With David Archer, PSW, MFT, MSW and Thomas Zimmerman, Ms.Ed., LPCC
This series of courses is designed to address several decades-long problems in the training and treatment of complex trauma in community mental health contexts:
- Comprehensive trauma training is expensive (especially when starting out as a new therapist).
- There may be few local sources of support and consultation in working effectively with clients with severe trauma. We provide extensive and ongoing support after the training at no extra cost.
- Many trauma trainings may teach you to work with someone with some trauma (but not necessarily with the clients with the severity that you encounter daily).
- Most introductory trauma trainings are trauma-informed, but not trauma-focused. We show you how to see and conceptualize trauma, and we show you how to work with it more effectively.
- Most trauma trainings do not cover critical information related to racial trauma and other forms of systemic oppression.
David Archer and Thomas Zimmerman understand complex trauma and we are delighted to share with you the information that you need to work much more effectively with clients with complex trauma.
We will show you some of the most transformational resources and interventions from an assortment of transformational psychotherapies.* We will show you how to help clients with severe trauma stabilize more effectively and show you ways to help clients with severe trauma fully and adaptively resolve individual memories. We don’t just train you. We provide free bi-weekly case consultation groups for a full year after the completion of your training. Once you have taken the training, we provide regular free practice groups where you can come and practice these interventions with other therapists in a supervised context. We are committed to helping you work more effectively with your most severely traumatized clients.
Training is on Zoom. A recording will be made of both days and will be available for you to review for a period of 10 days after the training, in the event that you need to miss one of the days or part of a day. Please note that Ohio CEs are only provided for people who attend the entire training.
Register
- Register for Day One $65.00, Tuesday, July 29th, 2025, 10:00 AM ET – 5:00 PM ET
- Register for Day Two $65.00, Wednesday, August 13th, 2025, 10:00 AM ET – 5:00 PM ET
We highly recommend that you take Day One prior to attending Day Two.
Foundations of Trauma-Focused Care: Day One
| 10:00 AM ET | Introduction What is Trauma? Formal Definitions of Trauma What is Trauma-Focused Care? Neurobiology of Trauma Allostatic Load Psychotraumatology Predictive Processing |
| 1:00 PM ET | Lunch |
| 2:00 PM ET | Flash and Predictive Processing Learning the Seven Steps of Four Blinks Flash Research into Flash Safety and Limitations in Flash Group Practicum Exercise Q&A |
| 5:00 PM | Closing, Preparing for Part II, and Getting Additional Support |
Foundations of Trauma-Focused Care: Day Two
| 10:00 AM ET | Anti-Racist Psychotherapy Attachment Resources Understanding Dissociation Cultures of Traumatization Resource Integration Limitations |
| 1:00 PM ET | Lunch |
| 2:00 PM ET | Flash Practicum Review Individual Session Practicum Group and Self-Administered Trauma Processing Protocols Final Practicum Q&A |
| 5:00 PM | Closing and Getting Additional Support |
CEs
Ohio CSWMFT CEs are offered for this training. Your state might accept Ohio CEs, although it is probable that it will not. By joining this training, you understand that no CEs are offered other than Ohio for counselors, social workers, and marriage and family therapists. No EMDRIA credits are offered for this training.
About the Trainers
David Archer, PSW, MFT, MSW, is an EMDRIA Certified Therapist and Approved Consultant from Montreal, Canada. He founded Archer Therapy, where he created the Rhythm and Processing (RAP) therapeutic framework and pioneered anti-racist psychotherapy using EMDR therapy. Holding advanced degrees in social work and couple and family therapy, David combines his software engineering background to enhance his global virtual practice, integrating technology, creativity, and clinical effectiveness. Using his approach, he blends humor, mindfulness, memory reconsolidation, and critical race theory to guide therapists and help alleviate suffering for all who seek healing. His work is inspired by diverse Indigenous cultures and focuses on recovery from multigenerational trauma in the African Diaspora and other oppressed groups.
David has authored several books, including Anti-Racist Psychotherapy, Racial Trauma Recovery, and Transforming Complex Trauma: Reflections on Anti-Racist Psychotherapy. He is a recipient of the 2024 Emerging Leader Award from EMDRIA and was a featured contributor to the Fall 2020 issue of EMDRIA’s Go With That Magazine, which is required reading for new EMDR therapy trainees. David’s career is devoted to systemic change and racial-trauma-informed recovery. He seeks to educate the public on mental wellness, promote transformative trauma therapies, train racially diverse anti-racist therapists, and encourage cultural responsive interventions throughout the world.
Thomas Zimmerman, Ms.Ed., LPCC, is an EMDRIA Certified Therapist and Approved Consultant who lives, practices, and conducts EMDR therapy training in Cleveland, Ohio, through EMDR Cleveland LLC. He is the author of EMDR With Complex Trauma, a book that helps therapists transition more effectively from foundational trauma trainings to treating clients with pervasively traumatized nervous systems. Thomas has started and manages large social networks of EMDR therapists, including the EMDR Therapist Resources group on Facebook with 32,000 members globally. He has one of the most popular podcasts for EMDR therapists, The EMDR Podcast (EmdrPodcast.com), which focuses on doing EMDR therapy with clients with extreme trauma well, safely, and in ways grounded in the Adaptive Information Processing Model (AIP). He runs a community of about 5,000 EMDR therapists at EMDR Third Weekend (EmdrThirdWeekend.com) that focuses on AIP-consistent EMDR therapy interventions and resources for complex trauma. He has trained tens of thousands of therapists globally in a version of Flash that was developed specifically for complex trauma.
*Please note that this is not an EMDR training. We do not show you how to do EMDR therapy in this training, but do show you how to use some of the specific transformational resources and select interventions that are commonly used by many therapists who work effectively with clients with extreme trauma.
EMDR Cleveland 