Expressive Arts Therapy

Are you looking for an innovative, evidence-informed and body-based way to help individuals heal from trauma? Do you want to learn how to creatively integrate principles found in EMDR, bilateral stimulation (BLS) and somatic psychology in your therapy or self-care practice? 

This program is designed for practitioners who want to learn how to apply bilateral stimulation through movement, sound, rhythm, and art making to repair psychological and physiological effects of trauma. More importantly, bilateral stimulation is a way to regulate the nervous system, capitalize on the "both sides of the brain and body" through restorative approaches to health and wellness. These practices can help address traumatic memories and reduce emotional distress, while gently reconnecting individuals to their bodies, restoring a sense of safety and self-agency. 

In this unique certification program, you will learn how to integrate expressive arts, sensory processing, somatic practices, and bilateral stimulation using evidence-based techniques and strategies. We are always updating our curriculum to help you understand and apply the latest research and interventions. We emphasize interactive learning, practical exercises, and peer support in these courses-- because active participation is the best way to learn and restore! 

Our certification is grounded in the EMDR principles handed down by Francine Shapiro and contemporary practitioners. BMDR™ expands the applications of bilateral movement, drawing, sound, and more. Taught by leading faculty, this program will equip you with the skills and confidence to offer your clients a comprehensive and unified approach to creative, culturally-resonant, and neurodiversity-affirming practices. These practices expand the range of EMDR through truly body-based approaches found in sensory processing, expressive arts therapy, and somatic psychology that go beyond regulation and repair to revitalization and restoration. 

Learn more about individuals' capacities for this work; the pacing, positioning, and processes along the continuum of movement, sounding, rhythm, mark making, tapping, play, and even writing in our upcoming webinars and live courses.  If you have completed other brief training in bilateral drawing or painting, this course takes you beyond seated work and introduces you to embodied cognition, reflexive convergence, restorative embodiment, sensory processing, and the reparative experiences that are part of expressive arts therapy. And this training is open to all, not just EMDR practitioners (who certainly are a big part of our community).