EMDR pioneer, trainer and EMDR Professional Training co-founder honored for more than three decades of leadership, teaching and dedication to EMDR therapy
Curtis C. Rouanzoin, PhD, co-founder and Director of Training at EMDR Professional Training, received the prestigious Francine Shapiro Award at the 2026 EMDR International Association (EMDRIA) Conference in Anaheim, California, in August.
For Dr. Rouanzoin, the recognition is especially meaningful. His journey with Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy began 35 years ago, when he was trained by Francine Shapiro, PhD, the originator and developer of EMDR therapy, in 1991.
Receiving an award that bears her name brings a remarkable career full circle.
Curt Rouanzoin became involved with EMDR during the therapy’s formative years. Following his initial training with Shapiro, he joined the EMDR Institute as a facilitator in 1992 and later became a senior trainer, continuing in that role until 2017.
His involvement went far beyond teaching the therapy. Curt was a founding member of the EMDR International Association Board of Directors and served as EMDRIA’s second Board President. He also helped develop the association’s Standards and Training Committee, contributing to the professional standards that would help guide EMDR training and practice as the therapy grew internationally.
Curt’s work with EMDR has taken him around the world. He traveled with Shapiro to Colombia for a Congress Against Violence and later traveled with Andrew Leeds, PhD, to help train some of the first groups of EMDR clinicians in Japan.
His influence also reached the university classroom. During 22 years as a professor at Hope International University, where he developed the Marriage and Family Therapy Program, Curt created the first graduate-level university course devoted to EMDR therapy, in 1995.
At the heart of Curt’s teaching has always been extensive clinical experience.
A licensed psychologist and licensed marriage and family therapist, Curt has conducted more than 45,000 hours of EMDR therapy sessions. His clinical experience has included work with complex PTSD and dissociative disorders, military personnel, police officers and other first responders, as well as athletes and performing artists seeking peak performance.
Just as important has been his commitment to creating a community where clinicians can continue learning from one another.
In 1991, Curt established the Southern California EMDR Study Group, a free monthly gathering for EMDR-trained clinicians. More than three decades later, the group continues and is recognized by EMDR Professional Training as the longest-running EMDR study group in the world.
In 2019, Rouanzoin and Michelle Gottlieb, PsyD, co-founded EMDR Professional Training, where Curt currently serves as Director of Training.
The organization grew from a shared commitment to providing high-quality EMDR education grounded in the foundations established by Shapiro while also incorporating decades of clinical experience, evolving research and the needs of today’s therapists and clients.
In addition to EMDR Basic Training, Curt continues to teach and contribute to advanced education for clinicians through EMDR Professional Training. His advanced and continuing-education offerings include:
Throughout his career, Curt has been part of EMDR therapy’s growth from its earliest years to its place today as an internationally recognized approach to trauma treatment. He has served the profession as a clinician, professor, trainer, mentor, organizational leader and advocate for rigorous EMDR therapy education.
That history makes the 2026 Francine Shapiro Award especially fitting.
Thirty-five years after being trained by Francine Shapiro herself, Curt continues to carry forward the work that first inspired him — teaching clinicians not only how to use EMDR therapy, but how to understand it deeply, practice it responsibly and continue learning throughout their careers.
All of us at EMDR Professional Training congratulate Dr. Curt Rouanzoin on this extraordinary and well-deserved honor.
It is a celebration not only of what Curt has contributed to EMDR therapy over the past three and a half decades, but of the clinicians he has taught, the colleagues he has mentored and the clients whose lives have been touched by that work.
