Transcript
Hi there, and welcome to Scaling Up Your Impact—the podcast for trauma-informed therapists who want to grow their skills, confidence, and reach—without burning out. I’m Kelly Smyth-Dent, founder of Scaling Up, and today we’re diving into a topic that sits at the intersection of clinical skill, community care, and systemic change: healing trauma in service members, veterans and military families—and how EMDR Therapy is playing a powerful role in that transformation.
Whether you’re already using EMDR, just getting trained, or simply curious about how to better support military-connected clients, this episode is for you.
Let’s start with the bigger picture.
We know that military service—while honorable and courageous—can come with serious psychological costs. Veterans and active duty personnel experience trauma at rates far exceeding the general population. And this trauma doesn’t just disappear when someone returns home. In fact, for many, that’s when it intensifies.
We’re talking about post-traumatic stress, military sexual trauma, moral injury, traumatic grief, and chronic stress from deployments, reassignments, or reintegration into civilian life. These challenges don’t exist in a vacuum—they ripple out to impact spouses, children, entire family systems.
And yet, many veterans and their families face major barriers to accessing mental health support:
- Long waitlists in the VA system
- Mistrust of traditional therapy
- Financial limitations or insurance gaps
- A stigma around seeking help in the first place
So what happens? Trauma festers. Relationships strain. Substance use rises. Suicidality increases.
This is a population with urgent needs—and we, as clinicians, have a profound opportunity to show up differently.
That’s where EMDR Therapy comes in. And that’s why this Arizona-based initiative is so important.
If you’ve been in the trauma world for a while, you’ve likely heard about EMDR—or maybe you’re already using it in your practice. But let’s slow down and really talk about what makes EMDR different.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is not just another modality. It’s a structured, research-backed approach to trauma therapy that allows clients to access, reprocess, and resolve disturbing memories—without needing to talk about them in detail session after session.
And that matters—especially with military clients. Many veterans don’t want to rehash their experiences verbally. They may feel shame, guilt, or fear that sharing their trauma will burden others or be misunderstood. EMDR offers them a path to healing that honors their boundaries, while still doing deep, transformative work.
From the clinician side, here’s why EMDR is so powerful:
- It provides a clear protocol to follow, which increases confidence—especially with complex trauma.
- It works more efficiently than many traditional talk therapies. We’re often seeing faster symptom relief.
- It’s adaptable—whether you’re working with combat trauma, childhood abuse, grief, or dissociation.
For military-connected clients, EMDR can help reduce flashbacks, nightmares, hypervigilance, and emotional numbness. But more importantly, it restores a sense of agency. It reconnects them to their lives, their relationships, and their sense of meaning.
And let’s not forget: when a veteran heals, the ripple effect on their partner, children, and community is enormous.
This brings us to one of the most exciting things we’ve been a part of here at Scaling Up: our fully funded EMDR Basic Training program in Arizona.
Thanks to a generous grant from the Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services, we’ve been able to offer comprehensive EMDRIA-approved Basic Training—for free—to over 400 mental health professionals who are licensed in Arizona and working with veterans, active duty personnel, or military families.
And we’re not just talking about a training that checks the box. This is a robust program that includes:
- Live, interactive instruction delivered virtually (so it’s accessible statewide)
- 10 hours of group consultation led by experienced facilitators
- A trauma-informed learning environment where questions are welcome and lived experience is honored
- Optional follow-up support through our community, The Scaling Up Collective
We also offer scholarships, payment plans, and group discounts across other trainings we offer—because we believe deeply that cost should never be the barrier that keeps a good therapist from becoming a great one.
This program isn’t just about helping clinicians—it’s about building a trauma-informed workforce across the state of Arizona. It’s about ensuring that no veteran or military family slips through the cracks because their therapist didn’t have the right tools.
So who exactly is this training for?
Maybe you’re already seeing veterans in your private practice but haven’t had formal EMDR training.
Maybe you’re working in a community mental health setting, a school, a shelter, or a VA-adjacent organization.
Maybe you’re a military spouse, a veteran yourself, or someone who feels deeply connected to this work on a personal level.
You don’t need to be working exclusively with military populations to benefit from this training. Trauma is trauma. And EMDR equips you to show up for it—with structure, flexibility, and confidence.
This training will give you the clinical foundation to safely begin EMDR—and the community to grow your skills as you go. And for the clients you serve? This can be life-changing. Sometimes even life-saving.
If you’re a licensed or pre-licensed therapist in Arizona working with veterans or military families, we’d love for you to be part of this movement.
Visit scalingupemdr.com to learn more and apply. Space is limited, but the impact you’ll make with this training? That’s unlimited.
And if you’re tuning in from outside Arizona—don’t worry, we’ve got more free content, trainings, and resources coming your way. Subscribe to the podcast and stay connected at scalingupemdr.com.
Thank you for being here—and thank you for being part of this movement to scale up your impact, one client, one training, one healing conversation at a time.
See you next time.