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Certificate Programs

Clinical Certificate Program in Relational and Multi-Contextual Treatment of Trauma 2009-2010

This certificate program is designed for professionals in urban settings, hospitals, community agencies, and private practices committed to understanding the impact of acute and chronic trauma on their clients’ attachment relationships, belief systems, behavior, and regulation of affect. It examines the often-overlooked multi-contextual, systemic forces that lead to increased exposure to trauma and violence for many children, adolescents, and adults.

The treatment of psychological trauma is among the greatest challenges that mental health, social service, forensic, and other helping professionals face today. It calls on professionals to integrate within their practices contemporary research and treatment approaches that reduce clients’ post-traumatic anxiety and behavior and support their strengths to resume paths of developmental competence.

The program examines somatic and neurobiological changes that accompany overwhelming psychological trauma and their resulting impact on development, memory, and attachment in both children and adults. It presents culturally sensitive models of assessment and treatment grounded in a commitment to phase-oriented trauma treatment and to evidence-based assumptions that individuals, groups, and communities grow and change when their strengths are nurtured within containing attachment relationships.
From a variety of perspectives instructors discuss the normal experiences of vicarious trauma and strategies of self-care, which promote safety and affect regulation for professionals, and ultimately for their clients.
The curriculum includes an exploration of:
• Strengths based treatment of traumatic experiences of racism
• Skills in assessment of trauma in children and adults
• Strategies of working with community and domestic violence
• The impact of traumatic losses on children and families
• Treating complex post-traumatic-stress-disorder and dissociation
• Promoting resilience in immigrants, refugees, and other trauma survivors
• Mind/body techniques to build internal resources of comfort
• Understanding and treatment of substance abuse and other addictions
• Research conclusions that inform ethical practices of trauma informed treatment 

Faculty:

Kevin Creeden, MA, LMHC: Director of assessment and research, Whitney Academy; national consultant and trainer in child trauma treatment

Mary Gilfus, Ph.D.: Professor and chair of Human Behavior in the Social Environment sequence, Simmons School of Social Work

Hugo Kamya Ph.D.: Professor, Simmons School of Social Work; faculty, Cambridge Family Institute

Johnnie Hamilton-Mason, Ph.D.: Professor, Simmons School of Social Work

Lynn Sanford, LICSW: Assistant professor, Simmons School of Social Work; author, Strong at the Broken Places, NEARI Press

Candace Saunders, LICSW: Instructor, Simmons School of Social Work; coordinator, trauma certificate programs; private practice, Newton

Linda Yael Schiller, LICSW: Private supervision and psychotherapy practice, Watertown

Patricia Thatcher, LICSW: Psychotherapist and teacher of mind/body techniques in private practice, Cambridge

Mimi Thein, MD: Attending psychiatrist, Children’s Hospital, Boston; instructor in psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

Format and Schedule:
Classes meet Wednesdays, 5:30-8:45 p.m. and two Saturdays. 
Classes begin on September 23, 2009.
Master’s degree in human services required.

Tuition: $1800; 75 social work CEs. National Board of Certified Counselors Approved CE Provider #6426. American Psychological Association Approved CE Sponsor #2057.

Payment must accompany application.  Please download the application and apply online.
 
If you have any questions please contact the Admissions Office at 617-521-3939 or write to ssw@simmons.edu

You may also address your questions to the course coordinator by writing to candace.saunders@simmons.edu or calling 617-521-3958. 

Clinical Certificate Program in EMDR Basic Training 2010

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is an innovative method of psychotherapy, which utilizes elements of psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, exposure, and mind/body therapies to accelerate healing for clients suffering from Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder and a wide range of other problems. This comprehensive training provides 53 hours of training of both Basic EMDR (formerly called Level I) and Intermediate EMDR (Level II) in a small group setting with ongoing support throughout the learning process.

Participants will:

• Utilize the 8 Phase Standard EMDR Protocol
• Practice EMDR skills under supervision with colleagues
• Demonstrate how to problem-solve about case conceptualization to prepare to use EMDR
• Begin to use EMDR with selected clients after the first 5 sessions of the training
• Use case consultation effectively with new EMDR skills
• Apply Intermediate EMDR skills including cognitive interweave
• Form a supportive local network with same level colleagues
• Discuss advanced and new applications of EMDR
• Identify ethical dilemmas you may encounter in using EMDR
• Discuss the importance of understanding and addressing cultural factors in using EMDR techniques
This course will help participants begin to gain a sense of competency as EMDR practitioners. Participants will be required to get additional case consultation with an EMDRIA Approved Consultant in the 12 months following the training in order to receive the final EMDRIA certificate in EMDR.

Requirements:
• Master's-level or higher licensed mental health professionals in a clinical practice setting that permits EMDR with clients. Mental Health Professionals on a licensure track will be considered.
• The purchase of one textbook: Francine Shapiro (2001), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing: Basic Principles, Protocols, and Procedures, 2nd Edition, Guilford Press. Ms. Shapiro is the developer of EMDR. The book is available through Guilford Press or online booksellers.

Instructor:
Natalie S. Robinson, LICSW (http://www.natalierobinsontherapist.com/ ) is a 1977 graduate of the Simmons School of Social Work. She is an EMDRIA-approved consultant and trainer in EMDR. Ms. Robinson has been developing and teaching this extended format EMDR Basic Training in a university setting since 2006 and practicing EMDR since 1996 at her offices in Boston and Chelmsford. She has made numerous presentations on EMDR for Life Enhancement in the greater Boston area and at EMDRIA Conferences in Toronto and Austin. She has also developed an EMDR Case Flow Chart which is being offered by the EMDR Humanitarian Assistance Programs.

This course has been approved by the EMDR International Association (EMDRIA). Participants will receive EMDRIA certificates as well as 53 CEs in social work, psychology or counseling. American Psychological Association Approved CE Sponsor #2057; National Board of Certified Counselors Approved CE Provider #6426.

Format and Schedule:
The EMDR Basic Training consists of 11 sessions. Classes will meet from Jan 11, 2010 - June 7, 2010.
10 Mondays, 2:30 – 7:15pm, and 1 full-day Sunday session, February 7, 8:45am – 5:15pm. 
Proposed Dates: January 11, January 25, February 7, February 22, March 8, March 22, April 5, April 26, May 10, May 24, June 7.

Tuition: $1500; 53 CEs

Limited to 18 participants.

Please download and submit the application and pay tuition online.

If you have any questions please contact the Admissions Office at 617-521-3939 or write to ssw@simmons.edu

You may also contact the instructor/coordinator with questions by writing to natrobin@natrobin.com or calling 781-771-4487.

Dissociative Disorders and EMDR

Joanne H. Twombly, MSW,
EMDRIA Approved Consultant in EMDR

Sunday, December 6, 2009, 8:30 am – 5:00 pm
Simmons College, Boston MA

Program is open to all EMDR Trained and Non-EMDR Trained Mental Health Professionals

Co-Sponsored by:
Natalie S. Robinson, MSW, EMDRIA Credit Provider, EMDRIA Approved Consultant & Trainer
and Simmons College School of Social Work

Fees and Registration:

• Early registration: $145.00 (before November 6, 2009)

• Regular registration: $175.00

• Full-Time Mental Health Agency Clinicians: $125.00 if you register before November 6, 2009. [Please send validation of agency with application.] 

• Simmons Field Instructors: $125.00 

• Send checks and registration form to: JT Workshop, c/o D. Novak, 640 Main Street, Waltham, MA 02451

Download registration form

Attendee Requirements: Must be Mental Health Professionals.

Credits
6.5 CEs given for Social Workers through Simmons School of Social Work
6.5 CEs given to Licensed Mental Health and School Counselors through Simmons SSW as a NBCC Approved CE Provider #6426 and APA Approved Sponsor #2057.
6.5 EMDRIA Credits Approved. EMDRIA credits will be given to fully Trained EMDR Attendees
Send proof of full EMDR training with registration to get EMDRIA Credits

This workshop will help participants become cognizant of the presence of dissociation and ways of differentiating among the range of Dissociative Disordered (DD) diagnoses. It clarifies how to work effectively and safely with this population and other intractable clients. The workshop offers adaptations of resources from the preparation and closure phases of EMDR to facilitate stabilization, orient DD clients to the present, decrease negative transference and provide a protective format for processing traumatic material. It is appropriate for EMDR trained clinicians as well as those with no EMDR training. 

Joanne H. Twombly, MSW has extensive experience in working with complex PTSD and Dissociative Disorders and has adapted EMDR for use with people with these disorders. She is a director on the Executive Council of the International Society for the Treatment of Trauma and Dissociation, a past president of the New England Society for the Treatment of Trauma and Dissociation, an EMDRIA approved consultant in EMDR, and an American Society of Clinical Hypnosis Approved consultant. She has published articles in clinical journals and book chapters on Safe Place Imagery, DD and EMDR and on EMDR and IFS. She has a private practice in Waltham, MA where in addition to her work with clients she provides consultation and training.