The Self-Administered Flash Technique (SAFT) and Group Flash

CE Information

This course meets the qualifications for 6 hours of continuing education credit for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. If you are licensed outside of California, please verify with your own state whether the course will count toward CEs for your state.

Sik-lam Wong, LMFT (Provider #1032833) is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs and LEPs. Sik-Lam Wong, LMFT, maintains responsibility for the program and all its content.

The Center for Advanced Training in Trauma & EMDR (CATTE) is registered with CE Broker for Texas behavioral health continuing education reporting (CE Broker Tracking #: 50-64568). This course qualifies for 6 hours of continuing education credit. Courses may be reported through CE Broker for Texas behavioral health professionals, including LMSWs, LCSWs, LPCs, and LMFTs, where applicable. Licensees are responsible for confirming that each course meets their individual renewal requirements, including any profession-specific requirements for ethics, cultural competency, supervision, or other specialty topic.

Find more CE Information by visiting this resource on Continuing Education Applicability

The webinar will not be recorded. 

Course Objectives

SAFT is a structured, trauma-informed self-regulation approach that extends the Flash Technique principles to support needs in humanitarian and everyday real life settings. 

This training places Self-Administered Flash Technique (SAFT) at the center of clinical application and skill development. Flash Technique helps clients briefly hold awareness of a distressing memory while shifting attention to a pleasant or neutral engaging focus, supporting nervous system regulation without prolonged engagement with traumatic material. By self-administering FT, SAFT provides the tools for clients to contribute more to their recovery:

The approach is designed to be adaptable for individual therapy, group settings, and field-based humanitarian contexts.

Why SAFT is Relevant in Current Contexts

With ongoing global exposure to conflict, displacement, and natural disasters, mental health providers and humanitarian workers are often working in environments where:

SAFT offers a way to support emotional regulation skills and continuity of care between sessions, particularly in settings where traditional therapy frequency or intensity is not always possible.

Group Flash for Humanitarian Settings

Aside from use for individual therapy, SAFT scripts can be used for groups and can be used to introduce structured Flash-based exercises in:

Group formats are designed for situations where clinicians are supporting multiple individuals at once and where brief, structured interventions may be appropriate.

What You Will Learn

This practical training focuses on application and skill-building. Participants will:

The emphasis is on usable tools that clinicians can integrate into their existing practice as appropriate for their setting and population.

About the Flash Technique

In 2017, a new trauma therapy called the Flash Technique was developed by psychologist Dr. Phil Manfield in Berkeley, California. A leading trainer of EMDR, Dr. Manfield noticed that clients often had difficulty benefitting from EMDR because the protocol was too triggering for them, and they would abreact before any true trauma processing could occur. Dr. Manfield developed the Flash Technique as a tool for the Preparation Phase (Phase 2) of EMDR, to minimize abreaction. Rather than asking clients to recall a traumatic memory, he asked them to only identify the memory, set it aside and focus on an engaging memory or activity while blinking their eyes when prompted. He soon found that the Flash Technique could process trauma significantly on its own, even without EMDR.

Also based in Berkeley, therapist Dr. Sik-Lam Wong, LMFT, was an early adopter of Manfield’s technique and has adapted the Flash Technique for use with groups and in humanitarian situations around the world. Sik-Lam has co-authored numerous articles in the EMDRIA Journal, showing the efficacy of the Flash Technique with diverse populations such as refugees, addicts, and incarcerated individuals. Based on these findings, Sik-Lam also has developed and published a theory of the neurobiological mechanisms at work in trauma recovery.

Why Learn SAFT and Flash-Based Methods

Who Should Attend?

This course is designed for mental health professionals, including MFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs and LEPs.
Pastoral counselors, chaplains, hospice care providers, and trained lay counselors may also audit this course.

A Practical Tool for Clinical and Field Work

SAFT and Group Flash provide clinicians and humanitarian workers with structured options that may be integrated into broader care plans. These methods can support:

In contexts of ongoing crisis and displacement, SAFT offers a way to extend structured trauma-informed skills beyond in-session work, as part of a broader continuum of care.

About the Course

This training covers the basics of the Flash Technique, a unique and user-friendly trauma intervention that requires clients not to focus on the traumatic memory. Instead, clients are asked to focus on something pleasant or neutral, helping them to stay calm during the process.

Besides theoretical knowledge, we offer attendees an opportunity to experience 5 different scripted Flash Technique protocols for trauma intervention, under the direction of the trainer. Attendees will also learn to do the different protocols themselves, using the scripts and resources provided.

This training is geared towards practitioners working with populations with little access to trauma intervention. These populations may be people living in war-torn areas. They may be missionaries/workers in isolated areas having to deal with their day-to-day stresses alone. Or they may be folks in homeless shelters or refugees who have few counseling resources. The materials taught in this class may help such marginalized populations to self-administer the Flash Technique, with little or minimal support from professional counselors.

Besides working with marginalized populations, participants will be able to introduce the scripted Flash Technique protocols to their own therapy clients, to help them process traumatic memories on their own between counseling sessions, thereby shortening the time for trauma recovery.

About the Instructor

Citations

The content of this course is based on theoretical, methodical, research, and/or practical knowledge, including but not limited to the following sources:

Cancellation & Grievance Policy

You may cancel registration at any time. However, cancellations requesting refund reimbursement must be requested by 08/07/2026 by email (info@globalcatte.com), and will be reimbursed the full purchase amount minus $35 and the Stripe credit card processing fee. No partial refunds for partial attendance or for cancellation within 2 weeks of the training.

To obtain the grievance policy or report a grievance please email the Program Administrator at info@globalcatte.com.