Workshop Details

Location: Villa Maria Education and Spirituality Center

2067 Evergreen Rd, Pulaski, PA 16143

Room: Mother Madeline

May 1, 2026, 8:30am-4:30pm

Lunch Included


Please note: This is the registration for the workshop only as a stand-alone event. If you are interesting in attending the retreat and adding this workshop on, please register HERE.

Description

This workshop offers the opportunity to explore and experience how humor and laughter can aid healing within the framework of EMDR therapy. Based on the AIP model, this training will analyze how humor and play can help clients feel more secure and connected during the therapeutic process. Interventions for using humor in phases 1, 2, and 7 of EMDR therapy will be discussed. Evidence of the relationship between humor and the nervous system will be presented, along with how it helps clients control their emotions and strengthens the therapeutic relationship. When and how to use humor in an ethical and trauma-informed manner will be discussed. 


Instructors

ICM Faculty Irene Rodriguez

Irene M. Rodriguez, M.S., LMHC, REAT is the founder and director of Mindful Journey Center. She is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Registered Expressive Arts Therapist (REAT) with a Master of Science in Mental Health Counseling from Nova Southeastern University. She is an EMDRIA approved consultant and faculty of the Institute for Creative Mindfulness. She is also Certified Laughter Yoga Facilitator, Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR) Facilitator/Trainer and certified Dancing Mindfulness Facilitator/Trainer affiliated to The Institute for Creative Mindfulness. Irene has a private office in Fort Lauderdale, Florida where she has been treating adults and children. She specialized in trauma-related disorders, PTSD, and addiction. She enjoys teaching clinicians how to incorporate EMDR therapy, Mindfulness, and Expressive Arts therapy in the services they provide to their clients.

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.

Training Eligibility

Anyone who works with the public in any way is eligible to take this training. However, we can only offer continuing education credits to those who have an eligible clinical degree. EMDRIA credits can only be offered if you chose the EMDR-specific breakout groups during the training facilitated by our course discussant, Dr. Jamie Marich.

Continuing Education    

This is a live in-person workshop. This is a beginner-level course. Attendance at all sessions, and course evaluation is required to receive CE Certificate. Course evaluations are made available after all sessions have been completed within this course portal. Upon completing the evaluation, participants will automatically receive their certificate via the email used to create their Thinkific account. If the certificate is not received within 24 hours, please contact [email protected] 

Attendance at the workshop over the entire day is required to receive CEs. This course is approved for 6 CE credit hours by the following:

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: 3/16/24-3/16/27. Social workers completing this course receive 44 general continuing education credits.

This course is APPROVED by the EMDR International Association (EMDRIA)

The Institute for Creative Mindfulness is an approved training provider in EMDR Therapy by the EMDR International Association (EMDRIA) Approval: #10002. EMDRIA is not a provider of continuing education, although they do authorize training providers in EMDR therapy after a rigorous approval process. The EMDRIA approval number for this course is #10002-173.