Peter Arnold, MSW, LCSW, an environmental activist, is trained as a family therapist, has worked in schools, hospital psychiatric units, and hospice and as a private psychotherapist prior to taking on the Earth as his client. Peter now concentrates his energies on ways to transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy. He serves on multiple boards and governmental committees focused on renewable energy and he currently works as the Sustainability Coordinator for the Chewonki Foundation, a not-for-profit organization in Wiscasset, Maine. His passion is the emerging field of ocean energy and serves as Project Manager for a new Tidal Energy Power project. He is also a certified wilderness first responder and is deeply interested in reducing and preventing PTSD in first responders and soldiers. Peter is a senior assistant and facilitates Trauma First Aide™ trainings in Louisiana, Texas, Maine, Massachusetts, New Mexico, California and Hawaii and is a member of our military training team.

“I use Trauma First Aide everyday with my grandchildren! I'm also prepared to use Trauma First Aide in any emergency situation whether it happens during hiking in the mountains, sailing in the ocean, or skiing in the Rockies.” —Peter Arnold

Susan Asher, MSW, LISW, SEP is a clinical social worker in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has been working in non-profit agencies in Northern New Mexico serving culturally diverse children and families for the past twenty years. Susan brings a variety of experience as a clinical social worker, case manager, home visitor and early interventionist for children with special needs. Her current focus is on infant mental health, attachment, and early trauma. She is a certified Somatic Experiencing practitioner. Susan and her colleague, Pam Burnham, developed the Trauma First Aide for Providers Working with Youth (TFA-PWY) module and Susan is on the faculty track to teach TFA-PWY. Susan assists Trauma First Aide™ trainings in New Mexico and is a member of our youth training program.  

“I use Trauma First Aide every week on home visits or at the office to help parents ground and settle in therapy sessions or during crisis situations. Trauma First Aide has given me an accessible language to help parents understand that the health of their nervous system has a direct impact on their young child’s ability to self-regulate. I’m pleased that several of my co-workers have taken the Trauma First Aide trainings and are also incorporating this approach into their work.”  —Susan Asher

Evelyn “Franki” Bennett, LICSW, SEP, is a clinical social worker in Leominster, Massachusetts as a private practitioner. Her client population includes war veterans, car accident and childhood abuse survivors. She has integrated the Trauma First Aide™ model, Somatic Experiencing, and Systems Theory into her psychotherapy practice. As her clients learn to settle their own nervous systems, their psychotherapy sessions become more effective. Franki assists Trauma First Aide™ trainings in Massachusetts and Maine and is a member of our military training team.

“My use of Trauma First Aide skills is energizing and helps to prevent therapist burnout. As my colleague who is in Trauma First Aide training said: ‘this work is elegant and respectful!” —Evelyn “Franki” Bennett

Xiomara Isabell Correa, CNMT, SEP lives in San Antonio, Texas and has had a private clinical practice since 1987. As a Neuromuscular Therapist and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner specializing in chronic stress, acute and chronic pain, and trauma, she draws from her diverse experience in the allopathic and complementary medicine field and seeks to provide an integrative perspective which supports the body's inherent capacity for healing, while honoring the spiritual dimension of the process. Isabell is the Trauma First Aide™ organizer in San Antonio and assists trainings in Louisiana and Texas.

"As a body-worker, I have found that Trauma First Aide has been an invaluable tool in addressing shock trauma and its impact on pain." —Xiomara Isabell Correa

John deMahy, of New Orleans, Louisiana began his professional career in trauma nursing over 30 years ago. Now in private practice in Rolfing Structural Integration and Somatic Experiencing, his focus is on preventing and relieving the long-term effects of trauma. He has been an instructor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, CEU instructor for the Rolf Institute, and teaches for two yoga teacher training programs. John has assisted Trauma First Aide™ trainings since 2006 as part of the Texas and Louisiana staff.  

Meg Deutsch-DiMari, LMT, SEP is a licensed massage therapist and Somatic Experience Practitioner. She has a private practice with a referral base from medical doctors, chiropractors, and various therapists. Her clients are from diverse backgrounds, ages and populations. She serves wide ranges of client challenges from acute and chronic pain patterns to various kinds of traumatic experiences. She applies resources from her own personal life herstory, and her military and volunteer service, to her relentless appetite to know and serve more. Meg served on the Trauma Outreach team post-Katrina/Rita, provided sessions and collected data, and has helped with the Trauma First Aide™ research that has been published. She has assisted Trauma First Aide™ trainings since 2006 in Louisiana and New Mexico and is on the faculty track to teach Trauma First Aide™.

"Trauma First Aide offers me an effective, rapid method of stabilization. It brings the person I am working with home to their body, which is a great base camp from which to instantly experience empowering results. The potential uses of and benefits from Trauma First Aide, are in my opinion, unlimited." —Meg Deutsch-DiMari

Sylvie Eyral, LISW, SEP, is a somatic psychotherapist in private practice in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is a clinical social worker and art therapist certified in EMDR and Somatic Experiencing. Sylvie specializes in teaching self-regulation while working with developmental and shock trauma, PTSD, attachment issues, grief, acute and chronic health issues. Sylvie is an assistant for Somatic Experiencing trainings in the US and in France, and is a member of the Association Francophone des Praticiens de la Somatic Experiencing in Paris. Sylvie is a member of the Trauma First Aide teaching staff in New Mexico.

“Trauma First Aide is an integral part of my personal and professional life. I use TFA in every session to help clients settle, to ground and become present to their experience. The same skills are equally effective to help me and loved ones through challenging times.” —Sylvie Eyral

Barbara E. Davis, M.S.S.W is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in private practice in Austin, Texas. Barbara is president of the Austin Society of Bioenergetic Analysis, past president of the Austin Group Psychotherapy Society, founder and past board president for Project Transitions, Inc., Austin’s residential AIDS hospice, cofounder of People's Community Clinic and Austin Family Mediation Association.  She was the 1996 recipient of the alumnus of the year award for the University of Texas, School of Social Work.
She is a member of a critical incident response team for disasters and crises in the work place. She has special interest in people with serious physical illness and in couples’ work.

"As a Social Worker and Somatic Therapist, Trauma First Aide is extremely helpful when a client walks into my office in crisis, shock, or overwhelm, or if they experience any or all of these states during a session." —Barbara E. Davis 

Maureen Harrington, CMT, SEP is a certified massage therapist and Somatic Experience (SE) Practitioner. She is in private practice specializing in SE gentle touch work to facilitate resolving the physiological symptoms of trauma including anxiety, depression, shock and stress-related illness and injury. She enjoys working in collaboration with psychotherapists and other alternative health practitioners to form a support team for clients. Her work incorporates her background in Biodynamic Cranial Sacral Therapy, Visceral Manipulation, Ortho-Bionomy and influences of Castellino Birth Trauma Resolution. She assists all levels of SE® trainings. Maureen served on the Trauma Outreach team post-Katrina/Rita and has assisted Trauma First Aide® trainings since 2006 in Louisiana and California. 

Nancy Conlee Hart, MPH, PhD served as a hospital CEO and health care executive in the Midwest for twenty years, and now consults in Complementary and Alternative Health Care with a small private practice as a health coach in Austin, Texas. She specializes in clients with fibromyalgia as a result of PTSD, assisting them to access healing modalities beyond the conventional pharmaceutical/biomedical system. Nancy incorporates a wide range of healing and therapeutic modalities including Somatic Experiencing, Holotropic Breathwork, Psy-K, Therapeutic Touch, Intuitive Energy Healing, Archetypal Astrology and Gender Reconciliation. She is also working on her dissertation, "Trauma in a Participatory Universe", exploring the relationship between trauma and physiology. Nancy assists Trauma First Aide™ trainings in Texas and Minnesota. 

"Trauma First Aide is invaluable to me in my coaching practice. My clients are often highly activated and unable to focus. I use Trauma First Aide, first to allow them to settle into their bodies and begin to reclaim themselves; and second as a framework to explain that their PTSD symptoms are normal physiological reactions to the highly abnormal conditions they have experienced." —Nancy Conlee Hart

Christina Kuepper-Oake, SEP, CMT, PRYT, CSMC, has an integrative practice in New Jersey combining several healing modalities including: Trauma First Aide©, Somatic Experiencing®, deep-tissue, MyofascialRelease®, energy balancing, Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy® and aroma therapy. Christina worked with paramedics and Wall Street clients who witnessed the terrors of 9/11. She also served on the Trauma Outreach team post-Katrina/Rita, provided sessions and collected data, and helped with the Trauma First Aide™ research that has been published. She has assisted Trauma First Aide™ trainings since 2006 in Louisiana, Maryland, New York and Massachusetts and is on the faculty track to teach Trauma First Aide©.

“I use TFA with neighbors, friends and family as easily as with clients with chronic pain. It’s easy, quick and effective and helps people reduce trauma symptoms in an easy, gentle way so they can reclaim their lives, have more energy, and live with passion again.” —Christina Kuepper-Oake

Betty C. Landreneau, MSN, RN worked as a nurse for 46 years and recently retired after 23 years teaching nursing. She is certified in Integrated Touch Therapy and Reiki at a Masters Level. She lives in Lafayette, Louisiana and worked with post-Katrina/Rita survivors. Betty has assisted Trauma First Aide™ trainings since 2007 in Louisiana, Texas, and New Mexico. 

“I use Trauma First Aide, with great effectiveness, in my work with homeless persons who access a free health clinic, and military in the National Guard. Using Trauma First Aide, even as a one-time brief encounter, allows the person’s body to re-regulate, enabling the person to access their strengths for recovery and enjoy improved functioning.” —Betty C. Landreneau

Jill Laroussini, MSN, RN is an advanced practice registered nurse, Clinical Nurse Specialist of 29 years with a background in ER, ambulatory care and college health. She is currently a community health instructor at the College of Nursing & Allied Health Professions at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette where her clinical population is the homeless. She is a co-creator of Ready 4 the Return, a volunteer initiative that provides a body-based approach to healing after combat trauma and attends drill weekends to bring services to the soldiers. Jill has assisted Trauma First Aide™ trainings since 2007 in Louisiana, Texas, and New Mexico.       

"I integrate Trauma First Aide and Integrative Touch with my nursing students, the homeless, veterans, and soldiers in a multitude of settings to assist them with re-regulating their nervous systems, building resilience, and restoring function. The soldiers are especially grateful to have this understanding of what is happening to them, plus it puts their symptoms in a domain they are familiar with - training the body." —Jill Laroussini

Diane Long, BS, CMT, HTP, SEP is the founder of Kaleidoscope Healing Arts in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As an integrative practitioner, she combines therapeutic massage, martial arts, yoga, bioenergetics, energy healing and somatic therapies. A part-time French interpreter in a torture treatment center and a self-defense instructor, Diane incorporates Trauma First Aide™ skills to help people recover from trauma and chronic pain. Diane serves as the Trauma First Aide™ organizer in Minneapolis, has assisted in Maine, Minneapolis, and is on the faculty track to teach Trauma First Aide™.                    

Susan R. Miller, LCPC, CTS, SEP SEP is the Psychological Services Coordinator at an independent living center for people with disabilities in Lawrence, Kansas. She counsels people who have survived car accidents, crimes, abuse, and military combat. Susan served on the Trauma Outreach team post-Katrina/Rita, provided sessions and collected data, and has helped with the Trauma First Aide™ research that has been published and has assisted Trauma First Aide™ trainings in Louisiana, New Mexico and Kansas since 2006.

“I incorporate Trauma First Aide with my clients every day in my practice to help them settle and to make counseling more productive.” —Susan R. Miller

Jody Mittiga, RN, ND  is a registered nurse and trained naturopath with a background in oncology, hospice care and natural health practices. She is currently working at the University of Colorado Hospital in the Oncology/Bone Marrow Transplant unit and is engaged in advanced nursing studies at the UC School of Nursing in Denver, Colorado. She is a co-creator of Ready 4 the Return, a volunteer initiative that provides a body-based approach to healing after combat trauma. Jody integrated Trauma First Aide™ skill sets into the FEMA-funded stress management program for post-Katrina/Rita survivors. Jody has assisted Trauma First Aide™ trainings in Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, and Maryland at the US State Department and is on the faculty track to teach Trauma First Aide©.

“Normalizing the stress response to trauma is important work. Allowing the body to release the chemistry of trauma-trapped circuitry is healing.” —Jody Mittiga

Mary Pivarunis, LMFT, Somatic Psychotherapist specializes in Trauma and the Body, PTSD, and Grief and Loss with a private practice in Oakland, California. She is a Clinical Care Coordinator at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley, CA, where she runs an Adult Day Hospitalization Program for Chronically Mentally Ill Adults. Mary also serves as a trauma consultant for her department. She has completed the Somatic Experiencing Training and is currently working on her client hours. Mary assists Trauma First Aide™ trainings in California and Maine.

“I use Trauma First Aide daily with clients in my private practice as a way to help clients ground and center when activated and/or flooded, to help increase their body awareness when dissociated, and to increase their self confidence and feeling of empowerment when they become educated about their nervous system and its inner workings. At work, I stress one of Trauma First Aide's main premises that we, as providers, must put on our own oxygen mask FIRST!” —Mary Pivarunis

Clara Porter, MSW  is the founder and program director of Prevention. Action. Change. in Portland Maine. Clara has extensive training in violence prevention programming for children, youth, and adults and 15 years of teaching experience in the field. She is a certified self-defense instructor with the Center for Anti-Violence Education and the National Women’s Martial Arts Federation. Clara is the local Trauma First Aide organizer for the Portland trainings.

“I use Trauma First Aide extensively with workshop participants for acute flashback events, self-calming and emotional regulation.” —Clara Porter

Danielle M. Rose, MD, NMD, SEP  SEP has worked as a pediatrician for 14 years and is trained in Somatic Experiencing. She began working with Trauma First Aide™ in 2008. She currently works with children and adults who have had traumatic histories in Huntersville, North Carolina and also works as the medical director of Charlotte Metro Hyperbaric Center. She teaches part time at the local community college. Danielle assists Trauma First Aide™ trainings in North Carolina and Maine.

“I plan to bring Trauma First Aide essentials into our local first responder and law enforcement communities.”- —Danielle M. Rose

Margarita Salas-Morrel, LMSW, MAHS  holds a Master's Degree in Social Work and a Master of Arts Degree in Human Services. She is a graduate of the Trauma First Aide™ and Somatic Experiencing training programs and has assisted in both trainings. Margarita uses Trauma First Aide™ for crisis and trauma stabilization and Somatic Experiencing for the long-term clinical services that she provides. Margarita integrates her Trauma First Aide™ and Somatic Experiencing skills in her social work practice with individuals, groups, and families. She has also successfully incorporated both models in the life skills trainings that she offers to children in the classroom setting. In addition to Trauma First Aide™ and Somatic Experiencing, Margarita has had over seven years of training in Ericksonian therapy. Margarita has over 23 years of experience working with underserved populations and for fifteen of those years she has been providing school-based support to underprivileged children and families. Margarita is originally from South America and has extensive experience providing services to bilingual communities. She would like to help promote TFA in Latin America and assists TFA classes in Texas and New Mexico.

"As a social worker that works in a school setting, Trauma First Aide helps me provide essential support for children and families in crisis, TFA helps me share with them tools to promote stabilization and resilience. Students and parents that respond to TFA are able to calm, access their own resources, focus, and be ready to learn. It is an honor to see the empowerment and transformation that they are able to experience." —Margarita Salas-Morrel,

Dee Dee Sewell, NREMT-P, SEP  has been a Paramedic in EMS for 25 years. She is the Critical Support Intervention Coordinator for Acadian Ambulance Service and cares for approximately 3,000 employees. Dee Dee is certified through the ICISF/CISM and holds many certifications, including a Certificate of Specialized Training in the Field of Emergency Services, Somatic Experiencing, and Trauma First Aide™. In addition to her certification areas, Dee Dee also uses Integrative Touch Therapy, Guided Imagery, and Aromatherapy, as well as Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) and Response to Suicide training for Emergency Responders (LINK) in her work with the medics and support staff at Acadian. She has been involved in Trauma First Aide™ since 2007, and she has assisted in Louisiana and Texas trainings. Dee Dee lives in Lafayette, Louisiana and works with post-Katrina/Rita survivors in her company. Acadian medics were heavily involved with pre- and post-hurricane events from the coastal regions of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, and were severely impacted on a personal level due to their own losses of homes and family members.

“As a paramedic, Trauma First Aide helps me assist those individuals who sometimes literally cannot focus immediately following a significant incident. They can’t stop crying, can’t stop trembling. Trauma First Aide helps me give them back their calm so they can think rationally and focus once again.” —Dee Dee Sewell

Lynne Silver, MA, LPC  is the co-founder of the Resources Unlimited Human Development Foundation. She works with an integrative approach facilitating individuals, couples, and groups in personal and spiritual growth and development. Lynne is certified in Transpersonal Psychology and teaches meditation classes. She also facilitates training in Equine Assisted Psychotherapy and Experiential Learning. Lynne assists the Trauma First Aide™ trainings in Texas.

"As a psychotherapist, I use Trauma First Aide with clients as a way to settle during sessions. Trauma First Aide becomes a resource for their daily lives." —Lynne Silver

Douglas Smith, LCPC, SEP  is a psychotherapist and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner in Portland, Maine. For the past seven years he has studied and integrated knowledge of the nervous system's response to trauma into his practice, increasingly using the therapeutic modality of Somatic Experiencing to access and treat trauma symptoms in the body. Most recently he has completed post-advanced certification training with Kathy Kain, in Berkeley California, to explore the use of touch in the treatment of trauma. He occasionally offers workshops on somatic therapy. For more information on his workshops, visit mindmeetsbody.com. Douglas is also interested in the application of somatic therapy principles for treating acute trauma. He has attended both basic and advanced Trauma First Aide™ trainings, and he has also assisted with Trauma First Aide™ trainings. He continues to support the development of Trauma First Aide™ in Maine and New England.

Laura Lee Thompson is a Holistic Health Practitioner (HHP)  and holds honors’ degrees in Liberal Arts and Behavioral Science Psychology. She has over six years of training in somatic therapies, including the completion of a three-year training program in Somatic Experiencing®. Laura has worked with various types of trauma ranging from birth injury to torture and incorporates Trauma First Aide™, touch therapy and energy medicine into her work. In addition, she combines SE and TFA into classes designed for healing past traumas of both men and women. Laura Lee is the Trauma First Aide™ organizer in San Diego and assists Trauma First Aide™ trainings New Mexico and California.

“I use TFA with my clients who are in crises. I assist in stabilizing their nervous system by helping them become aware of their bodies and aware of their immediate environment. With TFA I can bring my clients into the present moment so they can fully enjoy an empowered life”. —Laura Lee Thompson

Leslie Tuchmann, MSN, CNS, AHN-BC, ACHPN  is a Clinical Nurse Specialist in Albuquerque, New Mexico who holds advanced practice nursing certifications in both Holistic Nursing and Palliative Care. As a former Army Nurse Corps Officer, her career focus was in medical-surgical nursing and oncology. She is currently in private practice as a Holistic Nurse and also works part-time with a hospital-based Palliative Care Consultant Service. She is an integrative practitioner who utilizes numerous energetic and healing modalities in her work and is deeply influenced by indigenous wisdom. Leslie is on the Trauma First Aide™ Advisory Board and assists Trauma First Aide™ trainings in Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Hawaii, and is a member of our military training team.

“I use Trauma First Aide in my private practice with palliative care clients, and I am especially passionate about sharing Trauma First Aide with military and veteran populations.” —Leslie Tuchmann

Tara E. Zanghi, MA, LMHC, SEP  is a somatic educator, psychotherapist and artist in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Tara has found renewed vitality, creativity, and resilience through training and weaving Somatic Experiencing© and Trauma First Aide© into her day-to-day life and professional work. She is an integrative practitioner utilizing a blend of eastern and western psychology whose underlying foundation draws from indigenous practice and study. Her focus is developmental psychology, the parent-child relationship, and the use of expressive therapies -- writing, art, movement, and story-telling to catalyze the self-reflective process. Tara uses Somatic Experiencing© with adults for chronic and episodic trauma, and also in her psychotherapy practice both individually and in groups with children, parents and adults. She facilitates peer-support grief and loss groups for children and teens that have experienced the death of a parent and also for children and teens who are in foster care. She is the assistant to the Director of Trauma First Aide© Associates and assists in Trauma First Aide© Professionals Working with Youth trainings in New Mexico.

“TFA is an essential tool for living life honestly, consciously and joyfully. This modality works beautifully with others to encourage and assist clients back to their bodies, restoring a sense of hope having lived in the face of despair for years.” —Tara E. Zanghi