October 9, 2026
Live Webinar
Course Description: Advanced training exploring culturally responsive applications of EMDR therapy with diverse populations, including individuals affected by racial trauma, systemic discrimination, and gender minority stress. Examines current research, culturally informed adaptations, and practical strategies that enhance assessment, treatment planning, and therapeutic effectiveness while maintaining fidelity to the EMDR model. Emerging literature suggests a consensus that EMDR is promising in diverse populations; however, the significant need for EMDR culturally informed clinical practice and research within underrepresented groups remains largely unmet within EMDR studies (Fathya et al., 2025; Maddock et al., 2021; Thompson, 2024). EMDR clinicians increasingly encounter two related challenges when working with diverse populations: addressing traumatic experiences that arise from discrimination, minority stress, and identity-based harm, and adapting treatment to align with the cultural contexts through which clients understand themselves and their experiences. This presentation examines culturally responsive applications of EMDR therapy with particular attention to racial trauma, systemic discrimination across marginalized groups, and the experiences of transgender and nonbinary clients. Presenters will provide a review of EMDR research on diverse populations, focusing on efficacy of the standard protocol and cultural adaptations.
Participants will be able to identify the various types of trauma that may emerge from singular or cumulative experiences of exclusion, devaluation, and systemic inequity and may require specialized assessment and treatment considerations (Bartlett et al., 2022; Thompson, 2024). Drawing from emerging literature and clinical practice, attendees will learn phase-specific adaptations that support culturally responsive treatment while maintaining fidelity to the EMDR model, including practical approaches for identifying strengths, resilience, and cultural resources that support healing from oppression-related trauma (Cénat, 2023; DiNardo & Marotta-Walters, 2019).
The presentation will also examine affirmative adaptations of EMDR therapy for transgender and
nonbinary clients. Participants will learn how gender minority stress, chronic invalidation, family rejection, and gender dysphoria present opportunities for trauma processing and treatment planning, as well as ways to modify EMDR interventions to strengthen safety, affirmation, and engagement throughout therapy (Chang, 2022; Austin, 2026). Participants will gain an expanded framework for understanding how culture, identity, and lived experience influence both the presentation of trauma and the delivery of EMDR therapy.
Presenter Bios:
Jonna Fries, PsyD, and taught Integrative Body Psychotherapy for 12 years before she began seeking a more efficient method to heal clients suffering from trauma. Her EMDR journey launched in 2012 with Curt Rouanzoin as her trainer. Fascinated by EMDR therapy’s elegance and efficacy, she strove to become a skilled EMDR practitioner and continues to devote herself to learning and teaching EMDR for EMDR Professional Training and for Trauma Recovery/EMDR Humanitarian Assistance Programs (HAP). As an EMDRIA Certified Therapist, EMDRIA Approved Consultant, and EMDRIA Approved Trainer, Jonna brings experience and knowledge to her EMDR therapy work, acquired through her doctoral emphases in systems and diversity, experience as an instructor of over 70 courses for The Chicago School of Professional Psychology’s Clinical Forensic Program, leadership as the past director of Counseling and Psychological Services at California State University, Los Angeles, provision of psychotherapy services to university students since 2008, ongoing consultation to eating disorder professionals, textbook authorship on the treatment of eating disorders, and extensive group and couples work. In her Mid-Wilshire Los Angeles private practice, Jonna specializes in trauma, eating disorders, and couples.
Ginger Klee, LMFT, LPCC (they/them) is a genderqueer, multiethnic Korean, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, and Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor, with their own private practice in Orange County, California. They specialize in working with trauma, C-PTSD, identity exploration, neurodivergence, and acculturative stress. Ginger predominantly works with the queer, trans, Black, Indigenous, People of Color, and neurodivergent communities. Ginger works with adolescents, adults, and families. Due to their passion for serving communities that experience systemic oppression and harm, Ginger utilizes both EMDR and Feminist therapy techniques. They became EMDR trained in 2015 through EMDR HAP and have been devotedly practicing EMDR therapy ever since. Ginger is also an adjunct psychology professor, teaching about the intersectionality of gender, sex, sexuality, and ethnicity at Mt. San Antonio College. Additionally, Ginger has taken their intersectional mental health advocacy and education nationally, presenting talks and speaking on panels for various organizations and institutions.
Ruqayyah Kian, LMFT, is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and the owner and clinical director of Kian Mental Health, a group practice serving clients throughout California. She provides EMDR therapy to adolescents and adults and supervises associate marriage and family therapists and has been an EMDRIA-Certified Therapist since 2022. Her clinical background spans outpatient, residential, and child welfare settings: she served as Clinical Director of Laguna Treatment Hospital, an American Addiction Centers facility, where she oversaw clinical operations, quality assurance, and regulatory compliance, and she previously worked as a children’s social worker with the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services and as a clinician in adolescent residential treatment. A former SAMHSA/AAMFT Minority Fellow, she has served on the Scholarship Committee at EMDR Professional Training since 2022.
Timeline:
8:45-9:00PDT Checkin
9:00-10:30am | 90 minutes | Introduction to the course Forms of trauma associated with discrimination, minority stress, systemic inequity, and identity-based harm that require culturally informed assessment and treatment considerations.
10:30-10:45am | 10 min | Break
10:45am-12:15pm | 90 minutes | Current evidence on the effectiveness of EMDR therapy with diverse populations and describe phase-specific cultural adaptations that maintain fidelity to the standard EMDR protocol. Culturally responsive and affirmative EMDR treatment adaptations that can enhance safety, engagement, resilience, and treatment planning for clients from marginalized communities, including transgender and nonbinary individuals.
Learning Objectives:
Upon completion of the training, participants will:
1. Identify at least three forms of trauma associated with discrimination, minority stress, systemic inequity, and identity-based harm that require culturally informed assessment and treatment considerations.
2. Summarize current research on the effectiveness of EMDR therapy with diverse populations and describe phase-specific cultural adaptations that maintain fidelity to the standard EMDR protocol.
3. Explain how culturally responsive and affirmative EMDR treatment adaptations can enhance safety, engagement, resilience, and treatment planning for clients from marginalized communities, including transgender and nonbinary individuals.
To register for this live workshop please visit: EMDR Diversity Update
This course is Interactive.
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