April 30, 2026
Contact: Sara Diedrich, diedrichs@missouri.edu
Beyond friendships and social life, Rebecca Kase, BS ’03, felt little direction in high school.
That changed during her freshman year at the University of Missouri, when she enrolled in Psychology 101 in the College of Arts and Science. Suddenly, something clicked.
“I understood it deeply, especially the emotional aspects,” she said. “I started excelling and received encouraging feedback from professors who truly saw my potential. That was transformative.”
For the first time, Kase felt seen and realized she could find a career she felt passionate about.
More than two decades later, Kase is not only a licensed social worker, psychotherapist, educator, entrepreneur and author, but also one of the nation’s leading trainers in eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, or EMDR, a trauma therapy that guides patients through a series of eye movements while they focus on a traumatic memory. The activity helps the brain process and release distressing memories.
As founder of the Trauma Therapist Institute (TTI), Kase has combined EMDR with polyvagal theory — a way of understanding how the body reacts to stress, safety and connection based on a person’s nervous system — to develop a polyvagal-informed EMDR approach. Through TTI, she has trained thousands of therapists in the method, which she says can “supercharge therapy and the recovery process” for post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression and addiction.
Today, TTI is a multimillion-dollar company that continues to experience significant growth. Training and workshops are conducted across the country, and the company saw a 38% increase in the first quarter of 2026 compared to a year earlier. TTI operates fully remotely and employs more than 60 people nationwide, with representatives in Australia and Canada.
Along the way, Kase, who lives in Fox Island, Washington, also used these methods to heal from her own trauma, knowing firsthand how such experiences can hijack a person’s life.
“I have worked to build a different kind of leadership model, one rooted in empathy, collaboration and long-term impact,” she said. “And it works. We’ve proven that you can lead with those values and still build a highly successful business.”
Finding her path
Even as a child growing up in Hillsboro, Missouri, near St. Louis, Kase understood that compassion was a strength, not a liability. One of the youngest among more than a dozen grandchildren, she quickly won over her cantankerous grandfather with warmth.
“I was always emotionally attuned and emotionally intelligent,” she said. “My family tells me that when I came into my grandfather’s life, I taught him how to love.”
It wasn’t until psychology instructors at Mizzou helped her see the real-world impact of those strengths, however, that she realized her compassionate nature could lead to a meaningful career.
“Their encouragement lit something inside me,” she said. “I discovered this insatiable side of myself that loved academia, and I was good at it.”
After graduating from Mizzou in December 2003 with a degree in psychology, Kase spent a year in St. Louis with AmeriCorps, working in an inner-city school, before earning a master’s in social work from the University of Denver in 2007. She went on to work in private practice, community mental health, domestic violence centers and a rape crisis center, where her focus increasingly centered on trauma.
Kase’s big break came in 2017, when a retiring clinician in Denver asked her to take over an EMDR training program. She jumped at the opportunity, building a program around a “shame-free” learning environment that prioritizes care, safety and community. She initially thought it would be a side project to her successful training and consulting company, Kase & CO, but demand grew quickly, and the opportunity evolved into one business: TTI.
“That approach became our differentiator,” Kase said. “More than anything, we focus on creating a culture of care, not just for our clients, but within our team. That commitment to a supportive, shame-free environment is central to everything we do.”
Navigating growth and success
Kase is still adjusting to the idea of being an entrepreneur, a label she never sought but naturally embodies. For her, the secret to wearing it with integrity is to remain self-aware.
“Your fears, insecurities and blind spots will surface,” she said. “Doing your own personal work is essential.”
Another key lesson she’s learned is to separate her identity from her business.
“Your business is something you lead,” Kase said. “It’s not who you are. That perspective helps you navigate both success and failure more effectively.”
To navigate her success, Kase commits to continuous learning through curiosity, reading, learning and growing.
She also follows the best advice she ever received: Don’t settle for potential.
“It applies to everything — relationships, career, business,” she said. “Don’t settle for what something could be. Strive for what it can become — with intention and action. Set ambitious goals and push beyond mediocrity.”
With an eye to the future, Kase is working to expand TTI’s program, including new EMDR courses and retreats. She is also working to partner with academics and researchers to strengthen the trauma field.
“There’s a growing concern about how trauma is being oversimplified in popular culture,” she said. “We want to help shift that and bring the conversation back to evidence-based practices while still allowing room for innovation.”
