Trauma Therapist Training Course
6 Week Online Course
Spots are available for our January 2025 cohort
Are you interested in how to become a trauma therapist?
Do you find yourself feeling tentative, unsure or uncomfortable knowing how to proceed when a client discloses a history of trauma?
Do you ever feel overwhelmed or confused when trying to decide what interventions to use with a client who struggles with trauma-related challenges?
OR do you feel like you can cover the basics, but now are eager to become more expert and capable of helping all clients with trauma histories, no matter how complex they might be?
Have you felt disappointed with trauma courses that offer only didactic lectures/recordings with no interactive training or real-time on-demand support?
In this six week course, you will learn
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that helps to respectfully and empathically instill trust and foster openness with your clients
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and evaluation methods for trauma exposure and trauma-related symptoms
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to help clarify the clinical picture, no matter how complex
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to elucidate how and why your client is struggling and what is maintaining their difficulties
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to help you differentiate between therapies that are more or less effective for a particular client’s trauma-related symptoms
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and how to effectively anticipate and respond to them (e.g. mistrust, avoidance, dissociation)
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that often present with trauma exposure (e.g. substance use, anxiety disorders, OCD-spectrum disorders, traumatic brain injury) in a skillful way
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for all clients, including clients who experienced race- and/or gender-based violence
Why should I pursue training as a trauma therapist?
More than 70% of people will experience a traumatic event over the course of their lives.
This means that most clients you see will have experienced a traumatic event.
Research shows that therapists-in-training are not learning foundational information about trauma, its consequences or evidence-informed treatments for trauma. These deficits are found across all levels of psychology, social work, counseling and other therapy training.
Many licensed therapists are treating trauma survivors but have not had sufficient training in evidence-informed practices for survivors of trauma.
Our clients deserve better.
What does the Trauma Therapist Training Course include?
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Quality on-demand lectures
You will have access to six hour-long recorded lectures that cover a range of essential topics to increase your competencies in assessing and treating clients with trauma histories and PTSD. You will be encouraged to watch one course each week to keep up with course content.
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Live group consultation
You will have six weekly hour-long live group consultation meetings via zoom composed of five clinicians facilitated by Dr. Stephanie Sacks.
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Live individual consultation & support
You will have one hour-long live individual consultation call via zoom with Dr. Stephanie Sacks during the course. You will also have access to Dr. Sacks via email for any trauma-related clinical questions.
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Interventions & resources
You will have access to quality interventions, handouts, resources, websites and additional training materials about trauma, PTSD and trauma-informed care each week.
Who is this course for?
Independently-licensed mental health professionals (psychologists, psychiatrists, LCSW, LMFTs, LCSWs, MSWs, Clinical Nurse Specialists, etc.)
Clinicians who are motivated and passionate about growing their clinical skills for working effectively with an in-need population of traumatized individuals
Therapists who currently have clients with trauma exposure and/or PTSD
Providers who primarily work with adolescents, adults and older adults
Clinicians who learn best in a multi-media fashion, including by interacting and engaging in live consultation
Therapists who are excited to use the best available science to inform their clinical practice
Clinicians who are unwavering in their commitment to ethical and compassionate clinical care with their traumatized clients
Providers that are validating, celebratory and affirming of all individual differences (race, immigrant status, gender identify, sexual orientation, religion, neurodiversity, etc)
The cost of this 6-week course is $3,000.
Spots are currently available in our January 2025 cohort
Meet Dr. Stephanie Sacks
Dr. Stephanie Sacks is a licensed clinical psychologist with over 15 years of experience working with clients with trauma and PTSD. She is an expert in the field of Traumatic Stress and has accumulated a wealth of experiences teaching, training and providing consultation to other clinicians.
Want to know more about Stephanie?
Want to see Dr. Sacks in action?
How do I become a trauma therapist?
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While a lot of the information online is useful, it is an easy place to run into misinformation.
A helpful approach is to arm yourself with knowledge about well-researched competencies and skills required to become an excellent trauma therapist. Professional organizations like the American Psychological Association have performed extensive researched and published the competencies necessary to become a trauma-informed clinician. Use guides like these to help you distinguish what trauma courses are congruent with best practices and how to find the most useful and best trauma training, trauma courses and/or trauma certifications.
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If you are very early in your career, it is a good idea to look into graduate programs, practicum placements, internships and postdoctoral fellowships that offer trauma therapy training. Specifically, look for programs and opportunities that offer:
a. specific trauma-related courses, classes and seminars
b. clinical placements or rotations that offer opportunities to work with traumatized individuals (i.e. Veterans Affairs Hospitals, Domestic Violence shelters, substance use clinics, eating disorder clinics, community mental health clinics)
c. supervision by licensed clinicians that have expertise working with traumatized individuals and who are well-trained in evidence-based PTSD treatments
d. opportunities to work with faculty that research trauma and PTSD
e. formal training in evidence-based treatments for trauma-related symptoms and/or PTSD -
There are plenty of ways to obtain trauma training and learn trauma therapy techniques no matter how long you’ve been practicing. You might seek out some or all of the following:
a. Trauma Continuing Education courses or PTSD Continuing Education courses
b. Comprehensive trauma training courses and seminars that are in-person, or you might opt for online options, such as the Trauma Therapist Training Course.
c. Workshops and trainings on evidence-based treatments for PTSD, such as Cognitive Processing Therapy, Prolonged Exposure Therapy and EMDR. -
It can be extremely enriching and useful to join professional organizations whose mission is to educate and advocate for those affected by traumatic stress. One such organization is the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS). ISTSS has excellent resources that are free, including online trauma courses. ISTSS also holds yearly conferences with many incredible opportunities to attend trauma treatment courses, trauma trainings and PTSD treatment workshops. Another excellent organization, particularly if you want to work with traumatized children, is the National Child Traumatic Stress Network.
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No matter how much you come to know about trauma and PTSD, the science continues to advance. For this reason, it is a great idea that we all continue to read the newest research on trauma and PTSD in order to keep our learning and knowledge up-to-date.
In addition, try to practice humility and to remind yourself that no matter how expert you become in this field, we can all sometimes benefit from consultation and clinical oversight. The National Center for PTSD has an excellent PTSD Consultation Program for clinicians working with Veterans with PTSD. Another avenue is to look for trainings such as Trauma Therapy Training Course, which includes live group and individual consultation on trauma and PTSD from an expert in the field of traumatic stress.
There is great need for quality trauma therapists and well-trained PTSD therapists. Below are 5 steps that you can take to grow in your journey to become a trauma expert.
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