MD

• “Embodying Ancestral Wisdom” with Ruby Gibson, PhD, author, cultural healer and advocate, and the developer of Somatic Archaeology©, a transgenerational approach to wellness and reclaiming memory. She’s one of the most amazing instructors I’ve ever had the privilege of learning from.

• “Janina Fisher's Trauma Treatment Certification Training (CCTP): The Latest Advances and Proven Techniques to Resolve Deeply Held Trauma”, from Janina Fisher, PhD

• “Somatic Psychology and Trauma Recovery for the Individual Body”, “Treating Shock Trauma and Repeated Complex Trauma: Integrating Somatic Psychology and EMDR Therapy”, and “Post-Traumatic Growth: Mind-Body Tools to Foster Resilience & Awaken to your Potential”, with Arielle Schwartz, PhD

• “From the Individual to the Systemic: Sites of Trauma and Healing” and “Balancing Individual and Collective Transformation” with Staci K. Haines, co-founder of Generative Somatics, a multiracial social justice capacity building organization and the author of "The Politics of Trauma: Somatics, Healing, and Social Justice" (North Atlantic Books 2019) and "Healing Sex: A Mind Body Approach to Healing Sexual Trauma" (Cleis 1999, 2007), which has been translated into German, Japanese and Spanish.

• “Towards an Alchemical Resilience: Foundations and Inspirations” with Nkem Ndefo, MSN, Director of Certification at The Resilience Toolkit Training Alliance

• “Polyvagal Theory and Pathways to Connection” with Deb Dana, LCSW, a clinician, consultant, author and speaker specializing in complex trauma. Her work is focused on using the lens of Polyvagal Theory to understand and resolve the impact of trauma in our lives.

• “Foundations of Trauma and Healing in Children” with Lisa Dion, LPC

• “Introduction to Embodiment”, “Hakomi Core Principles”, “Trauma & Embodied Movement”, and “Embodied Practitioner Skills” with Manuela Mischke-Reeds, LMFT, Founding Co-Director & Senior Faculty of Hakomi Institute of California, and author of The Somatic Psychotherapy Toolbox.

• “Nurturing the Ecologies of Trauma and Resilience” with Karine Bell

• “Sensorimotor Psychotherapy for Trauma” and “The Legacy of Early Attachment Relationships: A Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Perspective” with Pat Ogden, PhD, a pioneer in somatic psychology, the creator of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy method, and founder of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute.

• “Mending the Bodily Roots of Developmental Trauma” with Ruella Frank, PhD, founder and director of the Center for Somatic Studies, and faculty at the New York Institute for Gestalt therapy.

• “Closing your Eyes to See: Focusing, Active Imagination, and Inner Dialogue” with Albert Wong, PhD, clinical psychologist and Director of Somatic Psychology at JFK University.

• “Trauma and the Internal Body Mind Family” with Richard Schwartz, PhD, creator of the Internal Family Systems (IFS) branch of therapy.

• “Addiction, Trauma & Healing” with Nikki Myers, SEP, founder and director of Yoga of 12-Step Recovery.

• “Structural Embodiment: Somatics for the Collective Body” with Farzana Khan, Executive Director and Co-founder of Healing Justice London (HJL), which works on building community health, repair and self-transformation rooted in disability justice, survivor work and trauma-informed practice working with communities of colour and other marginalised and underrepresented groups.

• “Helping Clients Undo Patterns of Pleasing and Appeasing” with Christine Padesky, PhD, Stephen Porges, PhD, Thema Bryant, PhD, Shelly Harrell, PhD, Pat Ogden, PhD, Deb Dana, LCSW, Ron Siegel, PsyD, and others.

• “Healing the Wounds of Trauma” with Dr. Gabor Maté and Bruce Perry, MD, PhD.

• “Working with the Pain of Abandonment” with Peter Levine, PhD, Ron Siegel, PsyD, Judson Brewer, MD, PhD, Melanie Greenberg, PhD, Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Kelly McGonigal, PhD, Resmaa Menakem, MSW, LICSW, SEP, and others.

• “Working with Core Beliefs of ‘Never Good Enough’” with Marsha Linehan, PhD, Kelly McGonigal, PhD, Ron Siegel, PsyD, and others.

• “The Body Keeps the Score”, 2-day conference with Bessell van der Kolk, MD.