CN8800 Trauma-informed Practice
Unit Description
Pre-requisites
CN8100 Basic Counselling Skills;
CN8200 Counselling for Common Issues
Co-requisites
Should be taken after or concurrent with CN8500 Person-Centred Therapies: Theory and Practice and CN8600 Person-Centred Counselling Skills
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit, the student will be able to:
Validate contemporary theories of trauma including various domains of trauma effects
Hypothesise the role of social structures, cultural norms and institutional power in trauma vulnerability
Justify and apply current models of trauma therapy against personal values, Christian principles, effectiveness and considerations of safety
Differentiate incident trauma from complex trauma and select appropriate responses that respect diversity including cultural and neurodiversity
Unit Description
This unit provides students with an awareness of the often far-reaching effects of trauma in the lives of individuals and communities. It provides an introduction to lifespan development and its relationship to trauma, especially complex trauma as well as current theories about, and approaches to, healing trauma. The concept of trauma in counselling and psychology is examined, as well as the domains of trauma’s effects, how to help clients respond to crises, and how to work with those diagnosed with PTSD and Complex PTSD.
The unit also explores neurodiversity - especially diagnoses like ADHD and ASD - and its relationship to repeated or complex traumatising experience. Approaches to trauma presented in this unit are informed by a framework comprising four overlapping domains of effect (relationships, affect, identity, view of the world) and an assumption that trauma, and responses to trauma, can always be rendered meaningful in some way.
Topics
- What does “trauma” mean?
- The effects of trauma
- Trauma, power, and oppression
- Trauma and lifespan development
- “Incident Trauma” vs. “Complex Trauma”
- Jesus’ response to oppressed and traumatised people
- Post-traumatic Stress Disorders and the medicalisation of responses to trauma
- Collective Trauma
- Neurodiversity and Trauma
- Risks and cautions in trauma counselling
- Safe therapeutic practises for working with the effects of trauma
- Second-hand trauma and sustainable practice with traumatised clients
Unit offerings
Face to face: (Demand based)Please note
The Unit Offerings listed above are a guide only and the timetable for any year is the final authority. The College may vary offerings based on demand, regulatory requirements, continual improvement processes or other conditions.
This unit may be available in different modes of delivery i.e. online and face-to-face as listed above. The unit content will not differ between these modes of delivery. There will possibly be a difference in the schedule and/or the prescribed assessment tasks, however both will cover and assess the same content.