Developmental Trauma Training Institute

02/28/2026

Shame is often misidentified as a symptom.

In the Shame course, participants begin to understand it as a developmental adaptation.

They leave able to recognize:
• how shame forms within early attachment relationships
• how it organizes identity — not just emotion
• the difference between guilt and shame clinically
• how shame presents somatically (posture, voice, gaze, collapse)
• why direct confrontation often deepens it

The shift is subtle but profound:
From trying to reduce shame…
To understanding the relational conditions that soften it.

Curious? Learn more here: https://www.eventzilla.net/e/shame-the-land-between-living-and-dying--online-training-event-2138677752

02/27/2026

I recently received a note from David Emerson, the originator of Trauma Sensitive Yoga, and I’m taking a moment to let it land.

His words meant a great deal to me — as a reminder of the responsibility this work carries.

Trauma Sensitive Yoga has always been about restoring choice, agency, and relationship in the body. To be trusted to facilitate and steward this work feels both grounding and humbling.

If you’ve been considering training with me, know that what I offer is rooted deeply in this foundation — and shaped by years of practice, listening, and community.

Grateful to be in this work with you.
Keri Sawyer

02/24/2026

Ever heard the phrase, “Laughter is the best medicine”?

Healing trauma isn’t only about looking back — it’s also about rediscovering joy and laughter in a shared relationship.

Today on Facebook Live, Steve explored the unseen toxins that feed the developmental trauma lens — and the healing influence of laughter and joy.

Healing often begins with awareness. With noticing activation. And ultimately, it unfolds in relationship.

It’s not only about working with what’s painful. Laughter is part of the process too — shared humor, a moment of lightness, a genuine exhale.

Laughter can interrupt survival patterns, support regulation, and remind the body what connection feels like.

Because healing from developmental trauma isn’t just about surviving differently — it’s about expanding our capacity for ease, relationship, and being fully human.

Would you like to gain a deeper personal and/or professional understanding of developmental trauma? https://courses.dtti.co/dr05-foundations

02/24/2026

Trauma impacts us in ways both seen and unseen. Join Steve Sawyer this morning for Trauma Responsive Tuesdays — a grounded conversation held in community.
🏝️ Facebook Live - 8am PT

02/23/2026

An absolutely beautiful Brainspotting Phase 1 training with the Native Wellness Institute in Portland this week. Relatives traveled from Oregon, Montana, Arizona, and Idaho to gather for this deep, meaningful work.

Long days filled with shared laughter, tears, traditional teachings, meals, and heartfelt healing. ❤️ We’re deeply honored to pass along Brainspotting to NWI’s powerful quiver of healing tools.

And the Humor photos? Hysterical—Wade and Debbie found yet another way to “dig deep” with the pointer!

02/22/2026

We can’t hand over empowerment — that isn’t how it works. Empowerment emerges from within, and trauma-sensitive practice creates safer spaces, invites choice, and makes room for people to step into their own power.
✨Read more in the full blog: https://openviewyoga.home.blog/2026/02/22/empowerment-is-not-something-we-give/

02/21/2026

If you’re still trying to out-think trauma in the therapy room… you’re probably exhausted. ✨What if the symptom isn’t the problem? ✨What if the shutdown, the over-functioning, the hyper-independence… are intelligent adaptations rooted in something much deeper?

🌱Digging Roots 1.0 – Los Angeles isn’t about adding another technique.

It’s about learning to see differently.
To track differently.
To work at the level where developmental trauma actually lives.

Through the lens of Developmental Trauma Training Institute, we integrate developmental trauma theory with Brainspotting.

Less explaining.
More attunement.
More precision.

If you’re ready to move beyond managing symptoms and into root-level work — join us in Los Angeles.

Let’s dig where it actually begins.
Digging Roots Brainspotting, LA:
https://www.eventzilla.net/e/los-angeles-digging-roots-foundations-amp-in-person-digging-roots-10-2138675951

If you’re still trying to out-think trauma in the therapy room… you’re probably exhausted.
✨What if the symptom isn’t the problem?

✨What if the shutdown, the over-functioning, the hyper-independence… are intelligent adaptations rooted in something much deeper?

🌱Digging Roots 1.0 – Los Angeles isn’t about adding another technique.

It’s about learning to see differently.
To track differently.
To work at the level where developmental trauma actually lives.

Through the lens of Developmental Trauma Training Institute, we integrate developmental trauma theory with Brainspotting — accessing what talk therapy alone often can’t reach.

Less explaining.
More attunement.
More precision.

If you’re ready to move beyond managing symptoms and into root-level work — join us in Los Angeles.

Let’s dig where it actually begins.
Digging Roots Brainspotting, LA:
https://www.eventzilla.net/e/los-angeles-digging-roots-foundations-amp-in-person-digging-roots-10-2138675951

02/21/2026

If you’re still trying to out-think trauma in the therapy room… you’re probably exhausted.
✨What if the symptom isn’t the problem?

✨What if the shutdown, the over-functioning, the hyper-independence… are intelligent adaptations rooted in something much deeper?

🌱Digging Roots 1.0 – Los Angeles isn’t about adding another technique.

It’s about learning to see differently.
To track differently.
To work at the level where developmental trauma actually lives.

Through the lens of Developmental Trauma Training Institute, we integrate developmental trauma theory with Brainspotting — accessing what talk therapy alone often can’t reach.

Less explaining.
More attunement.
More precision.

If you’re ready to move beyond managing symptoms and into root-level work — join us in Los Angeles.

Let’s dig where it actually begins.
Digging Roots Brainspotting, LA:
https://www.eventzilla.net/e/los-angeles-digging-roots-foundations-amp-in-person-digging-roots-10-2138675951

02/20/2026

There are invitations you don’t take lightly. Today is one of them.

Steve is in Portland facilitating a Phase 1 Brainspotting training with the Native Wellness Institute — an organization devoted to promoting the well-being of Native people through programs and trainings that embrace the teachings and traditions of their ancestors.

It is a deep honor to be welcomed into a space where culture, tradition, and healing are woven together with such integrity.
Grateful for the trust and the opportunity to learn alongside this community. Native Wellness Institute

02/17/2026

You’re not broken. You adapted.

Our natural stress and survival responses are formed early in life.
Like a tree that sprouts from a seed, we grow in response to the conditions around us. Our nervous system is shaped by the adversity — and the safety — we experience in childhood.

In times of collective stress, those early patterns get activated. What feels overwhelming now is often connected to what was wired long ago. It takes intention and practice to stay grounded when old survival responses are stirred.

As parents, this matters deeply.
Our children’s nervous systems are forming in real time. The way we meet stress — the steadiness we cultivate — becomes part of how they are shaped.

When they witness us returning to stability, repairing, breathing, staying connected…
it changes their trajectory.

You’re not broken.
You learned how to survive.

Interested in learning more? https://courses.dtti.co/dr05-foundations

And now, you can learn how to feel safe.
.

02/17/2026

When the wind picks up, what keeps a tree standing?
💨 Our roots stabilize us during adversity. Not just willpower. Not just mindset. But the patterns laid down early — in relationship, in safety, in childhood.

Join Steve Sawyer, LCSW
📍 Tuesday, Feb 17 at 8am
(Facebook Live)

💨 We’ll explore how the nervous system responds to instability — and how current stress in the environment activates old wiring.

💨 Because what looks like “overreaction” is often history being stirred by the wind.