Trauma Training

Trainer: Jamie Marich, Ph.D., LPCC-S, REAT
On-Demand: Available with lifetime access for asynchronous learning. This course was recorded on March 19th, 2026. 

When Dissociation Shows Up, and Your Training Did Not Prepare You

Most therapists were taught that dissociation is rare, extreme, and best left to “specialists.” In real practice, it is everywhere in complex trauma work. Clients “go away” right when you get close to certain memories. They lose time, feel like “different versions” of themselves are taking over, or describe watching life from outside their bodies. You feel the weight of deciding what is ethical, what is actually possible, and how to maintain competency and reduce risk in EMDR when dissociation is part of the picture.

Most clinicians were given very little real training on dissociation:

• Minimal coverage in graduate programs.
• The sense that dissociation is rare, extreme, or “for specialists only.”
• Conflicting messages about whether EMDR is appropriate at all.

So you are left with understandable questions:

• Is this dissociation, something else, or both?
• How do I assess it in a way that actually guides treatment?
• Will I destabilize this client if I move forward with EMDR?
• How do I adapt the eight phases without abandoning fidelity or myself as a clinician?

Your hesitation is not avoidance. It is an ethical clinical responsibility when you have not been given enough support.

This course is designed to help you get there, and you will:

• Develop confidence in assessment, case conceptualization, and EMDR adaptation with dissociative clients.
• Integrate EMDR thoughtfully, ethically, and with competency to reduce risk when working with dissociation.
• Practice “assessment before activation” and remember that “competence includes pacing.”
• Bridge scientific models and lived experience so your work reflects both what research says and what clients actually report.

This is not a generic overview of dissociation, and it is not meant for every clinician. It is a fit for EMDR and trauma therapists who are ready to move from hesitation to informed, thoughtful action with dissociative clients.

• Assess dissociative experiences using clinical inquiry and formal screening tools
• Identify adaptive and maladaptive dissociation through lived experience
• Differentiate dissociation from emotional regulation challenges
• Map a client’s dissociative profile using the Window of Tolerance framework
• Conceptualize dissociation as a protective survival response
• Identify parts, selves, or dissociative states without pathologizing or forcing integration
• Honor the client's language and meaning-making as a form of clinical inquiry
• Modify grounding and stabilization strategies to reduce dissociative drift
• Reduce clinician fear, bias, and misinformation related to dissociation
• Apply dissociation-sensitive approaches to containment, resourcing, and competency‑based risk reduction

 Dr. Jamie Marich is an internationally recognized clinician, author, and educator whose work sits at the intersection of trauma therapy, EMDR, expressive arts, and dissociation. She is the founder of the Institute for Creative Mindfulness, the developer of the Dancing Mindfulness approach, and the author of Dissociation Made Simple: A Stigma-Free Guide to Embracing Your Dissociative Mind and Navigating Life, along with the accompanying clinical flipchart. Her other titles include EMDR Made Simple, Trauma Made Simple, and Healing Addiction with EMDR Therapy, and her contributions to the field have been recognized with the EMDR International Association's 2019 Advocacy in EMDR Award. She brings both clinical depth and lived experience to her teaching on dissociative identities.