Trauma, Dissociation, and Ethical Practice

Have You Experienced This?

You're in a session, or a coaching call or healing appointment, or even running a group clearing. And something shifts. Your client goes quiet in a way that feels different. Or they speak in a voice that doesn't quite match the person you've been working with. Or they say something that stops you cold because it's completely outside the context of what you thought you knew about the client. And you realize: whatever is happening right now, you aren't so sure you were trained for this.

You do your best. You stay present. You don't panic. But afterward, you wonder: Did I help? Did I cause it? Did I make things harder? What am I missing here? What should I have done differently?

If you have ever sat with that question, this course was built for you … because you are not alone.

A client seems to "leave the room," sometimes literally, sometimes figuratively, mid-session, and you didn't know whether to follow or wait.

Your client seems suddenly unfamiliar, like it's their twin sibling, or they have limited memory of prior work done together.

The client's healing journey seems to plateau in ways that don't fit the patterns you're trained to recognize.

You've felt uncertain whether something that came up in a session was within your scope to address.

You've wanted to understand more — but existing trainings felt either too clinical or not rigorous enough.

You've wondered whether your holistic or energetic work could genuinely help clients with trauma — or whether it might inadvertently destabilize them.

The Gap Most Practitioners Don't Talk About

Dissociation in its many forms is far more common than most training programs acknowledge. Practitioners across every healing modality encounter it regularly. But most navigate it alone, without language, without a map, and without knowing whether what they're doing is helping or harming.

Energy workers, somatic therapists, coaches, spiritual directors, shamans, eastern practitioners, and integrative clinicians all encounter dissociation — regularly.

Most practitioners navigate it alone, unsure of what they are witnessing, without language or a map.

You care deeply about doing no harm … and that care sometimes makes you hesitant when presence is what's needed.

You've wanted to understand more, but existing trainings felt either too clinical or not rigorous enough.

The problem is not that you lack compassion or skill. The problem is that almost no training designed for holistic and integrative practitioners addresses dissociation honestly, practically, and within a clear ethical framework. Until now.

Some Things Arrive At Exactly The Right Moment

This course exists because of a relationship, a revelation, and what felt like more than coincidence.

Michele and Ian had worked together professionally before Ian came to understand something profound about himself: that he has DID and lives life as a functional plural system. When Ian reached back out to reconnect and share what he had discovered, Michele's response stopped him in his tracks.

"This must be divine timing," she said. She had been thinking about creating exactly this course, and had been praying to find someone with lived experience of DID who she could build it with.

She had been waiting for the right person. And here he was.

Michele Yarberry, LPC

Psychotherapist · Energy Worker · Specialist in Dissociative Disorders

For years, Michele witnessed the gap between what holistic practitioners needed to know and what was actually being taught. She had the clinical framework and the energy work background. What she needed was a collaborator who could speak from the inside … someone whose experience of living as a plural system would give practitioners something no textbook ever could: a genuine interior map.

Ian Foster, Esq.

Attorney · Specialist in Healing Law & Ethics · Living Plural System

Ian's legal practice is dedicated to helping clinicians and holistic practitioners operate legally and ethically. He already creates the legal and ethical content that leading practitioner organizations distribute to their communities. His lived experience gives participants something no clinical text can offer: a genuine understanding of what it is like to be a plural system navigating a healing journey not designed with that in mind.

What you find in this course is not a clinical expert and a case study. It is two professionals, each bringing something the other cannot, who created this together because they believe the field needs it — and because it felt like it was always meant to happen.

What This Course Is — And What It Is Not

We want to be direct with you, because we believe clarity is a form of respect. This course is designed for a specific kind of practitioner doing a specific kind of work. Please read this carefully before enrolling.

This Course IS

A framework for recognizing dissociation in your practice

Ethical and practical guidance for non-clinical practitioners

Training in trauma-informed presence and grounded response

A clear map of what helping — and not over-helping — looks like

Legal and ethical context for working within your scope

Appropriate for holistic, somatic, energy, coaching, spiritual, and integrative practitioners — and licensed clinicians who also practice complementary modalities

This Course is NOT

Certification to diagnose or treat dissociative disorders

Clinical supervision for licensed caseloads

A replacement for trauma therapy training

Designed for practitioners seeking to work outside their scope

Sensationalized or pathologizing in its approach to dissociation

A course about "fixing" anyone — clients or systems

The Curriculum

Each instructional session runs four hours. The curriculum moves from foundational understanding through practical application to ethical integration.

7

Instructional Modules

28

Hours Instruction

6

Consultation Sessions

40

Total Contact Hours

1

Trauma, Safety, and the Healing Relationship

This is where we uncover foundational concepts in trauma and dissociation. We'll discuss what safety actually means in a therapeutic or healing context, and how the practitioner relationship either supports or undermines it.

2

Understanding Dissociative Systems

Let's talk about what dissociation in its various forms actually is … and what it is not. Together we'll learn how dissociative systems form, how they function, and most importantly how they experience the world. Ian shares his perspective on what it's like living as a functional plural system in a world that wasn't built for that framework.

3

Creating Safety and Stability

We'll start learning and implementing practical skills for establishing and maintaining safety with dissociative clients. Importantly, we'll talk about how to recognize dissociation, respond with groundedness, hold a space, and know when to refer.

4

Supporting Healing Through Trauma Activation

This is critical: together we'll understand what happens when trauma activates in a dissociative person in session. Let's discuss how holistic, spiritual, and somatic modalities interact with dissociative processes … including where they can help and where to hold back.

5

Internal Connection, Cooperation, and Healing

This week is about the all-important issue of how plural systems experience internal relationships among several identities sharing one body. We'll cover the role of cooperation and teamwork within a dissociative system, and how practitioners can support rather than disrupt that process.

6

Life Beyond Survival

Your dissociative clients don't just want to survive … they want to build lives worth living, just like anybody. So we'll cover what flourishing looks like for dissociative systems, and how you can support clients in building lives that are not organized entirely around managing symptoms.

7

Reflection, Ethics, and Continuing the Journey

Let's bring everything together … the legal and ethical architecture of working with dissociative clients across practice settings … how to continue growing in this work responsibly … and what comes next.

Consultation Sessions for Full Program Participants

Following the first six Instructional Modules, there will be a separate two-hour consultation and integration session. These sessions are where real questions surface, where cases are discussed within ethical limits, and where the material meets your actual practice. If you choose to join the Full Program, you'll get access to these sessions with Michele and Ian participate in some of the deepest learning.

Two Kinds Of Knowing, Held Together

What makes this course structurally different is not simply that the instructors are excellent. It is that they bring three forms of expertise — clinical authority, lived experience, and specialized legal and ethical guidance — that no single person and no other collaboration currently offers together.

Michele Yarberry, LPC, NCC, RPT, BCP3

Psychotherapist · Energy Worker · Complex Trauma Specialist · Dissociative Disorders Specialist

Michele is a psychotherapist specializing in dissociative disorders, with substantial training and experience in energy work and integrative healing modalities. She has spent her career building bridges between clinical rigor and the broader healing landscape. She understands that the practitioners her clients work with outside the therapy room are part of the healing ecosystem, and that they deserve real preparation.

She created this course because she kept seeing the same gap: holistic and integrative practitioners with genuine skill and deep compassion, navigating dissociation without a map. She had the framework. She needed the right collaborator to bring the interior truth.

Licensed Professional Counselor Dissociative Disorders Specialist Energy Work Training Integrative Practice

Ian Foster, Esq.

Attorney · Business Coach for Practitioners · Energy Worker · Person with DID — Functional Plural System

Ian is an attorney and business coach whose practice is dedicated to serving mental health clinicians and holistic healing practitioners. As an energy healer himself, Ian has the knowledge to help them build, grow, and operate legally and ethically. He is the creator of legal and ethical educational content currently distributed by leading practitioner organizations.

Ian also has Dissociative Identity Disorder and lives life as a functional plural system. His presence in this course is not a token inclusion … his lived experience gives participants something no clinical text can offer: a genuine understanding of what it is like to be a plural system navigating a world that was not designed for people with multiple internal identities. When the course addresses scope of practice, legal liability, or ethical decision-making, Ian speaks not only from lived experience but as the professional this audience would hire to answer exactly those questions.

Attorney at Law Healing Law & Ethics Energy Worker DID — Functional Plural System

What You Receive

7 Live Instructional Sessions

Four hours each with Michele and Ian, meeting every other Friday beginning August 28. Sessions run on Zoom. Full recordings and printable slides included.

6 Consultation & Integration Sessions

For full program participants only. Two hours each, following Weeks 2–7. Small-group access to both Michele and Ian for real-world practice questions.

40 Hours Total Live Contact

For full program participants — under $63/hour for a dissociative disorders specialist, energy worker, and legal/ethical expert, in a cohort of no more than 20.

Session Recordings & Materials

All seven instructional sessions are recorded and accessible to you. Supporting materials, printable slides, frameworks, and reference resources accompany each week.

Founding Cohort Recognition

Participants are acknowledged as the founding cohort — the practitioners who helped shape a course that will serve this field going forward.

Priority Future Enrollment

Full program participants receive priority enrollment in future courses at a rate that reflects your contribution to this first cohort.

At the founder rate, 40 hours of expert-led live contact comes out to under $63 per hour — for a veteran clinician and energy worker who is a dissociative disorders specialist, plus a legal and ethical expert whose practice serves this exact audience and who has lived DID experience — in a cohort of no more than 20 to ensure an intimate atmosphere.

Join The First Cohort

This is the first time this course has been offered. The founder rate rewards the practitioners willing to help build something that will serve this field for many years to come. Maximum 20 participants.

Option 01

Course Only
Core Program

$1,997

7 sessions · 28 hours of live instruction

7 live Friday sessions (4 hours each)
Full session recordings & printable slides
Weekly materials and frameworks
Cohort access with Michele & Ian
Founding cohort recognition

Enroll — Course Only

Payment plan available on request

Most Complete

Option 02

Full Program
Course + Consultations

$2,497 $3,497

Founder Discount — Save $1,000

7 live Friday sessions (4 hours each)
6 post-session consultation sessions (2 hours each)
Full session recordings & weekly materials
Direct small-group access to Michele & Ian
Founding cohort recognition
Priority enrollment for future programs
Your feedback shapes what comes next

Enroll — Full Program Or 3 Payments of $867

A note on accessibility: We are committed to this work reaching the practitioners who need it. If the investment is a genuine barrier and you are deeply called to this course, please reach out before assuming it is not possible. We will do what we can.

This course qualifies as professional development and generally would be deductible as a business expense (consult your tax advisor).

Before You Decide

I am not a licensed therapist. Is this course appropriate for me?

Yes. The course is specifically designed for holistic, energy, somatic, coaching, and spiritual practitioners who are not licensed to diagnose or treat dissociative disorders. The entire framework is built around working safely and ethically within your existing scope of practice. If anything, this course matters more for non-licensed practitioners, because the existing literature is almost entirely aimed at clinicians.

I am a licensed clinician. Will this be relevant to me?

Yes. While this course is designed for practitioners of complementary and alternative healing modalities, our framework is also valuable for licensed clinicians — and if you are a clinician and a holistic practitioner, you benefit doubly. Ian's legal and ethical material and his lived experience perspective offer perspectives not found in clinical training programs.

What is the course schedule?

If you purchase the Core Course only, you will be invited to attend seven four-hour instructional calls. If you purchase the Full Program, you'll also be invited to six two-hour consultation calls.

Currently, the tentative schedule is as follows (all calls begin 8am Pacific/11am Eastern):

Module 1 Instruction: Friday, Aug. 28
Module 1 Consultation: Friday, Sept. 4

Module 2 Instruction: Friday, Sept. 11
Module 2 Consultation: Friday, Sept. 18

Module 3 Instruction: Friday, Sept. 25
Module 3 Consultation: Friday, Oct. 2

The schedule will continue in that fashion, until we have completed all the calls. Please note we may alter or extend the schedule based upon pre-existing business commitments and unexpected conflicts that arise. Thus, we plan to wrap up the course in late November or early December.

Will there be bonus calls?

While we cannot guarantee there will be bonus calls, we are currently making efforts to schedule a couple of bonus calls, such as a meet-and-greet call, expert guest speaker call, and ask-me-anything call. If we are able to fit these calls into the schedule, they will be available at no extra charge.

What if I miss a live session?

All seven live sessions are fully recorded and available to you. We encourage live attendance — the relational dimensions of the course are a genuine part of its value — but recordings mean you will not lose access to the material if you cannot attend in real time.

Why is this a founder cohort, and what does that mean for me?

This is the first time this course has been offered in this format. As a founding participant, you receive a significant discount — $1,000 off the full program rate — and in exchange we ask for your honest, structured feedback. You are not a test subject; you are a collaborator in something we are building to last.

What is your refund policy?

Because this course gives you access to significant amounts of material, considerable effort has gone into development and preparation, and seating is limited — refunds generally are not granted. We encourage you to reach out with any questions before enrolling so you can make a confident decision.

What platform is the course on?

Live sessions are held on Zoom. Course materials, session recordings, and program resources are hosted on Kajabi. You will need an active email account and will be added to our email list so you can receive important updates and links.

Have a question not answered here? Please click here to reach out. We would rather answer your question and have you make a confident, informed decision than have you remain uncertain.

Your Clients Are Already
In The Room.
Now You Can Be Ready.

This course exists because the gap between what practitioners encounter and what they are prepared for is real — and closeable. We built it for you.

Core Course Only

$1,997

7 weeks of 4-hour instructional sessions

Enroll in Core Course

Full Program

$2,497 $3,497

Core Course + 6 consultation sessions · 40 hours total

Enroll in Full Program Or 3 Payments of $867

Dissociation, Healing, and Ethical Practice — A course by Michele Yarberry and Ian Foster, Esq.
This course does not confer licensure or certification to diagnose or treat dissociative disorders. Participants are expected to work within their existing scope of practice. If you're experiencing a mental health emergency, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room. Or call 988 for free, confidential support.

Trauma, Dissociation,and Ethical Practice