Developmental Trauma Training Institute

Shame places us between belonging and abandonment.

It can feel like being trapped between wanting connection and fearing it at the same time.

For many people, shame isn't simply an emotion—it becomes a way of living. A place where isolation, self-criticism, and disconnection take root.

Join us for "Shame: The Land Between Living and Dying," an online training that explores the origins of shame, its impact on development and relationships, and pathways toward healing.

This training is designed for clinicians, educators, helping professionals, and anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the human experience of shame.

Virtual July 31, Aug 1 & 2 - Learn more and register:
https://www.eventzilla.net/e/shame-the-land-between-living-and-dying--online-training-event-2138672869

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Why do the same painful patterns keep repeating across relationships, families, and generations?

In this Facebook Live, Steve explores Carl Jung’s metaphor of water and the unconscious to understand trauma reenactment—the unseen currents that can shape our lives beneath awareness. From generational trauma to acute experiences, including domestic violence and sexual abuse, unresolved wounds often seek expression through repeated patterns, relationships, and circumstances.

When we begin to recognize these waves of history as they move through us, we create the possibility for something different. Awareness is not the end of healing—it is often where healing begins.

What if what you’re carrying doesn’t need more words—but a different place to be met?

Join Steve Sawyer in Rapid City, South Dakota for
Brainspotting Phase 1

June 5–7, 2026 | In-Person

This foundational training introduces Brainspotting as a focused, experiential approach for working with trauma, emotional overwhelm, and the deeper patterns held in the nervous system that talk therapy alone often cannot always reach.

Alongside lecture, demonstration, and practice, participants will have space to integrate learning in the natural landscape of South Dakota, allowing the rhythm of the environment to support reflection, grounding, and deeper processing throughout the training experience.

Rooted in clinical depth and lived experience, this training is designed for therapists, clinicians, and helping professionals ready to expand how they work with clients beyond language.

When words aren’t enough, something else becomes possible.
🧠Register: https://www.eventzilla.net/e/brainspotting-phase-one--inperson--rapid-city-sd-2138675750

So much of healing is learning that familiar does not always mean safe. At DTTI, we help clinicians and helping professionals understand how early experiences shape patterns, perceptions, and the ways people return to what they know — even when it hurts.

Healing begins when awareness, connection, and new experiences create the possibility for something different.

Even small moments of safety, attunement, and connection can begin to reshape a person’s relationship with themselves and the world around them. What has been carried for years does not have to define the future. Change becomes possible when people are supported in experiencing something new.

“People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.” — Thích Nhất Hạnh

Why is change so hard?

Today on the DTTI Facebook Live, Steve Sawyer talked about how the brain is wired toward what feels familiar — even when those patterns create suffering.

A person may deeply want change, like stepping away from addiction or unhealthy patterns, yet under stress return to what is known. Not because they do not care or lack insight, but because early experiences shape the way the brain and body learn safety, survival, and connection.

The frontal lobes may understand change logically, but lasting transformation often requires more than insight. It requires embodied, integrative experiences that help the whole system experience something different.

Under stress, we often return to what is familiar. Healing grows through repeated experiences of safety, connection, and new possibilities.