An African-Centered Perspective on Bilateral Stimulation and Healing


Presented by: Kellie Kirksey, Ph.D., LPCC-S & Jamie Marich, Ph.D., LPCC-S, LICDC-CS, REAT, RYT-500

September 18, 2026

9:00am-4:30pm EST


Course Description   

Join Dr. Kellie, Dr. Jamie, and special guest panelist, Rossina Schroeer-Santiago for this EMDRIA advanced topics course, offering participants a model for how therapists can better serve their BIPOC clients in trauma-focused care. The four healing arts of drumming, dancing, storytelling, and silence are the foundational practices in indigenous approaches to healing. This presentation specifically explores the rich tradition of drumming and dancing, both bilateral practices, in African cultures. Content is also delivered, with an experiential component, on storytelling and silence. Historical, anthropological, and psychological connections are explained, with numerous opportunities to connect personally with the material. Implications for EMDR therapists, specifically in our ever-evolving inquiry on mechanisms of action in EMDR therapy are discussed. Themes of empowerment for BIPOC clients are highlighted through cultural connection and attunement, specifically through the practice of self-tapping or personal drumming within EMDR therapy as options for BLS/DAS. Supporting BIPOC clients in exploring the connection to their indigenous origins, and the healing practices that accompany those origins, can be critical to the trauma recovery process. Participants will also have a chance to discuss the content in small breakout groups that challenge them to consider the role of the EMDR therapist as an agent of change in a diverse world. This day-long course is led by the teaching wisdom of Dr. Kellie Kirksey, an African American EMDR and expressive arts therapist with extensive training and personal practice in the healing traditions of Africa and India. EMDR therapy author/ trainer and expressive arts therapy trainer Dr. Jamie Marich joins to offer her commentary from an EMDR therapy perspective. The co-presentation components will offer participants a model for how therapists can better serve their BIPOC clients in trauma-focused care. This course is a live interactive webinar. This is an intermediate-level course. 

Attendance at all sessions and completion of the course evaluation is required to receive a CE certificate. 


Course Objectives   


  1. To identify and explain the four healing practices that have been identified as common threads in indigenous practices throughout the globe: Drumming, dancing, storytelling, silence
  2. To discuss the historical significance of drumming, dancing, storytelling, and silence in African and other indigenous cultures, specifically how teaching these practices and their origins to BIPOC clients can empower through cultural connection and attunement
  3. To summarize the current state of the literature on mechanisms of actions within EMDR therapy and the role of BLS/DAS, evaluating how the impact of movement and tactile stimulation may be downplayed in this research
  4. To instruct self-tapping for BLS/DAS in a way that is more responsive to client's needs and honors indigenous approaches to healing; also includes an introduction to the “body drumming” practice that can serve as a powerful approach in EMDR therapy Phases 2 & 7.
  5. To discuss barriers that EMDR therapists might have (specifically if they are white) in delivering this content and knowledge to BIPOC clients
  6. To explain the role that an EMDR therapist as an agent of change and social justice advocate in modern times, and articulate 2-3 concrete steps of action that one can take in the days following the training


Continuing Education   

The Institute for Creative Mindfulness is approved by the following organizations to offer 6 continuing education (CE) credits for this course:


State of Ohio Counselor, Social Worker, and Marriage and Family Therapist Board

The Institute for Creative Mindfulness is an approved provider of continuing education by the State of Ohio Counselor, Social Worker, and Marriage and Family Therapist Board for counselors, social workers, and marriage/family therapists. Approval: #RCS091306


National Board for Certified Counselors

The Institute for Creative Mindfulness has been approved by National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 6998. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Institute for Creative Mindfulness is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.


Association of Social Worker Boards

Institute for Creative Mindfulness, #1735, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. Institute for Creative Mindfulness maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 03/16/2021 – 03/16/2024. Social workers completing this course receive 21 continuing education credits.


EMDR International Association (EMDRIA) Approval Pending



About Your Instructors

Kellie Kirksey

Dr. Kellie began her career path in Holistic Wellness at a young age. She grew up in Cleveland, Ohio with parents who believed in cultivating conscious community and lived their truth. Through watching her parents engage in community activism, entertain, build businesses, create space in their home to serve and assist others, Dr. Kellie learned that health and happiness was cultivated through time spent with friends, dancing, singing, walks in nature, storytelling, quiet moments, herbal teas, adventures and holding on to the belief that anything was possible with belief and a try!Dr. Kellie founded Creative Wellness Solutions in 1989 after returning from a year in Caracas, Venezuela as a Rotary Scholar, studying cognitive psychology. It was there she reconnected with the healing power of nature, sound, drumming and movement. Upon her return she began working as a therapist with Cuban Refugees and completed her Master’s degree from The Ohio State University in Spanish and Rehabilitation Counseling. Her passion for teaching and consulting led to her pursuit of a Ph.D. in Psychology and Counselor Education also at The Ohio State University where she met her husband (Cesar Augustin, DDS). Dr. Kellie went on to become a tenured professor of counselor education at Malone University where she began her collaboration with Dr. Gerald Corey both editing and contributing to his books: The Case Approach to Counseling and Psychotherapy and Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy 10th edition.For those that know Dr. Kellie, they know she is a global traveler, speaker, poet, tree hugger, yoga teacher, holistic psychotherapist, family lover, drummer, dancer, spa promoter, heart centered hypnotherapist, live happily life consultant, essential oil enthusiast, wellness promoter and has presented workshops and wellness circles both nationally and internationally. Dr. Kellie believes in learning healing ways from other cultures and bringing those wise ways to the masses. A few places that have touched her life profoundly have been presentations and community building in Botswana, Johannesburg, Italy, Senegal, Spain, Mexico, Dominican Republic, India, Canada, Venezuela, Tenerife and most recently she actually took a vacation to Hong Kong and Thailand where she explored ecotherapy and moving meditation.

ICM Founder & Director Jamie Marich

Dr. Jamie Marich (she/they/we) began her career as a humanitarian aid worker in Bosnia-Hercegovina from 2000-2003, primarily teaching English and music. Jamie travels internationally teaching on topics related to trauma, EMDR therapy, expressive arts, mindfulness, and yoga, while maintaining a private practice and online education operations in her home base of Akron, OH. Marich is the founder of the Institute for Creative Mindfulness and the developer of the Dancing Mindfulness approach to expressive arts therapy. 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), Creative Mindfulness (2013), Trauma Made Simple: Competencies in Assessment, Treatment, and Working with Survivors, Dancing Mindfulness: A Creative Path to Healing and Transformation (2015), and Process Not Perfection: Expressive Arts Solutions for Trauma Recovery (2019). Marich co-authored EMDR Therapy & Mindfulness for Trauma-Focused Care along with colleague Dr. Stephen Dansiger in 2018, and their new book with Springer Publishing Healing Addiction with EMDR Therapy: A Trauma-Focused Guide released in 2021. North Atlantic Books published a revised and expanded edition of Trauma and the 12 Steps in the Summer of 2020, and they released The Healing Power of Jiu-Jitsu: A Guide to Transforming Trauma and Facilitating Recovery in 2022. Her latest release with North Atlantic Book, Dissociation Made Simple: A Stigma-Free Guide to Embracing Your Dissociative Mind and Navigating Life came out in January 2023. She has three more projects in the works with North Atlantic Books, including her personal memoir about surviving spiritual abuse called You Lied to Me About God, due out in Autumn 2024. The Huffington Post published her personal story of being out as a clinical professional with a dissociative disorder in May 2023. The New York Times featured Marich’s writing and work on Dancing Mindfulness in 2017 and 2020. 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. The EMDR International Association (EMDRIA) granted Jamie the 2019 Advocacy in EMDR Award for her using her public platform in media and in the addiction field to advance awareness about EMDR therapy and to reduce stigma around mental health. Jamie also sits on the editorial board of the EMDR Journal of Practice and Research, and she was the 2008 winner of the Poster Research Award at the EMDRIA Annual Conference.

Course Curriculum

    1. Course Description & Code of Conduct

    2. Course Objectives

      FREE PREVIEW

    3. Continuing Education

    4. Agenda

      FREE PREVIEW

    5. Course Materials

      FREE PREVIEW

    6. Zoom Logistics and Assistant's Information

    7. Course Materials: Zoom Settings for Quality Drum or Rattle Sound Over Telehealth

    8. More Information and Resources

    9. Land Acknowledgment

    1. Completing Your Course Evaluation and Downloading Your CE Certificate

    2. Check Out Form and Link to Course Evaluation

About this course

  • $135.00
  • 11 lessons
  • 0 hours of video content