Susan Darker-Smith is a EMDR Europe Accredited Child & Adolescent Therapist, Trainer, and Consultant, and BABCP Accredited CBT Therapist & Supervisor. She has over 20 years experience as a therapist treating children, adolescents, adults and families, and as a clinical supervisor for individual therapists, NHS Trusts, and other organisations.
In 2018, she established the Child Trauma Therapy Centre (CTTC) with three over-arching goals in mind:
- THERAPY: To help children, adolescents, and adults recover from painful and difficult life experiences.
- TRAINING: To provide EMDR Europe Accredited Child and Adolescent Trainings to EMDR therapists.
- SUPERVSION: To provide expert clinical supervision to help therapists become the best clinicians they possibly can be.
A fourth branch later emerged, which is tasked delivering humanitarian, low cost or pro bono trainings and/or supervision to countries without access to Accredited Child & Adolescent Trainings or consultants.
As a Child & Adolescent Trainer, she feels passionately about making her workshops accessible to all. They are inclusive of attendees with neurodiversity (such as Autism or ADHD), learning differences (such as Dyslexia), learning styles (such as visual or kinesthetic learning styles), physiological challenges (such as hearing impairment or physical mobility issues), or life challenges (such as economic or geographical constraints, being a single parent).
Susan’s charitable work around the world includes being a…
- Founding Member of the Global Child-EMDR Alliance (Registered Charity)
- Founding Trustee for the Trauma Response Network UK (Registered Charity)
- Director of CHILD Non-Profit (Child Humanitarian Intervention Learning & Development)
She has published in the EMDR Journal on EMDR with children and has co-written three book chapters:
- The Future of EMDR (Oxford Handbook)
- Neurodiverse Affirming Therapy for Children (Oxford Handbook)
- Eating Disorders and Neurodiversity (Eating Disorders: Pam Virdi & Andrew Schuebert)
Susan previously sat on the EMDR Council of Scholars – an EMDRIA funded organisation set up to research, evaluate and ensure best practice in EMDR at a global level.
