Master Clinician Bios
"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants"
- Isaac Newton
"When you learn, teach. When you get, give."
~Maya Angelou
Janina Fisher, Ph.D. is a licensed Clinical Psychologist and Instructor at the Trauma Center, an outpatient clinic and research center founded by Bessel van der Kolk. Known for her expertise as both a therapist and consultant, she is also past president of the New England Society for the Treatment of Trauma and Dissociation, an EMDR International Association Credit Provider, a faculty member of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, and a former Instructor, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Fisher has been an invited speaker at the Cape Cod Institute, Harvard Medical School Conference Series, the EMDR International Association Annual Conference, University of Wisconsin, University of Westminster in London, the Psychotraumatology Institute of Europe, and the Esalen Institute. Dr. Fisher lectures and teaches nationally and internationally on topics related to the integration of research and treatment and how to introduce these newer trauma treatment paradigms in traditional therapeutic approaches.
David Grand, Ph.D. is a psychotherapist, writer, lecturer, performance coach and humanitarian famous for the discovery and development of the internationally acclaimed Brainspotting method which brings about life-changing breakthroughs at "Warp Speed". Dr. Grand is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with a PhD from International University, and is renowned for his groundbreaking discoveries and advancements in the arenas of healing trauma and enhancing performance and creativity. His Brainspotting method and BioLateral Sound are now used by thousands of therapists on every continent seeking to break through the limitations of talk therapy.
Peter A. Levine, Ph.D. received his first Ph.D. in medical biophysics from the University of California at Berkeley, and also holds a doctorate in psychology from International University. He has worked in the field of stress and trauma for over 40 years and is the developer of “Somatic Experiencing.” He teaches trainings in this work throughout the world. Peter is the author of the best selling book “Waking the Tiger - Healing Trauma,” as well as four audio learning series for Sounds True including the book CD, “Healing Trauma, a Pioneering Program in Restoring the Wisdom of Our Bodies;” and Sexual Healing, Transforming the Sacred Wound.” He is the co-author of “Trauma through a Child’s Eyes, Awakening the Ordinary Miracle of Healing.” And “Trauma-Proofing Your Kids, A Parents Guide for Instilling Confidence, Joy and Resilience.”
Jamie Marich, Ph.D. is a Licensed Supervising Professional Clinical Counselor specializing in addiction treatment (chemical & behavioral), PTSD, issues related to abuse and trauma, dissociative disorders, and grief. A contributing faculty member with several online universities in counseling and psychology, Jamie is a Certified EMDR Therapist and Approved Consultant through the EMDR International Association (EMDRIA). Her research efforts were awarded by EMDRIA in 2008. Dr. Marich has several articles published in peer-reviewed and online journals about the clinical applications of EMDR, and in 2011, her first book EMDR Made Simple: 4 Approaches for Using EMDR with Every Client was published.
Belleruth Naparstek, LISW, BCD: Psychotherapist, author and guided imagery innovator Belleruth Naparstek is the creator of the popular, Time Warner Health Journeys guided imagery audio series. Her first book, Staying Well with Guided Imagery, is a widely used wellness primer. Her second, Your Sixth Sense, has been translated into 8 languages and called one of the most thoughtful and sophisticated looks at intuition in print. Her latest book on imagery and posttraumatic stress, Invisible Heroes: Trauma Survivors and How They Heal, was released in late 2004, won the Spirituality & Health Top 50 Books Award and is out in paperback January of 2006.
Laurel Parnell, Ph.D. is an internationally recognized clinical psychologist, author, consultant and EMDR trainer. She is the author of four books on EMDR, A Therapist’s Guide to EMDR, Tools and Techniques for Successful Treatment; Transforming Trauma: EMDR; and EMDR in the Treatment of Adults Abused as Children. She also authored a book chapter “Postpartum Depression: Helping a New Mother to Bond” in Extending EMDR, and the EMDR Casebook . Dr. Parnell has trained thousands of clinicians in EMDR both nationally and internationally. Since 1995, Dr. Parnell has been training therapists in EMDR. She currently teaches through Alliant International University, Omega Institute, Omega at the Crossings, Esalen Institute, The New York Open Center, ID Institut in Kassel Germany and Kripalu Center. Her professional presentations on EMDR include the 1994 American Psychological Association convention, the EMDR International Association Conferences of 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2002, and 2003, the EMDR European Conference in Rome, Italy and the 1996 Association for Transpersonal Psychology Conference. She presented for many years on EMDR with Adults Sexually Abused as Children, at EMDR Institute Level II trainings.
Stephen W Porges, Ph.D. is Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Brain-Body Center in the Department of Psychiatry in the College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago. He is former President of the Federation of Behavioral, Psychological and Cognitive Sciences and the Society for Psychophysiological Research. He is a neuroscientist with interests in social behavior. Dr Porges was President (1999-2002) of the Federation of Behavioral, Psychological and Cognitive Sciences. He has served on the Editorial Boards of Infant Behavior and Development (1977-1992); Child Development Developmental Psychobiology; Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology. His book The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-regulation was published in the Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology in 2011.
Babette Rothschild, MSW has been a practicing psychotherapist and body-psychotherapist since 1976 and a California Licensed clinical Social Worker since 1978. She is a member of the International and European Societies for Traumatic Stress Studies, the Association of Traumatic Stress. Babette has trained extensively in Transactional Analysis, Gestalt Therapy, Psychodrama, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing and Somatic Experiencing, and is a certified Bodynamic Analyst and certified Radix Teacher. She has written extensively on trauma. Her works include 8 Keys to Safe Trauma Recovery; HELP for the HELPER: The Psychophysiology of Compassion Fatigue and Vicarious Trauma (with Marjorie Rand); THE BODY REMEMBERS: The Psychophysiology of Trauma and Trauma Treatment;THE BODY REMEMBERS CASEBOOK: Unifying Methods and Models in the Treatment of Trauma and PTSD; Trauma Essentials:The Go-to Guide
Robert Scaer, M.D. received his M.D. degree at the University of Rochester. He is Board Certified in Neurology, and has been in practice for 39 years, twenty of those as Medical Director of Rehabilitation Services at the Mapleton Center in Boulder, CO. His primary areas of interest and expertise have been in the fields of brain injury and chronic pain, and more recently in the study of traumatic stress and its role in all mental illness, as well as in physical symptoms and many chronic diseases. He has lectured extensively on these topics, and has published several articles on the whiplash syndrome and other somatic syndromes of traumatic stress. His first book, The Body Bears the Burden: Trauma, Dissociation and Disease, presents a new theory of dissociation and its role in many diseases. A second book, The Trauma Spectrum: Hidden Wounds and Human Healing, released in July, 2005, explores the insidious spectrum of culturally-based trauma that shapes our lives, and how transformation and healing may still take place. He is currently retired from clinical medical practice, and continues to pursue a career in writing and lecturing.
Robin Shapiro, LISW is an author, psychotherapist and an EMDRIA-approved consultant, offering consultation to psychotherapists on the gamut of psychotherapy issues including trauma, attachment, endogenous disorders, and countertransference issues. Author of three books, EMDR Solutions I, EMDR Solutions II and The Trauma Treatment Handbook. Leader of EMDR-related workshops including the Two-Hand Interweave, EMDR with Cultural and Generational Issues, Depression, Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorders, Medical Issues, Anxiety Disorders, Couples, Complex Trauma and Dissociation. I have presented these workshops at regional and international EMDR International Association conferences and, for many years in, in the Part Two of an EMDR Weekly Class.
Bessel A. van der Kolk M.D. has been active as a clinician, researcher and teacher in the area of posttraumatic stress and related phenomena since the 1970s. His work integrates developmental, biological, psychodynamic and interpersonal aspects of the impact of trauma and its treatment. His book Psychological Trauma was the first integrative text on the subject, painting the far ranging impact of trauma on the entire person and the range of therapeutic issues which need to be addressed for recovery. Dr. van der Kolk and his various collaborators have published extensively on the impact of trauma on development, such as dissociative problems, borderline personality and self-mutilation, cognitive development in traumatized children and adults, and the psychobiology of trauma. He was co-principal investigator of the DSM IV Field Trials for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. His current research is on how trauma affects memory processes and brain imaging studies of PTSD. Dr. van der Kolk is past President of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, Professor of Psychiatry at Boston University Medical School, and Medical Director of the Trauma Center at JRI in Brookline, Massachusetts. Traumatic Stress: The Effects of Overwhelming Experience on Mind, Body, and Society was published by Guilford Press in May, 1996.