Format: Live-online Lecturer Led Classes (Virtual-Classroom) via Zoom

Duration: 1 Evening Every Week 6pm to 9pm

Length: 10 Weeks

Online Live Attendance: 30 Hours

Self-Directed Learning: 30 Hours

Total CPD Credits: 60 Credits

Assessment: Formative & Summative

Award: Accredited Professional Diploma

 

Course Accreditation:

• • Professional Development Consortium

  • Provider of Excellence

  • CPD Standards Office

  • Irish Counselling & Psychotherapy Association (ICPA)

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​Description

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The Professional Diploma in Traumatology & PTSD is an intensive, CPD-accredited clinical training programme designed for psychotherapists, counsellors, psychologists, and mental health professionals seeking advanced knowledge and practical skills in the assessment and treatment of psychological trauma and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

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Accredited by The CPD Standards Office (UK) and awarding 50 CPD Points, this live online programme bridges the latest developments in trauma research with a robust, integrative therapeutic framework. It equips practitioners to work effectively with the complex and often overwhelming impacts of trauma on the brain, body, and relational systems.

Drawing on cutting-edge neuroscience, developmental psychology, somatic regulation, and trauma-informed clinical practices, this diploma explores trauma across its many presentations—acute, chronic, complex, intergenerational, developmental, and dissociative. Special attention is given to understanding PTSD, Complex PTSD (C-PTSD), and trauma’s entanglement with anxiety, shame, dissociation, CBT Treatment and addiction.

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The course offers an evidence-based yet humanistic approach to trauma care, emphasising not only clinical tools but also the centrality of therapeutic presence, safety, and resilience-building in post-traumatic recovery.

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Learning Outcomes

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By the end of this diploma, participants will be able to:

• Understand the neurobiology of trauma, including the role of the amygdala, hippocampus, and vagus nerve.

• Differentiate between PTSD, Complex PTSD, and developmental trauma presentations.

• Conduct trauma-informed assessments using established clinical frameworks.

• Apply integrative treatment strategies grounded in somatic, cognitive, relational, and psychoeducational modalities.

• Recognise the signs of dissociation, fragmentation, and autonomic dysregulation in clients.

• Incorporate safety and stabilisation techniques, grounding tools, and affect regulation protocols.

• Navigate professional and ethical challenges in trauma treatment, including re-traumatisation and therapist vicarious trauma.

• Facilitate post-traumatic growth and long-term healing through resilience-focused practices.

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Course Content

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Module 1: Foundations of Psychological Trauma

• Definitions and classifications of trauma: acute, chronic, complex, developmental, intergenerational

• Historical and contemporary models of trauma theory

• Trauma as an adaptive survival response

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Module 2: Neurobiology of Trauma & the Nervous System

• Brain structures in trauma: amygdala, hippocampus, prefrontal cortex

• Autonomic nervous system, vagal pathways, and stress physiology

• Polyvagal theory and neuroception of safety and threat

 

Module 3: Attachment, Developmental Trauma & Early Relational Wounds

• Attachment theory and trauma bonding

• Developmental trauma and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)

• Trauma across the lifespan and relational imprinting

 

Module 4: PTSD and Complex PTSD (C-PTSD)

• DSM-5 vs ICD-11 diagnostic frameworks

• Symptom clusters: intrusion, avoidance, hyperarousal, affect dysregulation

• Trauma memory, flashbacks, and time-collapse phenomena

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Module 5: Trauma-Informed Assessment & Clinical Formulation

• Trauma-sensitive intake, pacing, and history-taking

• Risk assessment, stabilisation thresholds, and contraindications

• Case formulation using developmental, attachment, and neurobiological lenses

 

Module 6: Phase-Oriented Trauma Treatment Model

• Safety and stabilisation as the foundation of trauma therapy

• Processing and integration phases

• Working within client tolerance and window of capacity

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Module 7: Somatic Regulation & Body-Based Interventions

• Somatic awareness, interoception, and tracking

• Grounding, titration, pendulation, and resourcing

• Bottom-up regulation and restoring embodied safety

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Module 8: Cognitive, Narrative & Meaning-Making Approaches

• Trauma-focused CBT principles

• Cognitive restructuring and trauma narratives

• Identity repair, coherence, and post-traumatic meaning

 

Module 9: Dissociation, Shame & the Fragmented Self

• Dissociative spectrum and structural dissociation

• Emotional numbing, parts work, and fragmentation

• Shame, self-criticism, and cultivating self-compassion

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Module 10: The Therapist’s Role, Ethics & Post-Traumatic Growth

• Therapeutic presence, embodiment, and relational safety

• Vicarious trauma, countertransference, and burnout prevention

• Facilitating resilience, integration, and post-traumatic growth