Understanding Trauma: Principles and Practice (ref. D18)
This one-year, part-time course is for professionals working with people coming for help following experiences of trauma. This includes presentations of PTSD, single episodes of trauma, multiple or chronic trauma, complex trauma, and childhood trauma.
Who is this course for?
Any professionals working with those who experiece trauma – you do not need to be psychoanalytically trained. Past students attending the course have included professionals working with PTSD and trauma in generic mental health settings such as clinical psychologists, counsellors, psychotherapists and those working in specialist trauma-related services, such as professionals working with the police, emergency services, refugees and asylum seekers.
Aims
- Understand more about a psychoanalytic approach to the aftermath of trauma and the contribution it can make to work with PTSD and other trauma-related presentations.
- Apply the concepts being studied to your own working practice.
Content/Teaching components
The course focus is on a psychoanalytic approach to understanding and working with trauma, but is open to professionals working within any therapeutic framework, and explores the specific contribution of a psychoanalytic approach. Core course staff are from the Tavistock Trauma Service.
1. Work discussion group
2. Theory Seminar/Lecture
3. Experiential group
4. Application group
Lecture List Overview
The Tavistock Model: The brief consultation work
Psychic Defences
Identificatory Processes
The Compulsion to Repeat
Acting Out and Working Through
Containment
Trauma and the Capacity to Symbolize
Case example
On-going work with traumatised individuals
The relevance of neuroscience in understanding trauma
The intergenerational transmission of trauma
The traumatic impact of natural disaster
The impact of trauma on those around: workers, families and bystanders
False Memory Syndrome
Working with Refugees and Asylum seekers
Working with victims of torture
Working with sexual abuse
Student feedback
"This course has really helped me to grow as a therapist and to engage more robustly with my patients"
"I feel more competent of working in-depth with trauma"
"Excellent teaching - this course has enabled me to see why the Tavi has such a good reputation"
Closing date
26th June (late applications may be considered).
Professional accreditation
Towards the end of the year’s course, students will be given the option to submit a paper. This paper should be approximately 4,000 words. Successful completion will lead to the award of a Tavistock Certificate of Studies in Understanding Trauma.
Time commitment
The course takes place on Thursday afternoons from 2.00pm to 6.15pm.
Course Readings and Access to Library Resources
When you begin your course you will be issued with an online study pack which you can access via our Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) called Moodle. Having a study pack means most of your key course readings for the whole year will be available to you simply by logging onto your Moodle course page. You can then print off the readings as you require them. Our students find this resource invaluable and it means you can have 24/7 access to your readings. Readings that are not included in your study pack can be obtained from the Library once you have enrolled with the Library at the end of September.
The Tavistock and Portman Library is nationally recognised as a leading UK therapeutic resource. For more information about our library follow the link www.tavi-port.org/library
