Advanced Certificate in Dissociation Studies For EMDR Therapists
Program Directed by Dr. Jamie Marich & Amy Wagner
Program Description
The Institute for Creative Mindfulness (ICM) approaches dissociation as a normal part of the human experience, and promotes a culture of demystifying dissociative responses to life. We do this by actively working with clinicians to challenge their own fears or misconceptions about dissociation, and to get acquainted with their own dissociative responses and internal world of parts. Dr. Jamie Marich, the founder and director of The Institute for Creative Mindfulness, is publicly out as a woman living and thriving with a clinically significant dissociative disorder. She began her quest to educate other EMDR clinicians in this more person-centered way out of concern that existing approaches and models of teaching dissociation run the risk of promoting more fear and disconnection from the humanity required to effectively work with dissociation. She is currently working on her latest book project, Dissociation Made Simple (North Atlantic Books, due Fall 2022) which will take this work to the next level. One of the ways Dr. Marich does this is by reflecting on the adaptive and positive qualities of the dissociative mind.
This advanced certificate program, designed by Dr. Jamie Marich in collaboration with program co-director Amy Wagner, invites interested candidates into a course of study where you will be invited to get vulnerable, be real, and lower any “us-versus-them” divides between clinicians and clients. Although the program will review certain technical skills and models that you can use to enhance your clinical effectiveness, this self-paced program also provides you with the opportunity to do your own work and blossom into a clinician-advocate who is both internally and externally equipped to face the challenges ahead.
Core Competencies
After completing this certificate program, you will be able to:
- Recognize dissociative responses and their various manifestations in the human experience
- Articulate the subtle differences between how various forms of dissociation show up in your own life and in the experiences of others, ultimately translating this new understanding into effectively empowering your clients
- Implement various tools and models that are available for identifying dissociative experiences and working with parts, although the ultimate focus will be on enhancing your competencies in identification and conceptualization by better understanding your own dissociative profile and experiences on the dissociative continuum.
- Conceptualize in an advanced way how to work with clinically significant dissociation, including Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), within the EMDR approach to psychotherapy and implement these new strategies to build a more effective clinical practice (working with clients across their life experiences). This competency also addresses your ability to determine client preparedness for reprocessing.
- Explore the themes and issues in your life that are keeping you stuck through a lens of dissociation and parts, developing a plan for addressing your own work and committing to a plan for life-long growth and healing. This competency also includes examining how our own work can intersect with clinical presentations, impacting issues around transference and countertransference.
- Advocate for people with dissociative experiences of life in subtle and direct ways within your work setting, the mental health/addiction field, and society in general.
Eligibility
Completed an EMDRIA-approved training in EMDR therapy. If you trained outside of ICM, you will be required to provide a copy of your certificate.
You can engage in this program concurrent to working on your EMDRIA Certification process or afterwards.
Submit a statement of intent (500-1000) words explaining your intention for committing to this program and describing what you are hoping to learn about yourself and others from this course of study. This statement must also include an explanation of the clinical learning that you hope to obtain as a result of this program.
Curriculum
Required Core Courses:
- Pre-requisite: The Power of Process in Healing Trauma and Dissociation (12 hours)- Dr. Jamie Marich (available as a homestudy)
- The Soul of Dissociation: 3-Day Fundamentals of Dissociation and EMDR Course (18 hours)- Amy Wagner (must be attended in real-time, online)
You must take The Power of Process in Healing Trauma and Dissociation first.
Required Consultation:
- 12 hours of dissociation-focused consultation (6 individual, 6 dissociation-specific groups); you must complete these hours with a member of the ICM team who has special approval to offer consultation in the Advanced Certificate Program in Dissociation Studies for EMDR Therapists. If you are already an EMDRIA Certified Therapist, you are still required to complete this specialized consultation. If you are working on your certification, you may count these hours towards your certification requirement. Because of the unique quality of this program we cannot accept consultation from outside of those approved to offer it for this program.
- If the program directors make the assessment that you will require more consultation to meet the core competencies listed above, ICM reserves the right to require additional consultation at participant’s expense.
Electives:
- Complete 18* hours of advanced elective modules sponsored by the Institute for Creative Mindfulness on a variety of topics (e.g., Clinician Self-Disclosure, Healing Addiction with EMDR Therapy, Working with Dissociation in an Online Environment, Healing Spiritual Abuse with EMDR Therapy, etc.).
- Complete at least 12* hours of training outside of The Institute for Creative Mindfulness on a topic related to dissociation, dissociation evaluation, or parts work models. These elective hours can also be met by attending a conference outside of the Institute for Creative Mindfulness, preferably the Healing Together Conference sponsored by An Infinite Mind.
View all currently available ICM-eligible course electives HERE.
Any course taught by Dr. Jamie Marich outside of ICM, either real-time or as a homestudy, may also be counted as an elective.
Courses taught by Dr. Adam O’Brien through Wounded Healers Institute may also be counted as an elective.
*These hours can be flexed between these two categories (i.e., not a strict 18-hour/12-hour split), with the permission of the program directors; however, a total of 30 elective hours must be met.
Capstone
Complete a capstone paper or multi-modal expressive arts project presenting what you learned about yourself and working with dissociation throughout the program. This capstone also requires you to include a case presentation from beginning to end, reflecting your work with a client. This case presentation must reference the specific language of the 8 Phases of EMDR, offering a sufficient level of detail for us to evaluate how you prepared the client, and specifically how you worked several targeting sequences with respect to their system or parts. Although full outcome may not be available on working with a current client, we expect to see some reflection on how the EMDR Therapy is helping them to live a more adaptive life. This is a qualitative more so than a quantitative exercise, and the core evaluation component is that you will address the program competencies and this program has helped you to develop them. The capstone project will also include presentation of a case study. The capstone project course requires you to use your final consultation hour to meet with either Dr. Jamie Marich or Amy Wagner to go over your experience prior to the certificate being issued. It is recommended you begin working on the capstone when you are in your final three hours of consultation.
Questions before submitting?
