Blogs and Free Resources
Here at PESI, our mission is to provide professionals like you with FREE practical and valuable tools, strategies,
and resources to assist with the great work you do. Find expert tips, helpful worksheets, demonstration videos, CE, news,
and more here. Happy learning!
Enhancing Self-Regulation Through Play Therapy
Free trauma-informed play therapy demonstration & worksheets
Many children with big behaviors need help learning how to regulate themselves more quickly or more effectively. PESI author Paris Goodyear-Brown provides a simple sensory-soothing activity that can be particularly helpful for children who struggle to close their eyes and relax.
EMDR Therapy and Dissociative Disorders
EMDR has been popularized due its success with PTSD patients – yet, it also has proven successes treating patients with Dissociative Disorder.
What is Medical Trauma?
Definition & special considerations from a medical trauma expert
The impacts of medical trauma are as broad as they are misunderstood. Medical trauma expert Dr. Sacha McBain provides an overview of how a medical crisis can lead to a unique presentation of PTSD.
Excavating Hard Things
Free trauma-informed play therapy intervention
When a child is experiencing the intrusive or avoidance symptoms of PTSD, building a coherent narrative becomes essential to treatment. Paris Goodyear-Brown, MSSW, LCSW, RPT-S, demonstrates an exercise designed to help children verbalize their big emotions.
10 Ways to Improve Mood with Food
Integrative strategies to reduce trauma symptomatology
Dr. Leslie Korn believes that nutritional therapy is the most important missing piece in trauma treatment today. In this blog, she shares 10 lifestyle changes that will help clients improve their mood... and the symptoms of their trauma.
5 Tips to Prevent & Minimize the Impact of Bullying
Expert advice from therapists, moms, and children's book authors
PESI authors Christina Furnival and Andrea Dorn share their five strategies to help children develop social-emotional skills, recognize unhealthy friendships, and set boundaries with their peers.
Re-Thinking Borderline Personality Disorder
Janina Fisher, PhD, shares 6 key insights
A trauma perspective opens up new ways of working with clients with BPD, helping us understand their challenging behaviors as consequences of being traumatized and fragmented. Janina Fisher shares her clinical wisdom and insight on reaching these clients.
Reduce Anxiety with Self-Havening Touch & Breathwork
A powerful partnership for calming the brain and body
Havening Techniques are a new suite of neuroscience-based interventions designed for fast and effective treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder and other fear-based disorders such as anxiety, panic disorder, and phobias. Dr. Kate Truitt demonstrates a simple but powerful exercise that clients can use whenever they are experiencing distress.
What ‘Encanto’ Can Teach Clinicians About Intergenerational Trauma
Reflections on the popular Disney film & strategies for working with clients
Dr. Charissa Pizarro reflects on how 'Encanto' captures the experience of many immigrants and refugees, as well as provides strategies for clinicians to begin to address their clients' intergenerational trauma.
Using EMDR Therapy to Treat Eating Disorders
Can EMDR be used to treat eating disorders? EMDR is a common treatment for PTSD – however, research shows that many eating disorders may stem from underlying trauma.