Arizona VA grant provides free EMDR trauma therapy training to help veterans

The Arizona Department of Veterans Services is funding training on a kind of therapy for over 450 licensed mental health professionals who work with military personnel.

Kelly Smyth-Dent a licensed clinical social worker with Scaling Up, which provides training for mental health therapists.

“EMDR stands for eye movement, desensitization, and reprocessing,” she said. “I would explain it as a trauma therapy intervention that helps the brain to process and heal from disturbing memories.”

Like fighting in a warzone.

Smyth-Dent said the goal is to expand EMDR therapy for veterans, military members and their families.

“They’re basically trying to create a bigger network of competently trained therapists who can work with that population effectively. So, they've given a generous amount of funding to provide that for free for therapists.”

So far grant funding for this training appears to be secured. She said these virtual trainings typically cost around $1000 per person.

“That's part of the reason that all of these EMDR basic trainings are so expensive is because there's a lot of staff that comes along with creating this high-quality training, and people leave feeling really competent and ready to start using EMDR immediately after the training,” Smyth-Dent said.

These virtual trainings are set to start in August.