Developmental Trauma Training Institute
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We equip professionals with the skills to recognize and treat trauma.
We envision a world where children, adults, families & communities can access effective treatment and support healing from Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE’s) and truly thrive.
10/02/2026
Three days in Minneapolis reminded us that Phase 2 is about more than learning additional Brainspotting techniques. It’s about going deeper into the work itself.
This weekend with Steve Sawyer and Jeff Ryan brought together a group of clinicians willing to practice, explore, ask questions, and experience the work from more than one perspective.
There is so much value in returning to the work with curiosity — refining what we already know, noticing something new, and continuing to grow both personally and professionally.
A huge thank you to our assistants Ruth Basilea, Tara McGovern, and Eric Roush for everything they brought to the room throughout the three days.
And thank you to everyone who joined us in Minneapolis and brought their presence, experience, and willingness into the training.
We came together to deepen the work — and left with more to carry forward.
10/01/2026
High activation changes the way we use Brainspotting.
Sometimes the work is not about accessing more. It is about understanding how much is already happening — and knowing how to work with it.
High Acuity Brainspotting 1.0 explores pacing, activation, regulation, Window of Tolerance, interoception, and lower- and moderate-dose Brainspotting setups for more complex presentations.
October 16–18 | Live Online
✨Link in upcoming trainings to register
Anxiety can feel like your whole system is responding to something you can’t quite name.
Your heart speeds up.
Your thoughts start searching.
Your muscles tighten.
You feel the urge to get away, fix something, or figure out what is wrong.
As Steve Sawyer explains, anxiety is physiological. A fear response that once had a specific reason can become generalized, so your system begins responding even when the original threat is no longer present.
That is why understanding anxiety intellectually is not always enough.
Working with anxiety means understanding the physiological response underneath it — and addressing what is happening in your nervous system, not only the thoughts connected to it.
ADHD is more than distraction, forgetfulness, or trouble sitting still.
Take a deep dive with Steve Sawyer into how ADHD can actually show up, what a diagnosis helps us understand, what it can miss, and practical tools that can make everyday life more workable.
This conversation goes beyond the checklist and into the lived experience of ADHD.
09/29/2026
When the clinical situation gets more complex, the way we work often has to change too.
Join Steve Sawyer, LCSW, CSAC and Jeff Ryan, Psychotherapist for a FREE one-hour online introduction to High Acuity Brainspotting.
This live session will explore what High Acuity Brainspotting is, who the full HAC 1.0 training is designed for, and how this approach can be applied in more complex clinical situations.
You’ll also get a look at the upcoming HAC 1.0 training, October 16–18, 2026, with time for live Q&A.
Friday, October 9, 2026
6:30–7:30 PM PDT
Live Online
Registration is free:
https://www.eventzilla.net/e/high-acuity-brainspotting-free-online-introduction-event-and-q-amp-a-2138701249
The West Coast Tour is moving, and apparently Steve is arriving by horse, surfboard, backpack… whatever gets him there.
But underneath the fun is the work itself.
Digging Roots looks at developmental trauma through the lens of attachment, early experience, defensive responses, and the patterns that can continue long after the original experience has passed.
Sometimes what shows up in the present makes more sense when we become curious about what sits underneath it.
Bozeman, San Diego, and LA South Bay are coming up next.
Digging Roots Foundations + 1.0
In person
Learn more and register at DTTI.co therapy
09/28/2026
When you begin to understand yourself through trauma, a lot can start to make sense.
The patterns.
The responses.
The relationships.
The ways you learned to survive, protect yourself, and stay connected.
That understanding can be meaningful.
But over time, trauma can become one of the main ways you understand yourself.
At some point, living your life becomes part of the healing.
Not because you are trying to heal.
Because you are living.
Laughing.
Connecting.
Trying something new.
Making plans.
Getting interested in things again.
Spending time with people you care about.
Letting parts of yourself emerge that have nothing to do with trauma.
Your life does not have to stay organized around what happened to you.
Humanness in therapy can include helping someone make sense of the past while also making room for the life they are already in.
A life that does not have to wait until the healing is finished.
We tend to notice the struggle first.
The person who can’t stay with one thing.
The attention that keeps moving.
The frustration of trying to focus and not being able to hold it.
Steve Sawyer talks about attentional dysregulation as something that can come with childhood trauma.
But he also names the other side of it:
Hyperfocus.
The capacity to lock in.
To become completely absorbed.
To stay with something with incredible intensity.
Sometimes the same pattern that creates difficulty in one setting can become a real asset in another.
What changes when we stop looking only at what isn’t working?
Over time, experiences like difficulty starting, forgetting, losing track of time, getting overwhelmed by ordinary tasks, or relying on urgency can become tangled with shame.
For many people with ADHD, that shame can build over years of being misunderstood — first by others, and eventually by themselves.
What looks like laziness or lack of effort can be something very different underneath.
This is part of why we talk about shame as more than an emotion. Shame can shape how people understand themselves, how they relate to others, and what they believe is possible for them.
Steve Sawyer and Josh Delahan will explore this more deeply in Shame: The Land Between Living & Dying, a live online training focused on understanding shame at its deeper roots and working with it more responsively.
Learn more about the upcoming Shame training through the link in bio.
09/26/2026
You’ve taken the Brainspotting trainings. Now make the work your own.
Steve Sawyer is opening a handful of spots for clinicians working toward Brainspotting Certification or Recertification.
This isn’t about checking off another requirement.
It’s an opportunity to look closely at how you’re actually using Brainspotting—where you feel confident, where you hesitate, what happens when a session doesn’t unfold the way you expected, and how attunement and the frame are showing up in your work.
Steve brings decades of clinical and training experience, his work as an International Brainspotting Trainer, and the developmental trauma lens that shaped Digging Roots.
If certification has been sitting on your list—or your recertification is coming up—this can be a chance to complete the process while becoming more confident in the practitioner you are becoming.
Steve is taking a handful of people for Brainspotting Certification and Recertification consultation.
Reach out to learn more or reserve a spot : https://docs.google.com/forms/u/1/d/e/1FAIpQLSfukLMs_TeNXT9b67zlXdgs2aMmkw6aeD-xPUmLBs6j6cUi8g/viewform?usp=send_form
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Bend, OR
97702
Opening Hours
| Monday | 9am - 5pm |
| Tuesday | 9am - 5pm |
| Wednesday | 9am - 5pm |
| Thursday | 9am - 5pm |
| Friday | 9am - 5pm |
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