Trauma Model Therapy (TMT) is a transformative clinical foundation for

PROFESSIONAL COUNSELORS

For Professional Counselors (LPCs, LCPCs, LMHCs, LCMHCs), whose training is rooted a wellness model and developmental growth, Trauma Model Therapy (TMT) provides a profound clinical framework. It moves beyond the medicalization of distress, aligning perfectly with the counseling core value that clients are individuals reacting to their life circumstances rather than disordered patients.

By utilizing TMT, Professional Counselors can deepen their trauma-informed practice with a rigorous, stage-oriented approach that prioritizes safety, cognitive clarity, and the restoration of the self.

Aligning with the Wellness Model of Counseling

Professional Counselors are trained to see clients through a lens of potential and adaptation. TMT is the ultimate wellness approach to trauma because it treats symptoms as functional, rather than pathological.

The TMT Perspective: Symptoms like self-harm, eating disorders, or intrusive thoughts are viewed as adaptive survival skills. They are the brain's attempt to solve a problem (like unbearable pain) when no other tools were available.
Clinical Value: This shift from "What is wrong with you?" to "How did this help you survive?" removes the shame that often stalls progress. It allows the counselor to honor the client’s resilience while gently introducing more effective, present-day coping strategies.

Strengthening the Therapeutic Alliance through Attachment

The counseling relationship is often cited as the primary driver of change. TMT provides the specific language to navigate the inevitable attachment ruptures that occur when working with survivors.

The Dynamic: Clients struggling with the Problem of Attachment to the Perpetrator often project those same paradoxes onto the counselor—fearing the person they are coming to for help.
The TMT Intervention: Counselors use TMT to name this dynamic as a survival response. By understanding that a client’s "resistance" or push-pull behavior is actually a protective attachment strategy, the counselor can remain a steady, non-reactive, secure base, modeling healthy relational boundaries.

Advanced Cognitive Mastery: The Locus of Control Shift

Counselors often use Cognitive Behavioral techniques, but TMT offers a specialized depth that targets the core identity of a trauma survivor.

The Approach: In TMT, the counselor helps the client dismantle the Locus of Control Shift—the deeply held belief that the trauma was their fault.
The Skill: This isn't just challenging a thought; it’s helping the client realize that as a child, it was safer to be a bad child in a good world than a good child in a terrifying, unpredictable world. Resolving this logic is what finally allows the inner critic to go quiet.

A Clear, Ethical Roadmap: The Three Stages of Treatment

Ethical counseling requires doing no harm. TMT provides a high-resolution roadmap that ensures the counselor never pushes a client faster than their system can handle.

The Strategy: Counselors utilize TMT’s Stage 1: Stabilization to ensure the client has the emotional brakes (grounding and containment) necessary to handle the trauma memories.
The Result: This stage-oriented approach prevents flooding and re-traumatization, giving the counselor confidence that they are conducting therapy in a way that is both effective and profoundly safe.

Playing Well with Humanistic and Integrative Theories

TMT acts as a versatile foundation that enhances the core counseling modalities taught in graduate programs:

With Person-Centered Therapy: TMT provides the unconditional positive regard by seeing the survival value in even the most difficult behaviors.
With Gestalt Therapy: TMT’s focus on Personality Integration aligns with Gestalt's goal of wholeness, helping the client bring fragmented parts of their experience into the present moment.
With Narrative Therapy: TMT provides a logical, scientific master narrative that helps the client re-author their life story from victim to adaptive survivor.

Why Professional Counselors Need TMT in Their Toolkit

Counselors are often the supporters of a client's long-term healing. Utilizing TMT allows a Professional Counselor to:

Enhance Clinical Competency: Move from trauma-informed (knowing trauma exists) to trauma-specialized (knowing exactly what to do about it).
Provide Psychoeducation that Empowers: Use the TMT Principles and TMT Mindset to give clients a logical explanation for their pain, which is often the most powerful intervention in early therapy.
Ensure Career Longevity: By understanding symptoms as survival skills, counselors are less likely to experience vicarious trauma or feel stuck with complex cases.

"Doing trauma therapy without Trauma Model Therapy is like trying to navigate a complex forest without a map. TMT provides the compass that shows both the counselor and the client exactly where they are and how to get home." — The Healing Ethos of TMT

ENROLL IN TRAINING

Level 1

Level 1 training is focused on introducing you to the model, the 5 Principles of TMT, helping you learn how to conceptualize TMT, how to diagnose properly, and how to become competent in detecting and working with complex trauma & dissociation. You will have a chance to watch multiple role plays with Dr. Ross during this training.

CE Info

7 General Hours

CE Provider: Get Into Your Head Training

Price

$350

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Level 2

Level 2 training will focus on general strategies you as a therapist need to know and employ in order to do the most effective work with any type of client who has experienced trauma. We will immerse you in the TMT Mindset and cover ethics. You will watch new role plays with Dr. Ross. We will also cover how to pair TMT with well-known modalities like EMDR & DBT.

CE Info

9.25 Clinical/1.25 Ethics Hours

CE Provider: Get Into Your Head Training

Introductory Price

$200

Request to Enroll

Level 3

Level 3 training will focus on tangible activities you can do with clients who experience complex PTSD, dissociation, or who have DID. This will include direction on how to work with complicated cases and DID parts/alters or DID systems. You will watch more role plays with Dr. Ross. We will also cover how to pair TMT with well-known models like IFS and Ego State Therapy.

CE Info

General & Ethics Hours

Approved by NBCC

Introductory Price

$200

Coming Soon

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Testimonials

Dr. Ross & AshleyDawn make treating trauma and DID approachable and understandable. They use metaphors to help explain tools & concepts to use with clients. They encourage therapists to bring helpful aspects of their personalities into sessions. As a trauma-focused group practice leader, I felt it was highly worth investing in the training for my student interns. Even if they never see a client with DID, the trauma training reduced the sense of mystery & overwhelm & instilled a much greater sense of confidence in working

with trauma clients.

Jocelyn Cadiz, LPC, NCC®, EMDR Certified Therapist™

With over a decade of experience in the mental health field and training in Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), I was initially uncertain whether Trauma Model Therapy (TMT) would offer additional value to my practice. However, I have found TMT to be an excellent framework for treating PTSD and complex PTSD. It integrates seamlessly with CPT and has significantly enhanced my confidence in working with trauma.

Dr. Kayleigh Anderson, PhD, LPC-S

TMT Level 1 training was well-organized, interesting, and despite the complexity of the program, it was easy to follow due to the numerous resources, examples, metaphors, and well-structured videos. I am currently working on TMT Level 2, and I feel more confident working with my DID clients since it has helped me create a deeper connection with them. I had read DID books before doing the training, but the training helps you organize your thoughts to apply your knowledge more efficiently.

Veronica Gaytan de la Rosa, LPC