“We need this in Florida!” That was heard repeatedly last year after Dr Benjamin Keyes’ address to Florida Mental Health Counselors Association Conference. Among that group were many central Florida LMHCs who continue to work with the aftermath of the Pulse Nightclub Massacre in Orlando. Dr Kathie Erwin took that message as confirmation to launch the Tampa Trauma Education Center. The need was also acknowledged by Dr Steve Giunta, past president of FMHCA/AMHCA, who graciously opened doors to provide the centralized training site at Troy University Tampa Campus.

Following the GCAT training model, the Tampa Trauma Education Center offers the full training for domestic and international deployment. “We are getting the word out by active social media campaigns to reach more than just the academic community. We want to train counselors, counseling students, psychologists, nurses, first responders, clergy, educators and community disaster relief volunteers,” Dr Erwin explained. “Our goal is to train a deployment team for Summer 2018 international work and a team ready to participate in future GCAT calls for domestic deployment.”