Dawn E. McClelland, Ph.D., LP

Therapy, Supervision and Consultation

Adult individual and family

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Dawn has over 30 years of experience helping people heal from the profound effects of trauma, organized violence, the human trade, sexual abuse, ritualistic abuse, political violence, including human trafficking and war experiences. She has extensive training in understanding post-traumatic stress, dissociation, and other complex trauma responses. She works with therapists and professionals providing supervision, consultation, and training.  Other specialty areas include programming and conditioning, caregiver compassion fatigue, secondary PTSD, survival guilt, and traumatic bonding.

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Dawn was the co-founder and director at Midwest Center for Trauma and Emotional Healing in Minnetonka, Minnesota from 2009-2023. She is also the co-developer and originator of the core components of AIR Network Trauma Training as well as a certified EMDR consultant.  Dr. McClelland had 26 years of privileges at Regions Hospital Burn Center and has worked with burn and electrical injury survivors and their families in both the acute hospitalization and aftercare phases of recovery since 1997.

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Dawn comes from a non-pathology based, integrative and holistic paradigm that brings together the neurobiological processes of healing with narrative and competency-based therapies. She is trained in EMDR, Alpha Stimulation, and neuro-biological trauma therapy models, which are foundational in addressing the impact of trauma upon the different parts of our mind, brain structures, and body/sensory systems.

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Dawn is characterized by her sensitivity towards people and her respect for their integrity as they work through past and current issues. In her work she collaboratively integrates and explores alternative ways of working that respect the individual’s life experiences, wisdom, culture, and spiritual beliefs. She supports survivor’s resiliency and dignity in the face of profound grief and distress.

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​Gracious interweaving of the therapeutic relationship creates an emotional and physical space for survivors to gently neutralize the conditioning, systematic thinking, and automatic physiological response that are normal responses from fear, coercion, and control. She is sensitive to the subtleties and complexities of power in relationship.

 

Her work specifically helps clients to gain an understanding of what happens in their emotions, their brain neurology, and in their bodies during and following abuse. ​She helps people move past frozen states and heal from fear, shame and humiliation, without being overcome by the trauma. She helps balance numbing and fear responses, helping clients reinstate their ability to be grounded and present with themselves and in relationships with others.

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Dr. McClelland has done extensive international travel. She has participated and led medical teams that provided medical and reproductive care. She gratefully acknowledges the many survivors, caregivers, and providers who have shared their true experience, wisdom, and teaching over the last two decades.

 

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