Trauma-Informed Care

“Trauma is not what happens to us, but what happens inside of us as a result of what happened to us.” Gabor Mate

You’ve probably heard a lot of talk about being trauma-informed. It’s a term that’s being embraced by professionals, clinicians and organisations that are actively seeking out ways to ensure their practices and services fit the label.

London Counselling and Consultancy provide several trauma-informed training courses and workshops.  We provide a psychoeducational therapeutic course for individuals interested in understanding trauma and its impacts, as well as a Trauma-Informed Care training course for professionals to become better trauma-informed in the workplace and in their practices.

Trauma-Informed Therapeutic Course for Individuals

The Trauma-Informed Therapeutic Programme is a 12-week course designed to help individuals understand trauma and its effects. This is an online course facilitated weekly via twelve online psychoeducational sessions. The sessions will enhance your knowledge and understanding of what trauma is, and the effects and consequences on your physical, mental, spiritual and emotional health, as well as your relationships and other affected areas (bio-psycho-social).

We explore the neuro-biology aspects of trauma on the brain, polyvagal theory, the nervous system and how it has become dysregulated and techniques to reset and regulate. We also explore stress responses, mental patterns and defence mechanisms that have formed as a result. These include maladaptive stress responses and unhealthy behaviours such as substance misuse, addictions, process addictions, people addictions, self-harm, dissociation and eating disorders, to name a few.

The outcomes of the programme are to:

  • Understand what trauma is, the key symptoms and how it develops

  • Gain knowledge and understanding of the different types of trauma, including developmental, attachment, complex trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

  • Gain an awareness of your ACE Score by completing the questionnaire, and how that may be impacting you today.

  • Recognise and understand the impact of trauma and how it presents itself in your daily life through your stress responses, actions and thought patterns.

  • Understand the impact of trauma on the ‘mind’ and ‘body’, including the physiological and psychological effects

  • Develop an understanding of the neurobiology of trauma and how it alters brain function and structure, neuroplasticity and dissociation.

  • Gain an understanding of what PTSD and C-PTSD are, the differences between the two and how they develop

  • Gain an understanding of Polyvagal Theory and how trauma impacts the nervous system, the body’s command centre.

  • Understand the role of the vagus nerve and how to track and soothe it once activated

  • Understand the links between trauma and addiction, including substance misuse, gambling and other process and behavioural addictions

It’s an in-depth programme that aims to educate you regarding trauma and its effects fully and teaches you to begin to regulate your nervous system, which is vital for trauma processing and recovery.

The twelve sessions are each an hour long and are conducted weekly. This is a psychoeducational and therapeutic programme which is helpful before embarking on trauma recovery work.

“It is not the traumatic events that haunt survivors for decades afterwards. It is the impact or legacy of those events in the form of emotional, body and behavioural memories”. Janina Fisher, PhD

Trauma-Informed Care Training for Professionals and Organisations

London Counselling and Consultancy’s Trauma-Informed Care Training aims to help staff and services understand the impact of all forms of trauma on people and respond sensitively. It supports staff to ensure they ‘do no harm’ through care delivery that, without thought or intention, could re-traumatise individuals. It is suitable for all staff (both clinical and non-clinical) working with people who may have a trauma history. The training may be more relevant to certain roles than others but is important the whole organisation is trauma-informed, regardless of the direct or indirect contact they have with clients and service users. 

All staff can play a part in ensuring people affected by trauma (and their families) feel safe and seen, understanding what it means to work in a trauma-informed way. The training will aid the workforce to strengthen trauma-informed practice and policy throughout the organisation and enable them to effectively support and engage with service users impacted by trauma. This means they will be better equipped to support them at an understandably difficult and stressful time. The training aims for you to:

  • Understand what trauma is, the key symptoms and how it develops

  • Gain knowledge and understanding of the different types of trauma, including developmental, attachment, complex trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences.

  • Recognise and understand the impact of trauma and how experiences may present during work-related situations

  • Understand the impact of trauma on the ‘mind’ and ‘body’, including the physiological and psychological effects

  • Gain an understanding of what PTSD and C-PTSD are and how they develop

  • Gain an understanding of Polyvagal Theory and how trauma impacts the nervous system and the brain

  • Understand the links between trauma and addiction, including substance misuse, gambling and other process and behavioural addictions

  • Understand Trauma-Informed Practice and care, and how to respond more effectively to support people

  • Know how to work in a trauma-informed, safe manner and know when to support or when to refer on

  • Respond to disclosures effectively and tailor care to the needs of service users, so that services do not re-traumatise individuals 

  • Know how to recognise and respond to trauma in your roles and how Trauma-Informed Practice can increase job satisfaction, motivation and resilience

  • Best support staff working directly with service users and clients, acknowledging the effects of vicarious trauma. Recognising that staff may have their own experiences of trauma, which could impact their capacity to deliver Trauma-Informed Care

  • Ensure your organisation incorporates Trauma-Informed Practice (TIP) with suggested guidelines and checklists for implementing TIP through your organisation.

Trauma-Informed Practice aims to increase practitioners’, employees’ and professionals' knowledge and understanding of how trauma can negatively impact individuals and communities, and their ability to feel safe or develop trusting relationships with health care providers, services and their staff.

Who is the training for?

This training is suitable for all staff (both clinical and non-clinical) working with people who may have a trauma history. This includes directors, managers, staff, medical practitioners, volunteers and other staff of treatment centres, behavioural addiction and substance misuse services and charities, counselling/psychotherapy and coaching services, housing associations, homeless services and charities, prisons and young offenders institutions, schools, pupil referral units, universities and all other educational organisations that are working with clients, service users, residents and students that may have experienced or been impacted by trauma or have a trauma history.  

How is the training delivered?

The training is tailored to support the requirements of the organisation participating. We understand that it isn't always possible to take all staff and volunteers off the timetable and their duties to attend training and still run a treatment centre or service. Therefore, the training can be facilitated to suit your requirements. It can be delivered as a two-day in-house or online training run over two consecutive days, or the two days can be spread out weekly or delivered over four half-day sessions. This is recommended for directors and managers where adequate time can be built in to discuss your policies and procedures and explore how to implement them within the organisation and effectively work with and support your staff. 

The training can also be delivered as a nine-week online course. Each session will be between sixty and ninety minutes and consists of nine modules.  This is recommended for key workers, recovery workers, counsellors, housing officers, prison officers, teachers, etc., who have a caseload or work a shift pattern. The nine modules consist of:

Module 1: What is Trauma?

Module 2: Trauma and Mental Health

Module 3: The Effects of Trauma

Module 4: Trauma and the Brain

Module 5: Trauma and the Nervous System

Module 6: Polyvagal Theory

Module 7: Trauma and Addiction

Module 8: Trauma-Informed Practice

Module 9: Case Studies 

The training is engaging, interactive and includes exercises, discussions, break-out groups and case studies. All organisations taking part in the trauma-informed care training will receive an eighty-five-page trauma-informed care toolkit, and all staff attending the training will receive a trauma training workbook which is designed to enhance their awareness, understanding and learning capabilities. It tests their knowledge of the course information and in the toolkit, does this module-by-module. All attendees will receive a Certificate of Attendance upon completion.

The training is facilitated by Laura Smart, MBACP, MNCPS Accr. who has over fifteen years of experience as a counsellor and consultant; writing, developing and facilitating training programs for professionals, adults and young people from a multitude of organisations, educational settings, criminal justice institutions, substance misuse treatment centres and services and non-profit/charitable organisations.   

To register your interest in the trauma-informed care training or to find out more, please contact us here