Trauma Informed Care (TIC) Certification Course

Explore what trauma is, how unpredictable events outside a person’s control change the brain and body, and how anxiety, intrusive thoughts, and nightmares harm psychological, emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being.

Explore common traumatic events and practical trauma management techniques that restore emotional balance, including staying engaged, seeking support, healthy living, and recognizing when professional help is needed.

Trauma informed care builds empathy and recognizes trauma in health care, enabling patient collaboration and informed treatment decisions, while offering resources to support long term health goals.

Explore the prevalence of trauma in society, its links to behavioral health and substance use disorders, and common trauma types affecting both adults and children.

Identify signs of trauma such as cringing, shaking, hyperactive startle response, and withdrawal, and describe how symptoms like intrusive memories and avoidance affect concentration and daily life.

Explore the safety principle of trauma-informed care, focusing on physical and psychological safety for patients and clinicians, and how safe environments, empathy, and family presence support healing.

Discover how trauma-informed care builds trustworthiness and transparency through open communication, dependable professionals, and clear policies that support survivors of abuse while addressing cost transparency.

Learn the third principle of trauma informed care: peer support, where trained peers provide emotional support, education, and practical help through groups both in person and online.

Collaborate across direct care staff, administrators, and patients to align goals, share responsibilities, and ensure patient input guides medical decisions.

Empower patients to voice their choices in trauma informed care decisions by informing them of alternatives and encouraging open communication, recognizing resilience and promoting healing.

Identify and address unconscious biases in trauma informed care by meeting patients' cultural and gender preferences, implementing policies, and building trust with families to prevent re-traumatization.

Explore how trauma informed care applies in health care settings through Jennifer's case, revealing PTSD, developmental trauma, adverse childhood experiences, and EMDR therapy.

Explore the three main trauma types: acute, chronic, and complex, and focus on developmental trauma and adverse childhood experiences, their inside-the-home origins, and the long-term physical, emotional, and cognitive impacts.

Historical trauma is multigenerational suffering in oppressed groups from events like slavery, the Holocaust, colonialism, or genocide, linked to mental and physical health problems and substance abuse and violence.

Explore intergenerational trauma, the transmission of trauma across generations, with refugee camps illustrating chronic trauma, its effects on survivors and offspring, and cycles worsen when coping mechanisms are lacking.

Examine interpersonal trauma and its effects beyond the home, including childhood abuse, neglect, and violence. Learn trauma-informed care practices that validate survivors, encourage talking when ready, and promote healing activities.

Explore intimate partner violence (IPV) as a harmful trauma subtype, detailing physical, sexual, and psychological or emotional violence. Recognize IPV as a public health issue affecting women, men, and children.

Explore trauma-informed care concepts as you recognize how trauma triggers the body's stress response with cortisol and adrenaline, and examine its mental and physical health impacts.

Explore adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and their trauma effects on neurological, hormonal, and immune systems from infancy through adolescence, and learn prevention through trauma-informed care in homes, schools, and communities.

Implement trauma informed care through organizational, social environmental, and clinical practices, starting with organizational restructuring and upper management buy-in to align policies and foster a welcoming hospital environment.

Explore social environmental practices as the second principle of trauma informed care, focusing on hiring trauma-informed staff, protecting workers from trauma, and implementing prevention strategies for a safer, supportive workplace.

Listen to patients, involve them in treatment decisions, and screen for trauma to identify victims; assign staff and present medical, psychological, and social options to help patients decide.

Showcases trauma informed care in action, highlighting trustworthiness, transparency, safety, collaboration, and neutrality as a survivor undergoes a forensic exam and safeguards evidence to seek justice.

Explore prolonged exposure therapy, including imaginal and in vivo exposure, breathing techniques, and trauma informed care, to desensitize trauma memories and reduce anxiety over months.

Explore eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (emdr) therapy for PTSD, detailing how stimuli help access memories and differentiate it from prolonged exposure, across eight phases.

Explore a case study on trauma recovery using EMDR therapy, tracing a war paramedic's journey from posttraumatic symptoms to adaptive resolution through phase-based processing and SUDS assessment.

Explore child-parent psychotherapy (CPP), a trauma-informed approach for children and caregivers that blends attachment theory, developmental psychology, and cognitive-behavioral methods to improve relationships and recover from trauma.

Arc, a child-focused trauma-informed model, helps caregivers build secure attachments, regulate emotions, and develop competency in children, reducing post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and boosting adaptability and social skills.

Apply trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (tf-cbt) to reduce negative emotional and behavioral responses, combining CBT with exposure therapy and guiding patients to disclose trauma, analyze thoughts, and develop coping strategies.

Explore the psychology of PTSD and its symptoms, stages, and risk factors, the role of culture in diagnosis, and counseling and treatment options for displaced populations.

Explore the history of posttraumatic stress disorder, from shellshock and soldier's heart to CSR, and examine how war, disease, slavery, and domestic violence shaped its cultural impacts.

Define post-traumatic stress disorder and show how various traumas trigger it. Describe avoidance of loud noises or unwanted contact, dream reliving, and persistent fear.

Explore four PTSD symptom types—intrusion, avoidance, alterations in cognition and mood, and alterations in arousal and reactivity—and onset can occur within three months or years, with symptoms varying by individual.

Identify PTSD risk factors such as prior mental trauma, childhood abuse, depression, and substance use, and learn proactive steps to reduce stress and bolster coping skills.

Identify lack of social and emotional support, ongoing stress, and continual anxiety as key risk factors for PTSD, and recognize how supportive relationships can lessen PTSD symptoms.

Identify PTSD risk groups across ages, genders, and cultures, and explain how trauma exposure and discrimination influence treatment accessibility and outcomes.

Explore dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) and how clinicians apply mindfulness, distress tolerance, and emotional regulation. Learn DBT's use in treating depression, anxiety, and personality disorders with case illustrations.

Explore dialectical behavior therapy, dbt, balancing accepting mental illness with improvement while teaching skills to manage thoughts, emotions, and actions, integrating cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness.

Explore dialectical behavior therapy, defined by three core assumptions: everything is interrelated, change is continuous, and opposing forces must be combined to foster change.

Trace the history of dialectical behavior therapy from Marsha Linehan's late 1970s work on borderline personality disorder to an acceptance-focused CBT approach. See how validation reshaped self-destructive thoughts.

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) treats depression, bulimia, binge eating disorder, bipolar disorder, PTSD, and substance use disorders, including comorbid cases, as shown in Jenny’s case of recovery and improved relationships.

Compare dialectical behavior therapy with cognitive behavioral therapy, noting CBT targets anxiety, depression, and substance abuse, while DBT, a long-term process addressing bipolar personality disorder, PTSD, eating disorders, and self-harm.