Katelyn Baxter-Musser, LCSW
Katelyn E. Baxter-Musser, MSW, LCSW, C-DBT, C-PD, is a licensed clinical social worker, trauma therapist, author, consultant, and national and international professional trainer with more than 16 years of experience in trauma-informed behavioral healthcare. Based in Maine, she specializes in trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder, dissociation, anxiety, depression, grief, relationship difficulties, personality disorders, intimate partner violence, narcissistic abuse, and gaslighting.
Katelyn earned her Master of Social Work from Arizona State University and completed a graduate certificate in the assessment of integrative health modalities. Her professional credentials include certification in Dialectical Behavior Therapy, certification in EMDR therapy, recognition as an EMDR consultant, and certification in personality-disorder treatment. She has worked in private practice and across community agencies, child and family services, trauma programs, and Native American reservations.
Her clinical and educational approach combines structured evidence-informed treatment with compassion, cultural responsiveness, stabilization, mindfulness, self-compassion, and respect for each client’s readiness. Rather than applying one method to every presentation, she helps clinicians consider how trauma history, attachment, emotional regulation, physiological activation, shame, relationships, identity, and environmental safety influence treatment.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy Expertise
Dialectical Behavior Therapy is a central area of expertise for Katelyn E. Baxter-Musser, MSW, LCSW, C-DBT, C-PD. Her teaching helps mental health professionals apply DBT principles and skills with adults and adolescents experiencing intense emotions, trauma symptoms, self-destructive coping, relationship instability, anxiety, depression, shame, and difficulty tolerating distress.
DBT is commonly organized around four major skill areas:
- Mindfulness
- Distress tolerance
- Emotion regulation
- Interpersonal effectiveness
Katelyn teaches clinicians to use these skills within a thoughtful case formulation rather than treating DBT as a collection of disconnected worksheets. Her programs address behavioral assessment, validation, crisis survival, emotional awareness, dialectical thinking, boundaries, and strategies for helping clients create lives that reflect their values.
Her C-DBT credential means “Certified in Dialectical Behavior Therapy.” The official Evergreen Certifications C-DBT standards require qualified independently licensed clinicians to complete specialized DBT education, required reading, clinical practice hours, and ongoing professional development.
Clinicians interested in the relationship between DBT and trauma stabilization can read How DBT Helps Clients With Trauma and Emotion Dysregulation. This Clinical Events resource explains how mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal-effectiveness skills may help clients develop stability before beginning intensive trauma processing.
Trauma, PTSD, and EMDR
Katelyn’s professional work includes extensive attention to trauma, PTSD, interpersonal violence, dissociation, and the effects of chronic abuse. Her experience includes serving as Trauma Healing Services Clinical Coordinator for La Frontera Arizona, an organization providing behavioral health services and support to individuals and families affected by domestic violence, abuse, hate crimes, and related concerns.
As a Certified EMDR therapist and consultant, Katelyn teaches clinicians to consider stabilization, resourcing, consent, pacing, readiness, and nervous-system regulation before intensive memory processing. Her EMDR education addresses the particular needs of clients whose trauma histories involve interpersonal violence, shame, powerlessness, attachment disruption, self-blame, dissociation, or an impaired sense of personal agency.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Center for PTSD overview of psychotherapy identifies EMDR, Cognitive Processing Therapy, and Prolonged Exposure as the three trauma-focused psychotherapies most strongly recommended by the 2023 VA/DoD PTSD guideline. This authoritative resource is valuable because it places EMDR within the wider evidence base for PTSD treatment rather than presenting it as an isolated technique.
Katelyn’s approach also recognizes that clinicians must not begin trauma processing simply because a client has disclosed a traumatic history. Effective treatment requires assessment of current safety, coping capacity, dissociation, emotional regulation, support systems, medical concerns, and the client’s ability to remain oriented during difficult therapeutic work.
Trauma and Dissociation
Dissociation can appear as emotional numbness, depersonalization, derealization, memory gaps, losing track of time, disconnection from bodily sensation, or appearing mentally absent during therapy. These experiences may be mistaken for avoidance, inattention, resistance, or lack of motivation when they are actually protective responses associated with overwhelming stress.
Katelyn helps clinicians recognize dissociative symptoms while avoiding interpretations that may shame or overwhelm clients. Her work emphasizes grounding, environmental orientation, sensory awareness, emotional stabilization, careful assessment, and the development of a predictable therapeutic relationship.
Clinicians can explore these principles in the Clinical Events article Dissociation Explained: Helping Clients Feel Safe and Present. The article discusses common presentations of dissociation and explains why safety, pacing, grounding, and relational trust should generally precede direct trauma processing.
On September 5, 2026, Katelyn will present Trauma and Dissociation: Navigating the Complexities in Clinical Practice, a three-credit live virtual workshop. The program examines dissociation as a survival response, symptom identification, screening and assessment, grounding interventions, stabilization, therapeutic safety, and the clinical risks of moving into trauma processing before a client is ready.
Narcissistic Abuse, Gaslighting, and Relationship Trauma
Katelyn also specializes in working with survivors of narcissistic abuse, gaslighting, coercive control, domestic violence, and psychologically harmful relationships. Clients affected by these experiences may present with chronic self-doubt, anxiety, shame, hypervigilance, depression, identity disruption, emotional dysregulation, attachment injuries, or difficulty trusting their perceptions.
Therapists should use the term “narcissistic abuse” carefully. A clinician can assess the client’s experience of manipulation, invalidation, coercion, intimidation, or psychological harm without diagnosing an absent partner or family member. Treatment should focus on the client’s safety, symptoms, functioning, autonomy, boundaries, and recovery needs.
Clinical Events’ Understanding Gaslighting: A Clinical Overview for Mental Health Professionals examines sustained manipulation, power differences, reality distortion, clinical warning signs, and strategies for helping survivors rebuild self-trust. This resource complements Katelyn’s work by moving beyond popular labels and examining gaslighting through a clinical, trauma-informed framework.
On November 14, 2026, Katelyn will lead Narcissistic Abuse and Gaslighting in Clinical Practice, a live virtual program offering three CE credits. The training covers clinical presentation, trauma responses, nervous-system dysregulation, assessment considerations, emotional stabilization, boundary development, rebuilding self-trust, and common therapeutic mistakes that may unintentionally reinforce shame or minimization.
Author of The DBT Workbook for Narcissistic Abuse and Gaslighting
Katelyn is the author of The DBT Workbook for Narcissistic Abuse and Gaslighting, published by New Harbinger Publications in July 2024.
The workbook uses DBT-informed exercises to help survivors regulate difficult emotions, challenge internalized messages, increase self-compassion, set healthier boundaries, rebuild self-worth, and reconnect with personal judgment after psychologically manipulative relationships. The publisher describes it as a 176-page practical resource that can be used independently or alongside professional treatment.
Her work reflects an important clinical principle: recovery from relational abuse involves more than leaving the harmful situation. Survivors may also need support in understanding trauma responses, grieving losses, rebuilding confidence, developing emotional regulation skills, establishing boundaries, restoring autonomy, and learning how to trust themselves again.
Personality-Disorder Education
Katelyn also holds the C-PD, or Certified Personality Disorder Treatment Provider, credential. Evergreen Certifications states that this credential requires a qualifying graduate degree, independent professional licensure, and focused education in personality-disorder assessment, diagnosis, screening, and treatment interventions.
Her education in this area helps clinicians distinguish between personality traits, maladaptive relational patterns, trauma responses, and formal personality-disorder diagnoses. This distinction is especially important when discussing narcissistic traits because social-media terminology can encourage professionals and clients to use diagnostic language without adequate assessment.
Continuing Education With Katelyn Baxter-Musser
Through Clinical Events, Katelyn E. Baxter-Musser, MSW, LCSW, C-DBT, C-PD helps behavioral health professionals strengthen their competence in trauma, dissociation, DBT, EMDR-informed care, narcissistic abuse, gaslighting, emotional regulation, and relationship recovery.
Her programs are relevant to social workers, counselors, psychologists, marriage and family therapists, psychotherapists, addiction professionals, case managers, healthcare providers, and other clinicians who support clients with complex trauma presentations.
Professionals can browse the complete Clinical Events continuing education calendar for additional programs on trauma, anxiety, ethics, clinical supervision, somatic therapy, personality disorders, and evidence-based psychotherapy. Further therapist-focused education is available through the Clinical Events Blog.
