Live 9am -5pm CT / 10am-6pm ET

Recording Available

13 CE Credits Available (6.5 CE credit per course) 

Bundle Includes:

Finding Solid Ground Groups

This is an Optional Specialty Training

We recommend that clinicians lead FSG groups only after gaining experience both working individually with trauma clients and leading trauma therapy groups. FSG groups are ideally conducted with two co-therapists. Clinicians who plan to run FSG groups for individuals with dissociative identity disorder (DID) should also have substantial experience treating DID in individual therapy using the FSG approach.


Finding Solid Ground (FSG) is a groundbreaking program that equips clients with complex trauma and dissociation to build self-understanding, safety, stability, and resilience. Research shows that FSG groups—delivered in outpatient and inpatient programs, both face-to-face and virtually—help participants learn to feel more present, regulate overwhelming emotions, strengthen self-compassion, and develop concrete strategies for managing their symptoms and triggers. Even clients struggling with suicidality, self-harm, or substance use benefit from this structured, supportive program.

Join Bethany Brand, Ruth Lanius, and Hygge Schielke as they teach how to lead FSG groups with confidence and care. 

Join Bethany Brand, Ruth Lanius, and Hygge Schielke for a 2-day immersive training that will teach you how to lead FSG groups with skill, confidence, and care.

During this training, participants will:

  • Learn how to teach the full  FSG program in group settings

  • Explore ways to adjust pacing for clients who need to move more slowly

  • Understand how to structure groups for success

  • Discover how to incorporate grounding practices into every session

  • Develop step-by-step strategies for guiding clients through progressively advanced stabilization skills

Experience lively, pragmatic role plays and small group practice sessions that will illustrate ways to manage common group challenges. 

You’ll leave each training with practical tools as well as feeling inspired and hopeful, with a clear roadmap for helping some of the most underserved clients in mental health care. 


Instructor(s)

Bethany Brand, Ph.D.

Dr. Brand is Emerita Psychology Professor at Towson University in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. She has over 30 years of experience in researching, assessing, and treating the impact of psychological trauma with a specialization in dissociation. Dr. Brand has been honored with the endowed Martha E. Mitten Professorship as well as teaching, research and clinical awards including the Outstanding Contribution to the Science of Trauma Psychology from the American Psychological Association. She is Associate Editor of the Journal of Trauma & Dissociation. Dr. Brand has served on national and international task forces that developed guidelines for the assessment and treatment of trauma-related disorders. She has published over 130 peer reviewed papers and three research-based books about assessing and treating dissociation, The Concise Guide to Assessing and Treating Trauma-Related Dissociation, Finding Solid Ground: Overcoming Obstacles in Trauma Treatment and The Finding Solid Ground Program Workbook. Dr. Brand is the Principal Investigator on the largest treatment outcome studies to date of dissociative disorders (the TOP DD studies). She has delivered hundreds of clinical and research presentations at national and international conferences. In addition to treating patients in her private practice, Dr. Brand serves as a forensic expert in trauma-related cases including state, federal and capital cases and an international Supreme Court case.

Ruth Lanius, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Lanius is a Psychiatry Professor and Harris-Woodman Chair at Western University of Canada, where she is the director of the Clinical Research Program for PTSD. Ruth has over 25 years of clinical and research experience with trauma-related disorders. She established the Traumatic Stress Service at London Health Sciences Center, a program that specializes in the treatment of psychological trauma. Ruth has received numerous research and teaching awards, including the Banting Award for Military Health Research. She has published over 200 research articles and book chapters focusing on brain adaptations to psychological trauma and novel adjunct treatments for PTSD. Ruth regularly lectures on the topic of psychological trauma both nationally and internationally. Ruth has co-authored four books: The Effects of Early Life Trauma on Health and Disease: The Hidden Epidemic, Healing the Traumatized Self: Consciousness, Neuroscience, Treatment, and Finding Solid Ground (textbook and workbook). Ruth is a passionate clinician scientist who endeavours to understand the first-person experience of traumatized individuals throughout treatment and how it relates to brain functioning.

Hygge Schielke, Ph.D.

Hygge Schielke, Ph.D. is the Trauma Services Development Lead for Homewood Health.  Dr. Schielke specializes in the assessment and treatment of trauma-related and dissociative disorders and the development of cultures that demonstrate trauma-informed collaboration.  Dr. Schielke's research is focused on improving understandings of how to be of meaningful help in each of these areas.