Certificate in trauma counselling for mental health professionals: Level 1

This six-day certificate program will provide the most current information on the biopsychosocial phenomenon of trauma, along with training in how to assess and respond ethically and appropriately to adult clients. Participants will examine how workers and organizations are affected by and respond to working with traumatized individuals and develop trauma-informed approaches to work that enhance personal and professional resilience.

The trauma issues experienced by adult clients may include: early childhood trauma, violent crime, sexual assault, domestic violence, work related trauma, motor vehicle accidents, medical trauma and on-going pervasive developmental arrests.

The objective with clients who have experienced a single incident trauma is to help clients recover to base-line functioning by using psycho-education and symptom management strategies.

The object with clients, who have experienced complex/developmental trauma, is to mitigate layers of human suffering that has manifested in entrenched rigid maladaptive patterns. Work with these clients is to bring clarity to the origin, presence and manifestations of these patterns and to develop a systematic process for changing the core belief system/schema that drives these patterns.

Our comprehensive level 1 certificate in trauma counselling covers the following key areas:

1. Advanced Neurobiology of Trauma
   • Impact of fear on brain function
   • Role of dissociation
2. Trauma Reaction ‘Stuck Points’
   • Acute therapeutic conversations for ‘unsticking’
   • Flight, fight, freeze, engage, conscious submission, robotic submission
   • Range of dissociative reactions
3. Trauma Nomenclature
   • Stress reactions, acute stress disorder, PTSD, chronic PTSD, delayed PTSD
4. Clinical Interventions
   • Trauma risk factors
   • Flashback management strategies
   • Sleep dysregulation regulation
5. Comparative Trauma Studies
   • Trauma vs. bereavement
   • Core impacts of chronic trauma
   • Developmental trauma, complex trauma, borderline personality disorder
6. Advanced Treatment Approaches
   • Schema therapy
   • Internal family systems
   • Imagery rescripting and reprocessing therapy
   • Dialectical behavioral therapy
7. Professional Resilience
   • Four key strategies for enhancing worker resilience
8. Attachment and Complex Trauma
   • Intersection of attachment styles and complex/developmental trauma
9. Treatment Planning and Assessment
   • Goals and assessment tools
   • Overview of effective rapid PTSD Treatments (CBT, CPT)
   • Contraindicators for rapid PTSD treatment