Kristin is a trauma therapist in Nixa, MO.

She has served Nixa and the surrounding communities through All Things New Counseling since 2009

About EMDR Qualifications

EMDRIA

Choosing a therapist certified by an EMDRIA (EMDR International Association) approved program is an excellent way to ensure that they meet the standards and quality of the EMDR therapy you are seeking. EMDRIA “promotes, fosters, and preserves the highest standard of excellence and integrity in EMDR.” (EMDRIA.org) EMDRIA holds its certified providers to the highest standard of quality, and EMDRIA certification is recognized far above any alternative program by major healthcare networks in the VA and the mental / behavioral health community.

“Trained” vs “Certified”

The terms “EMDR trained” and “EMDR certified” can also be an important consideration regarding the level of training and experience an EMDR therapist has. A clinician who has completed basic training can call themselves “EMDR trained” and can ethically practice EMDR under their clinical license. However, a “certified EMDR” clinician has gone beyond basic level training and “has opted to meet standards of excellence in EMDR therapy, measured by consultation, clinical practice, and continuing education.” (EMDRIA.org)

Kristin opted to pursue EMDR certification through an EMDRIA approved program because she wanted to submit herself to the highest standards and rigor of training and accountability for her clients. Upon completing basic /level one EMDR training, Kristin did not feel adequately prepared to assess and treat the variety and complexity of circumstances that can present in therapy. Clients frequently enter therapy because they feel anxious or are having trouble coping or managing day to day life, or they recognize a “single incident trauma” they have experienced, but they don’t always recognize that their struggles may be rooted in a complex history of trauma. Complex trauma and attachment wounds are extremely common in today’s society. A clinician who is not adequately trained and skilled in assessing for and treating complex trauma may not know how to adequately prepare clients before engaging them in EMDR work and may not know how to titrate the EMDR process to safety engage the client in the work—all of which can leave clients at risk of ineffective treatment at best, and at worst, could lead to client harm.

The more I learn, the more I discover there is still to learn!

With a passion to serve her clients to the best of her ability, Kristin is pretty “geeky” about her field of work. She is always engages in deep-dive studies and on a variety of sub-topics such as why and how EMDR works, the causes and effects of trauma and attachment wounds, how the mind can be both wounded and healed by interacting with other minds (interpersonal neurobiology), the mind-body connection as it presents in unresolved trauma and how the mind-body connection can be leveraged for more efficient and effective healing.

Some other interesting things about Kristin…

Kristin is married for 29 years to a computer geek and Oregon Ducks football fan. Together they have raised two amazing children. Kristin is an introvert and a homebody. She can entertain herself for hours and days (and probably weeks and months), and she doesn’t know how to be bored. Kristin loves to work in the woods on her residential property, building trails, burning leaves, and hauling rocks uphill (nature’s CrossFit) while bingeing podcasts or audio books—usually stuff related to her counseling work or the reconstruction of her once deconstructed Christian faith.

Kristin became a counselor by accident, which is a fun story especially because of how crazy passionate she is about her counseling work.

She loves the mountains and winter and snow, and she misses living in the Pacific Northwest- She has enjoyed living in the the rugged, wild mountains of the upper panhandle of Idaho (almost to Canada!) and near the Oregon coast. When she travels, she always goes west and north. She just hates driving through Kansas to get to there.