Unfortunately, we live in a world where children experience trauma. These experiences can come from outside of the family such as a natural disaster, car accident, school shooting, or community violence or from within the family, such as domestic violence, physical or sexual abuse, or the unexpected death of a loved one. Trauma is the response to a deeply distressing or disturbing event that overwhelms an individual’s ability to cope, causes feelings of helplessness, diminishes their sense of self and their ability to feel the full range of emotions and experiences .How an event affects an individual depends on many factors including characteristics of the individual, the type and characteristics of the event(s), developmental processes, the meaning of the trauma, and sociocultural factors. The impact of trauma can vary from subtle to outright destructive.
The journey in understanding what happened is complicated but it is the clinicians duty to appropriately assess and treat trauma, without causing additional trauma to the client in the process. Moreover, due to the many symptoms of trauma it is important to measure the effectiveness of any treatment. The Certificate in Trauma Treatment with Children and Adolescents consists of evidence-grounded and narrative-based model applied to assessment, diagnosis, and treatment methods. Social workers and other mental health professionals from a variety of clinical settings encounter clients with histories of emotional abuse (referred to as “psychological abuse” in DSM-5 and referred to as “mental injury” in Maryland), physical abuse, sexual abuse, and other adverse life events (trauma). This program provides the opportunity for practitioners to learn and analyze cases through a collaborative knowledge and skill building experience.
This certificate is a collaboration of many local experts in the field and will include numerous therapeutic modalities and opportunities to practice skills.