The Breathe Network’s online course “Healing Sexual Trauma: A Professional Training in Trauma-Informed Care” will offer you a unique combination of education and training co-facilitated by a team of 20 professionals working in the realms of sexual trauma, anti-sexual violence advocacy, holistic healing and resilience building.

This comprehensive course is intended to encompass a wide breadth of information that we believe is vital when it comes to being a resource of safety, support and referrals for sexual trauma survivors. It is geared towards healing arts and health and wellness providers of all disciplines including, among others: acupuncturists, bodyworkers, yoga teachers, therapists, personal trainers, social workers, nurse practitioners, medical doctors, members of the advocacy community and more.

We invite you to learn more about the amazing community of teachers that will be your guides and resources during the length of this healing immersion and perhaps beyond.

Module 1 – Individual and Collective Trauma, Navigating Adversity and Cultivating Resilience

Maira Holzmann is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP) that specializes in and is deeply committed to treating clients struggling with the effects of trauma. She is dedicated to pursuing ongoing training in the area of trauma attachment and safely working with the body to heal all aspects of self – mental, emotional, physical, spiritual and relational.

Robyn Mourning is a healing alchemist, soul-artist and intuitive anti-oppression activist. While Robyn received her Masters of Science in Marriage, Family and Child Counseling and became a trauma recovery specialist at her private mental health practice, she has since broken the mold that kept her in the status quo. As a spiritual healer, Robyn joins her clients as a co-healer in their trauma healing journey by offering ritual healing practices that harmonize ancient/spiritual wisdom with modern approaches. Robyn also provides Healership Cultivation coaching and consulting for therapists, healers, and activists. She facilitates healing-oriented workshops, retreats, and experiential gatherings. Robyn facilitates Community Wellness trainings on various topics related to trauma-responsive healing and social justice. Robyn also provides professional anti-oppression consulting/mentorship to healing and social change business leaders. As a trauma survivor herself, Robyn is a fierce advocate for equity, inclusivity, and justice for marginalized individuals and communities in the mental health and wellness industries.

Module 2 – Partnering with the Wisdom of the Nervous System

Since 1998, Jessica Schaffer, Nervous System Health Educator, has been guiding people towards a more authentic relationship with their bodies and their overall health. Jessica maintained a successful private practice in Portland, Oregon for 20 years where she offered support for individuals seeking personal growth and transformation. She now offers educational and wellness programs that teach people about nervous system regulation and resilience. She is passionate about introducing people to the concept of stress physiology and helping them cultivate tools to better manage and regulate their nervous system responses to stress and trauma. In addition, she runs a professional training program for practitioners who want to incorporate the Nervous System RESET approach into their clinical practices. A graduate of The Oregon School of Massage, Jessica holds a license in Massage Therapy. In addition, she is recognized as a Master Teacher in the Usui Shiki Ryoho lineage of Reiki and has been teaching since 2002. From 2014-2017, she was a Certification Trainer and representative of TRE ® (Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises ®) where she honed her understanding of working with the body’s natural recovery response of tremor release. Ultimately, her unique methodology of working with the body and its natural recovery response lead her to the creation and curation of the Nervous System RESET approach which was launched in 2017.

Module 3 - The Imprints of Sexual Trauma Part 1 : Honoring Survivors’ Wounds and Resilience

Aishah Shahidah Simmons is an award-winning Black feminist lesbian cultural worker who, for over 25-years, has examined the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and sexual violence. Her work is informed by her lived experiences as a child sexual abuse survivor, adult rape survivor, and Buddhist practitioner committed to disrupting and ending the inhumane, humanely. Aishah spent 12-years (1994-2006) producing, writing, and directing the Ford Foundation-funded, internationally acclaimed and award-winning feature length film NO! The Rape Documentary. The film  breaks silences taboos that hide the rape and sexual assault of women and girls by men in African-American communities. Aishah is the editor of the 2019 released, leading-edge anthology, Love WITH Accountability: Digging Up the Roots of Child Sexual Abuse anthology (AK Press). She invited 40-diasporic Black cisgender, transgender, gender non-binary, straight ,and queer child sexual abuse survivors and advocates to join her in transformative storytelling that envisions a world that ends child sexual abuse without relying on the criminal justice system.

Speaker, writer and author of the book Boys Don’t Tell: Ending the Silence of Abuse, Randy Ellison is a child-sexual-abuse victim advocate and an activist promoting cultural change working with local, state and national organizations. Randy also does contract work for nonprofits dealing with awareness and prevention of intimate violence. He addresses abuse prevention and healing from a survivor’s perspective. Randy has worked with many organizations on abuse prevention and awareness. He was a founding member and former Board President of OAASIS, Oregon Abuse Survivors in Service, based in Portland, OR. Randy was one of 200 men on Oprah when she brought child sex abuse of boys into the public eye in 2010. He was also co-coordinator of We Will Speak Out Oregon, a faith-based subsidiary of IMA World Health to promote prevention and healing of intimate violence. Randy is a former member of the Oregon Attorney General’s Sexual Assault Task Force working on Legislative and Public Policy. In 2009, Randy helped change the civil statue of limitations in Oregon on sex abuse of children to one of the most liberal in the country. 

Michael Munson is the co-founder and Executive Director of FORGE, an organization focused on improving the lives of transgender individuals by building stronger connections, providing resources, and empowering growth through knowledge. His educational background is in psychology, with an emphasis in trauma. Munson’s work on violence against transgender and gender non-conforming individuals is groundbreaking, stressing the intersectionality between complex components of identity, experience, and societal constructs that both spur violence, as well as catalyze healing for individuals and communities. He is passionate about engaging professionals to embrace these complexities and learn key skills to better serve their constituents.

Module 4 – The Imprints of Sexual Trauma Part 2: Recognizing Wounds and Finding Resources within the Body, Mind and Spirit

Santa Molina Marshall is a licensed Clinical Holistic Psychotherapist who has been working in the field of trauma and sexual violence since 1990. In April 2014, she was awarded the National Sexual Violence Resource Center 2014 Visionary Voice Award for her outstanding work in the field of anti-sexual violence within her community. For eight years prior, she had held the position of Director of Counseling and Advocacy at the D.C. rape crisis center where she directed the center’s counseling program, providing individual and group counseling and supervised all clinical staff and graduate social work students. Between March 2013 and January 2014. Ms Molina Marshall also served as the interim Executive Director, and was officer over all programs and departments. She directed policies, grants, management and board related functions. Since 2014, she has been managing her full time private practice in Washington D.C. and is a national and international speaker on women, trauma, mindfulness, grief and loss, compassion fatigue, the neurobiology of trauma and other topics. 

Zabie Yamasaki, M.Ed., RYT is widely recognized for her intentionality, soulful activism, and passionate dedication to her field. She is currently the Program Director of Trauma Informed Programs at UCLA and is the Founder of Transcending Sexual Trauma through Yoga, an organization with the mission of empowering survivors to heal through the practice of yoga. Zabie is a leader in the field and a key player in establishing trauma-informed yoga as an effective and evidence-based healing modality for survivors of sexual assault. Her trauma-informed yoga program and curriculum for sexual assault survivors is now being implemented at over 25 colleges campuses and trauma agencies including the University of California (UC) system, Stanford, USC, University of Notre Dame, and Johns Hopkins University. Zabie received her undergraduate degree in Psychology and Social Behavior and Education at the University of California, Irvine, and completed her graduate work in Higher Education Administration and Student Affairs at The George Washington University. Zabie received her 200-hour yoga teacher training certification through Core Power Yoga and attended a 40-hour workshop on trauma-sensitive yoga instruction through the Justice Resource Institute at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health. She is currently writing the book: Trauma-Informed Yoga for Survivors of Sexual Assault which will be published by W. W. Norton & Company and is expected to be released in 2022.

Kerry Naughton, a survivor of child sexual abuse, has worked in the victim advocacy field for over 15 years, focusing on policy advocacy, program development, public education, and movement building at the local, state, and national levels. She has led efforts to expand access to accurate information and effective services to marginalized crime victims, including survivors of color, youth survivors, survivors of human trafficking, incarcerated sexual assault survivors, and murder victim family members whose cases have “gone cold.” Since 2008, Kerry has helped elevate the voices of Oregon survivors and victim advocates calling for smarter approaches to creating safe, healthy communities. She is co-author of Moving Beyond Sides: The Power and Potential of a New Public Safety Policy Paradigm and Bridging the Divide: a new paradigm for addressing safety, crime, and victimization.

Klarissa Oh has been with OAASIS since its inception in December of 2009. Prior to OAASIS, she worked as Director of the Maternal Infant Health Integrator with BH1, as a Family Assessment Worker with Healthy Start, and as a Group Facilitator with Kids’ Turn, a program that equips children during divorce and custody changes. Klarissa’s work has focused on children’s and women’s health, child development, poverty alleviation, and social justice. In May of 2012, Klarissa had the honor of receiving a Gloria Award from Ms. Gloria Steinem for her leadership in the movement to end child sex abuse. She was recently chosen as one of twenty leaders in the nation to participate in the NoVo Foundation’s, “Move to End Violence” program.

Module 5 – Primary Elements within Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) and Practice

Jamie Marich’s friends and colleagues describe her as a renaissance woman. A dancer, musician, performer, writer, recovery ambassador, clinical counselor, expressive arts therapist and Reiki Master Teacher, Marich unites these elements of her experience to achieve an ultimate mission: bringing the art and joy of healing to others. Marich began her career in human services working in humanitarian aid in Bosnia-Hercegovina from 2000-2003. She travels internationally speaking on topics related to EMDR therapy, trauma, addiction, and mindfulness while maintaining a private practice (Mindful Ohio) in her home base of Warren, OH. She is the developer of the Dancing Mindfulness practice and the co-creator of the Yoga Unchained approach to trauma-informed yoga. Jamie Marich is the author of EMDR Made Simple: 4 Approaches for Using EMDR with Every Client (2011), Trauma and the Twelve Steps: A Complete Guide for Recovery Enhancement (2012), Trauma Made Simple: Competencies in Assessment, Treatment, and Working with Survivors and, Dancing Mindfulness: A Creative Path to Healing and Transformation released in 2015 with Skylight Paths Publishing. Marich co-authored EMDR Therapy & Mindfulness for Trauma-Focused Care along with colleague Dr. Stephen Dansiger, which was released with Springer Publishing in 2017. Her newest title, Process Not Perfection: Expressive Arts Solutions for Trauma Recovery, is due to be released in April 2019. Marich’s writing and work on Dancing Mindfulness was featured in the New York Times in 2017. In 2015, she had the privilege of delivering a TEDx talk on trauma (available on YouTube), and she made her first appearance on the popular Recovery 2.0 Conference. Additionally, NALGAP: The Association of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Addiction Professionals and Their Allies awarded Jamie with their esteemed President’s Award in 2015 for her work as an LGBT advocate.

Greg Wieting is a healer and trauma expert. For nearly 20 years he’s run a private healthcare practice resolving trauma patterns to heal chronic pain, anxiety, depression, migraines, insomnia, autoimmune disease and more. He developed PRISMA – a healing system that fuses the latest advances in trauma and neuroscience, energy medicine, somatic and mindfulness based practices, healing touch and advaita vedanta philosophy. He teaches PRISMA to both healers and leaders on the front lines of societal change. 

Module 6 – Practical Applications of TIC: Practice Focus on Acupuncture, Yoga, Chiropractic and Bodywork

Kate Busby is an Oregon Medical Board Licensed Acupuncturist committed to helping people who are suffering and want to find healing. She believes in the original meaning of the word health, which comes from the Old English hælþ, meaning “wholeness, being whole, sound or well, integrity,” For Kate, healing doesn’t just mean alleviating symptoms. By definition, healing is about integration and connectedness. Because of this, her practice is focused on holistically treating the impacts of trauma on the body. She works to support a return to physiological regulation and a felt sense of safety while repairing the ways untreated shock and developmental trauma disrupt healthy physical and emotional functioning. She is also trained and certified in Somatic Experiencing (SE), a biophysiological method of trauma resolution created by Dr. Peter Levine, as well as Somatic Resilience and Regulation, a method of trauma healing specifically oriented towards developmental trauma created by Kathy Kain and Steve Terrell.

Nicole Marcia is the founder and director of Fine Balance Yoga in Vancouver B.C. Since 2004, she has taught therapeutic yoga classes and offered individual sessions to trauma survivors struggling with addiction, depression and anxiety -teaching them healthy self-regulation strategies to empower them to live connected and embodied lives. She also trains yoga teachers and clinicians in the trauma-sensitive yoga theory and techniques required to support trauma survivors in their healing, long-term stability and recovery.

Dr. Lawrence Stern is a chiropractor that has over 35 years in private practice. He has achieved advanced certification in Network Spinal Analysis, a remarkable and highly effective approach to healing and transformation, held only by approximately 300 practitioners worldwide. His goal is to help unlock the healing potential within each person. He believes the root of one’s pain or unexplainable symptoms often come from disorders of the body’s nervous system, since every tissue and organ in the body is controlled by this crucial system. With a focus on wholeness, Dr. Stern has a unique and integrative approach to health and well-being and uses a combination of network care along with chiropractic, wellness consulting and the Hakomi method to uncover the underlying causes of ill health and make the necessary changes that will accelerate the journey to optimum health.

Module 7 – Practical Applications of TIC: Practice Focus on Psychotherapy, Birth, Movement-Based Healing

Jane Clapp is a mindful strength and movement coach, trauma-informed embodied resilience educator, and Jungian analyst in training. As an expert educator and mentor, internationally recognized speaker, author, and media consultant, Jane takes an interdisciplinary approach that goes beyond mindfulness, to enmesh each client’s physical condition with the psychological and emotional aspects of themselves. After more than two decades in the health industry—and through extensive personal and professional exploration—Jane has shaped a multifaceted practice that weaves together a variety of movement and therapeutic paradigms into a fluid yet practical and effective methodology. Riffing off of a biopsychosocial model, Jane considers the body and movement as some of the most powerful alchemic tools for shaping the mind and believes that, with enough support and resourcing, each of us has the power to free ourselves from the shackles of past struggles, traumas and health issues that limit both our recovery process and our potential to lead happy and bountiful lives. With training in a wide range of wellness modalities—including various strength and conditioning methodologies, master-level Reiki training, ELDOA Method, Tensegrity Touch Therapy, yoga, pre- and post-natal fitness and personal training, as well as Torture, Trauma Psychosocial Impact & Mental Health from the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture—Jane works to create safe spaces for people to show up, be seen and share their authentic, courageous selves in all their messy glory and complexity. 

Ryan Maher is a licensed and board certified psychotherapist in Seattle, WA and he is the creator of Inner World Therapy. He works with couples, adolescents and adults navigating life stressors, complex anxiety, depression and general un-fulfillment. Specific concerns often include relationships, identity, spirituality, grief, impulsive or compulsive patterns, sexuality and major life transitions. Ryan also specializes in working with adults who’ve experienced difficult childhoods, developmental trauma and sexual violence. He brings warmth, compassion and an affirming energy to the therapy process.

Nkem Ndefo is the founder of Lumos Transforms and the creator of the Resilience Toolkit. She is a skilled practitioner, dynamic speaker and valued strategist. Nkem is known for her unique ability to connect with people of all types by holding powerful healing spaces, weaving complex concepts into accessible narratives and creating synergistic and collaborative learning communities that nourish people’s innate capacity for healing, wellness and connection.

Module 8 – Transformative Perspectives on Healing, Justice and Self-Care

Margaret Howard works with a whole person approach, conscious thought, unconscious thought, and images, emotion, and body sensation, individual psyche and the person in their environment, home, family, work and all levels of community. She acknowledges and observes that systemic racism, misogyny and wealth inequality have profound impacts on communities and individuals and creates stress that causes anxiety, depression, PTSD and other difficulties and suffering. Margaret believes it is important to address those areas as well as what’s held in the body, and that the deeper self, the unconscious, is vital to our growth, integration, individuation and experience of life – as this is how our strongest, deepest innate healing systems are activated. It is Margaret’s approach that every person has innate healing capacities and wholeness within themselves, that everyone’s path is different, and that her job is to help people gain insight and confidence to access and activate their own healing.

Robyn Mourning is a healing alchemist, soul artist, and an intuitive boundary pusher. While Robyn received a Masters of Science in Marriage, Family and Child Counseling and became a trauma recovery specialist at her private mental health practice, she has since broken the mold that kept her in the status quo. As a spiritual healer, Robyn joins her clients as a co-healer in their trauma healing journey by offering ritual healing practices that harmonize ancient spiritual wisdom with modern approaches such as Oracle cards. Robyn also provides healership cultivation, coaching and consulting for therapists, healers and activists. She facilitates healing-oriented workshops, retreats and experiential gatherings. Robyn also facilitates Community Wellness trainings on various topics related to trauma, wellness, resilience and prevention. As a trauma survivor herself, Robyn is a fierce advocate for access, inclusivity and justice for marginalized individuals and communities in the mental health and wellness industries.

Course Facilitator

Molly Boeder Harris is the Founder and Executive Director of The Breathe Network, a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP), and a trauma-informed yoga teacher and trainer (E-RYT). Her own experiences of surviving sexual trauma catalyzed her to enter the trauma healing field in 2003, beginning with her work as a medical and legal advocate with children and adult survivors, a violence prevention educator, and later, as a yoga instructor specializing in working with survivors of sexual trauma. She holds a Master’s Degree in International Studies and a Master’s Certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies, which inform the way she holds individual and collective forms of trauma, oppression and healing close together in her work. Over the last 2 decades of her career and her ongoing healing trajectory, she has found that the practices that encompass the whole person – body, mind, and soul – while also attending to the ways in which both trauma and resilience can manifest physiologically, offer the greatest possibility for embodied justice and social change.