Trauma, PTSD, Trauma-Focused Approaches and Trauma-Informed Care Training.

Trauma-Informed Practice (TIP).

A 3-hour course.

The overall aim of TIP is to ensure that services are delivered in ways that prevent further harm or retraumatisation for those who have already experienced psychological trauma or adversity at any stage in their lives.

Trauma-Informed Practice principles are generally applicable, for instance in: general practice, mental health, residential care, police, criminal justice social work, addiction services and education. Different authors quote slightly differing lists and numbers of ‘key TIP principles’ but most focus on the following:

• Safety
• Trust
• Choice
• Collaboration
• Empowerment.

Including case examples the course examines the steps that individuals and organisations can take to systematically apply these principles, and the barriers that might get in the way.

Trauma-Informed Practice (TIP): Intensive edition.

A 2-hour course.

The aim of this course is to give you a thorough briefing on Trauma Informed Care and Practice in just 2 hours, to prevent further harm to the millions of people who have suffered trauma.

The principles of Trauma-Informed Practice are applicable wherever you work, and they apply to your clients and to your colleagues. The course covers the following 5 topics:

• Types of trauma: sudden traumas, complex traumas, intergeneration traumas.
• Why so many people currently experience the effects of trauma.
• Possible effects of trauma: hypervigilance, hyperarousal, increased irritability and sleeplessness, loss of trust.
• What we as individuals can do to avoid aggravating these effects, both in our clients and our colleagues.
• Suggested guidelines to implement TIP through your organisation.

It is an interesting and intensive course lasting two hours plus intro and outro slides. You can tackle it in one sitting or at your own pace. Its pricing is intended to make it accessible both for individuals and whole organisations.

Developmental Trauma & Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs): Repairing the Damage™

A 3-day course.

For professionals working with young people who have been through experiences which are by any standards 'damaging'.

Adverse childhood experiences may result in changes in the deepest parts of the brain, resulting in effects which are behavioral, cognitive, biological, social and emotional. Examples include: aggressive behaviour, withdrawal, poor self esteem, hostility to others, lack of interest in activities, disturbed sleep and appetite, sadness, anxiety or anger problems, and poor relationships. Although this is a disturbing list there are many children who exhibit most or all of these as a complete 'package' of problems, resistant to repeated intervention and so the cause of great frustration to professionals. The aim of this course is to repair the damage and so avoid those consequences.

Trauma-Focused CBT, for all ages.

A 3-day course.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is literally a life changing disorder. It is famously difficult to treat, yet Cognitive Behavioural Therapy can produce impressive results.

Experiencing a life-threatening event can leave the person with effects including: persistently re-experiencing the event (e.g. intrusive thoughts and images of it), a numbing of general responsiveness (e.g. less interest in significant activities and a feeling of detachment from others), persistent hyperarousal (e.g. difficulty sleeping, irritability, exaggerated startle response) adding up to significant distress or impaired functioning. This course examines effective Cognitive Behavioural Therapy based interventions (a) to ameliorate these effects and (b) to greatly improve the patient's quality of life where some effects cannot be mitigated.

The Assessment and Risk Assessment of Children & Adolescents in Crisis™

A 3-day course. (2-day version also available.)

Using existing clinical skills and Davies's structured interview.

Assessing adolescents and children in crisis settings often causes professionals a lot of concern. They wonder whether they have the necessary skills, they are concerned about the potential volatility of the situation, they are unfamiliar with having another adult (the parent) present and concerned, they are not sure about consent and confidentiality issues, and they are not completely sure what their role is: assessment, risk-assessment, management, or what?

Preventing PTSD, at work and elsewhere.

A 3-day course.

Serious incidents at work — patient suicides, assaults, severe self-harm, hostage situations — can have lasting effects on the professionals involved. So too can the quieter, cumulative toll of repeated lesser incidents over months and years: something the course addresses in equal depth, and which many professionals find is the more pressing problem in their day-to-day work.

Either way, there is a 30-day window after trauma takes hold in which skilled, well-directed support can make a profound and lasting difference. This course gives you the knowledge, the skills, and multiple resources, including two important checklists, to use that window well.

Crisis Intervention: Risk Assessment, Risk Management and Effective Intervention.

A 3-day course for Mental Health Professionals working Remotely or In-Person.

When we work in crisis, assessment, risk assessment / management, and intervention are inextricably bound up with each other. You cannot intervene effectively unless you have assessed the situation. But equally, you cannot just assess a crisis situation and ‘walk away’ – that will likely inflame it and make it worse. And we must operate by whatever channel is available - in crisis we cannot insist on ‘face to face only’ or phone only or anything else; people in crisis cannot tolerate that. So this course aims to provide the complete package: how to intervene successfully in crises, by whatever channel you work from.

Psychologically Informed Environments (PIE).

A half-day course.

‘Psychologically Informed Environments’ is a term that is mostly used in the context of working with marginalised people, such as the homeless. There are several key ideas:

- The use of therapeutic techniques aimed at producing emotional recovery, and not just applying sticking plaster to help the immediate problem.

- To examine how organisations can be redesigned to help achieve the same aim of emotional recovery and achieve lasting benefit.

- To balance past present and future by:

• Grounding the client in the present.

• Addressing any relevant traumas from the past.

• Planning a realistic and attractive future.

Highlighting self-awareness this half-day course aims to examine some of the problems arising from past interventions and looks at current practices which can achieve the aims of PIE, namely emotional recovery.

Learning the Lessons from Major Incidents.

A 3-day course. (2-day version also available.)

In mental health and related areas there are a number of 'major incidents' that can occur, most notably to do with people losing their lives through suicide, violence or neglect, but also relating to sex offending and a whole range of serious but less tragic events. After a serious incident there often seem to be obvious 'oversights' or mistakes, although some of these are with the wisdom of hindsight. This important course aims to equip managers to examine such incidents and to draw the real lessons from them, while also distinguishing them from those apparent lessons from hindsight. Vitally, the course highlights the importance of 'free lessons' where serious consequences were avoided more by luck than by judgment. One of the major methods on the course is to learn the principles of analysis by examining major incidents from other areas – road traffic accidents and aviation – and then to apply those same lessons to mental health and related areas.

APT Registration.

The Association for Psychological Therapies offers various levels of accreditation to professionals who have completed APT training (or similar).

Trauma FAQs.

View the most frequently asked questions about Psychological Trauma (e.g. "What is Psychological Trauma?").