Trauma Certificate Program Level I: Course Content

Part I: “Understanding Trauma and its Reverberating Effects”
2 Classes- 12 CEU’s

• De-pathologizing clients: a strengths-based approach
• Defining trauma and its relationship to “loss”
• Trauma and its effect on the brain
• Fight/flight and freeze responses
• The process of dissociation
• Trauma and its impact on declarative and non-declarative memory
• The somatization of trauma: common physical complaints
• Moving beyond talk therapy
• Using “focusing” and “somatic experiencing” to enhance body workTrauma in a family-of-origin context: roles, boundaries, and communication
• The childhood response to trauma: inevitable creative coping strategies
• Trauma and the challenges of attachment
• “Shifting the locus of control”: A model for understanding the introjection of shame and “badness”
• Dysfunctional family dynamics
• The impact of trauma on affect regulation
• Cognitive, emotional, behavioral manifestations of trauma in adulthood
• Trauma and addictive behaviors: the cycle of self-medication and re-traumatization

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify at least four strengths-based approaches to clients’ symptoms and trauma histories, and explain the concept and value of re-framing.
2. Describe the impact that trauma and repeated fight/flight responses have on the different parts of the brain.
3. Analyze the impact that chronic childhood trauma has on declarative and non-declarative memory.
4. Describe the connection between trauma, suppressed memory, and somatization.
5. Define and apply at least two strategies designed to re-connect clients to their bodies and treat somatic symptoms.
6. Explain the relationship between family-of-origin dynamics including: boundaries; roles; and communication styles and dysfunctional coping strategies.
7. Apply theories of attachment and affect dysregulation to the symptomatology of trauma survivors.
8. Diagram the family pyramid, the dynamics of attachment and shifting the locus of control
9. Identify at least ten adult manifestations of prior trauma, abuse, and neglect.
10. Describe the cycle of trauma and addiction and relate it to issues of dissociation, affect regulation and loss of attachment.
11. Identify at least four effective ways to address self-harm and addictive behaviors in trauma survivors.

Part II: “Creatively and Effectively Treating Trauma”
4 Classes- 24 CEU’s

• Assessing for a history of trauma
• Incorporating objective assessment tools into treatment
• Identifying and working with co-morbidity
• Differential diagnoses for affective and anxiety disorders
• Identifying “medication myths” and how they relate to non-compliance
• Learning how to challenge resistance to medication
• Working collaboratively with primary care physicians to address the medical and mental health needs of trauma survivors
• State-of-the-art pharmacological treatment of anxiety and depression
• Exploring non-pharmacological treatment strategies to better manage depression and anxiety
• The do’s and don’ts of incorporating creative strategies
• Matching treatment issues to creative interventions
• Guidelines and goals for effective treatment
• The fundamentals of trauma treatment: laying a foundation before trauma retrieval occurs
• Enhancing safety and containment
• Pacing and grounding traumatized clients
• Addressing abreactions and flashbacks
• Exploring art therapies, movement therapy and yoga, writing, hypnosis, guided imagery, role plays, tapping, spirituality
• Creative approaches to managing self-injurious behaviors: contracting with “CARESS”

Learning Objectives:

1. Describe and apply at least six objective assessment tools designed to address issues of trauma and co-morbidity.
2. Identify the diagnostic criteria for assessing affective and anxiety disorders in trauma survivors.
3. Identify the most commonly used anti-depressants and anxiolytics, and summarize how to present the issue of pharmacological treatment to “resistant” clients.
4. Describe at least four “medication myths” that add to client resistance and explain how to work through those misconceptions to increase compliance.
5. Define at least six non-pharmacological ways to treat depression and anxiety disorders in trauma survivors.
6. Demonstrate an ability to prepare clients for creative interventions while specifying when creative work is and is not appropriate.
7. Describe at least eight fundamental goals for safe, effective trauma treatment.
8. Demonstrate an ability to promote client safety and to address issues of pacing and re-grounding.
9. Describe and practice at least three strategies to promote containment, address flashbacks and make abreactions productive rather than destructive.
10. Identify and practice at least six art therapy techniques and two guided imagery techniques designed to help clients work through abuse memories, improve ego-strength and self-esteem.
11. Explain the cycle of self-harm and the role that affect dysregulation, dissociation, and reinforcement plays in the chronicity of the behavior.
12. Describe CARESS and explain its role as a substitute for standard safety contracts with trauma survivors.

Part III: “Trauma and the Therapeutic Alliance”
3 Classes- 18 CEU’s

• Understanding the power differential in the client/therapist relationship
• Traumatic transference: manifestations and challenges
• Addressing issues of trust, boundaries, and client testing
• Counter-transferential issues and therapist efficacy
• Empathic disequilibrium, enmeshment, withdrawal and repression
• Symptoms of vicarious traumatization and burn-out
• Addressing therapist self-care
• The nature of the therapeutic alliance
• Ethical issues and concerns
• Legal obligations
• Reporting abuse and its impact on treatment and the therapy relationship
• Turning reporting into an act of client empowerment
• Trauma survivors and the criminal justice system
• Processing the integration of course material into a case analysis
• Clinical consultations
• Issues pertaining to client termination

Learning Objectives:

1. Explain the notion of seeking treatment from both clients’ and therapists’ perspectives and identify the similarities and differences that impact treatment outcomes.
2. Define traumatic transference and summarize at least five manifestations in trauma survivors.
3. Identify at least five ways in which trauma survivors test therapist boundaries and manifest trust issues in the therapeutic alliance.
4. Describe at least six ways in which counter-transference adversely affects therapists’ efficacy.
5. Identify and describe at least six symptoms of vicarious traumatization and cite at least six ways to enhance self-care and reduce professional burn-out.
6. Identify and discuss Dolgoff’s ethical principles and the hierarchy of professional responsibilities and obligations.
7. Identify at least five red flags that indicate compromised therapists’ ethics.
8. Discuss the specific duties of social work practice including: the duty to protect life; to report and warn; and the preservation of client confidentiality.
9. Critique case scenarios and current state law to identify and describe legal issues of reporting abuse and neglect. Analyze the impact that reporting has on the therapeutic relationship and identify ways to re-frame reporting as an act of client empowerment.
10. Analyze, discuss, and critique student case studies for the purpose of integrating course material to emphasize the value of the strengths-based model and the value of de-pathologizing the symptoms of trauma survivors.
11. Distinguish between five different termination modes and identify the clinical reasons why clients engage in unplanned terminations.
12. Describe the most appropriate process for planned terminations and identify at least four issues that emerge when therapy ends.