Wisconsin Nonprofit Funds EMDR Training to Develop Trauma Services for First Responders

Later this week, a group of therapists will reconvene with Connect Trainer Reg Morrow Robinson in Washburn, Wisconsin for Part Two of their EMDRIA-Approved EMDR Training.

What’s special about this training is that it has been initiated and funded by The Auxilia Initiative — a local nonprofit whose mission to develop free, evidence-based trauma treatment for local Firefighters and other First Responders. Connect Director Claire Mauer recently sat down to talk with Auxilia Initiative Founder and Board President Brittany Kuka, a Licensed Professional Counselor with a big heart and even bigger vision. Want to help? Consider donating to Auxilia Initiative. 

Auxilia Initiative Founder Brittany Kuka with Outreach Coordinator Cara Croteau

Claire:

Hi, Brittany. I’m so happy to have you here today to talk about this project we’re collaborating on together.  I would love it if you could just share a little bit about what the Auxilia Initiative is and what your mission is.

Brittany:

So the Auxilia Initiative is a nonprofit. We’re pretty new, almost two years old, and we have a couple of different goals.

One of our first goals is to provide early intervention for first responders after a crisis. That’s kind of our main goal.

Our second goal is to provide early intervention for community members. We’re not quite there yet, but we are working on it.

And our third goal is to provide EMDR training to therapists in our community.

And these are all goals that we share and are really happy to have had this opportunity to bring an EMDRIA Approved EMDR training to Washburn, Wisconsin.

Claire:

So can you, can you talk a little bit about the backstory of how, what sparked this passion for you? Because this has really been a labor of love, I think.

Brittany:

Yeah, it’s been a long journey, but it really started a couple of years before Auxilia was officially formed. Our community was struggling to have enough emergency responders. We’re in a rural area, we’re at the tippy top of Northern Wisconsin, and most of our emergency respondersare volunteer and there’s a lot of burnout. A lot of our emergency responders are older because the the newer, younger generation just wasn’t coming in to take their place.

And when I kind of looked around and saw what was happening, I knew that I I couldn’t do that job, but I looked and said “What can I do?” And so that’s when I started looking at RTEP-GTEP training. I was already EMDR trained.

And so I actually took  an RTEP-GTEP training with Reg and met with our county’s emergency management and talked about doing groups with first responders.

Claire:

That’s incredible. So you saw a need and got the tools to help in the way that you could help best. But that additional piece of not just getting the training, but doing the education of the first responders to let them know about this tool, did you find that easy? Were they really accepting of that at first?

Brittany:

Yeah, I like to joke that first responders are kind of tricky. And I think maybe I have a little bit of permission to say this because my mom was a first responder, I grew up around a lot of first responders, but first responders are stubborn.

So this is a hard population sometimes to get in with. And so it’s a challenge. The more we have built trust and people have attended our groups, and sometimes even now we’ve expanded to individual sessions, I think we are building trust, but it has been a challenge for sure.

Claire:

So just to clarify, you are treating first responders, you’re seeing firefighters in groups. You’re doing GTEP, Group Traumatic Episode Protocol with firefighters in the community. Can you share the types of incidents that might bring them in or that the groups have worked on? Are they all working on the same incident or are people working on whatever might be burdening them at a particular time?

Brittany:

Yeah, so we hold monthly sessions. It’s the same day of the month, every single month, and it’s open to all first responders in our community. And then we also are open to people scheduling a group session as needed. And we’re also offering individual RTEP for people who aren’t open to a group, who might feel like they need an individual session. And so that means people are working on different things in the group, they’re not all coming for the same thing.

Some of the things that we have been called for or that we see people coming in for are things like really intense car accidents that people have been on the scene for, first time fatalities, people who witnessed a fatality for the first time, or even just things that for them are just hitting personally.

Maybe it wasn’t so bad for the rest of the people who responded, but for them, it’s just hitting something because of their own experience and they need to process it. That’s what we’re seeing people come in for.

Claire:

Are you feeling like people are finding it helpful?

Brittany:

Yeah, Yeah absolutely.

Claire:

What kind of feedback do you get that lets you know that?

Brittany:

Well, we’re getting a lot of return customers. And we’re also getting people who…we’ve heard the term “guinea pig.” So we have people come in and say, “well, I’m the guinea pig — I came in and I told the rest of the people in my department, I would try it out. And if it turns out that it works, then they have to come too.” And then they go back and say:  “it worked! You have to come now.”

Claire:

I guess the proof is in the pudding with that. They’re testing it and that’s how it’s sort of rippling out throughout the community. And then I love that you’re offering the individual sessions for people who may need more. And you are a nonprofit, is that right?

Brittany:

Yes.

Claire:

Okay. So is this all free?

Brittany:

Yeah. All of our services are free and all of our therapists are volunteering their time.

Claire:

That’s incredible. How do therapists get connected with you to participate in this?

Brittany:

A lot of it is word of mouth or recruiting. They can also go to our website and click a volunteer application. But a lot of it is just, this is a small community. And so we’re reaching out to therapists that that are working in this community and saying, “Hey, do you wanna be part of this? Can you volunteer two hours every quarter? What could you give to to help out?” And our goal is that eventually our whole community will kind of be wrapped around in this early intervention.

Claire:

When I think about the impact that could make, not just after an incident, but in preventing the onset of all the different kinds of symptoms that can occur after long-term exposure, these things that these folks professionally are dealing with all the time, impact that has on families, partners, kids, on ability to stay compassionate and open in the work that they do and longevity for them in their careers — and the impact that in turn will give back to the community.

It’s pretty powerful. It also sounds like you make it really easy for therapists to volunteer.

Brittany:

It’s not a huge time commitment.

Claire:

And you’re also providing training, is that right?

Brittany:

Yeah. We were really fortunate to get a grant that allows us to pay for basic EMDR training and eventually for folks who do complete their EMDR training, then to get RTEP and GTEP training as well, which is the intervention that we’re using in our nonprofit.

Claire:

Did I hear that right? You’re actually got a grant and you are paying for people’s whole EMDR basic training?

Brittany:

Yes.

Claire:

Okay. Well, I actually knew that because of our partnership! I just think it’s worth repeating. That’s just so incredible because the training is a big investment. And can you just share a little bit of the details about the training that you’re hosting in Washburn?

Brittany:

I’ll share the dates: May 2nd through 4th and June 20th through 22^nd.

And we’re really excited because Reg Morrow Robinson is our Trainer and I had great fortune of taking her RTEP-GTEP training. And I think she’s a fantastic trainer. This training is in Washburn, Wisconsin. And for people who aren’t familiar with that, we are right on the Chequamegon Bay of Lake Superior. It’s beautiful in the summer.

Claire:

So you’re hosting and you interviewed and awarded these scholarships in your community, but you have opened the training to any clinician who wants to get EMDR basic trained, which is really generous of you to open your doors to the broader community as well.

Brittany:

Yes, we’re very, very excited to be collaborating on that.

Claire:

And you mentioned there’s like a potential second collaboration in the works with the Red Cliff Reservation?

Brittany:

Yeah. We have on both sides of our community, and part of our community is two different tribal reservations, Red Cliff and Bad River. And Red Cliff Behavioral Health has been really, really interested in collaborating because they see the benefit of EMDR. They really see the the way that trauma has impacted their community.

So we’re really hoping eventually, like I said before, that this can be a huge, like a whole community-wide effort, but we’re really excited that we already have kind of started that with the Red Cliff community and their behavioral health center, because this can have that ripple effect, whether it’s with first responders or community members to just start tackling the trauma that we know exists in our communities.

Claire:

That’s beautiful.

Brittany:

I’m really, really excited about this training.

Claire:

I’ve loved working with you and Auxilia’s Outreach Coordinator Cara Croteau, who’s also been so instrumental in helping get the word out about Auxilia and making this training happen. It’s been delightful to work with you both so far. You’re about to reconvene for Part Two of the training and I hope we can get that ripple effect going and spreading even further very soon!

Brittany:

Yes, thank you so much!