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Trauma-Informed Assessment and Stabilization
Six hours for the clinician who is not a trauma specialist but sees trauma weekly: screening and differential assessment, phase-oriented care, teachable stabilization and grounding skills, and honest referral boundaries for specialist treatment. This course does not certify you in any trauma treatment technique, and says so.
BySeph Fontane Pennock
Reviewed byMichael Callans, MSWCurriculum and outcomes
After this course you will be able to
- Apply trauma-informed principles to the intake and consent conversation
- Screen for trauma and differentiate related presentations
- Apply phase-oriented principles without imposing fixed waiting periods
- Teach grounding and stabilization skills with stop and choice built in
- Build a practical stabilization plan around current safety and context
- Document scope limits and coordinate referral, handoff and continuity
What the course covers
- 01Trauma, PTSD and a trauma-informed approach
- 02Consent, pacing and the intake
- 03Screening: what a score can and cannot show
- 04Differential assessment and current safety
- 05Phase-oriented care: what comes first and why
Who this course is for
- Generalist clinicians who see trauma weekly but are not trauma specialists
- Teams adopting trauma-informed intake and screening
- Clinicians who want to know when and how to refer
- 06Specialist treatments and readiness without gatekeeping
- 07Grounding: purpose, consent and choice
- 08When a skill is unhelpful: monitor, stop and adapt
- 09Stabilization in daily life
- 10Ongoing danger, barriers and the stabilization plan
- 11Working within your scope
- 12Referral pathways, handoff and continuity
How it works
This is a self-paced, asynchronous course (home study), not a live webinar or scheduled class. Reading with optional audio, case material worked in full, and short knowledge checks along the way. The course ends with a final exam (60 questions, retake allowed) and a course evaluation. Your certificate of completion issues immediately and stays downloadable from your private course link.
Common questions
Will I learn EMDR or other trauma treatments?
No, and we say so plainly: technique training and certification live with their own credentialing bodies. This course covers assessment, stabilization, scope, and referral done well.
What stabilization skills are included?
Grounding and regulation skills clients keep, taught with stop and choice built in, plus phase-oriented planning that sequences care around safety, consent and specialist access, without fixed waiting periods before referral.
Who reviews this content?
Sources and legal claims are checked against the primary texts before release where those texts are available, and our editorial board reviews CE content on an ongoing basis. The faculty line on this page names the reviewer once one is assigned.
Our promise
Take the course. Work the cases. If it is not what you needed and you have not yet passed the final exam, one email within 30 days gets you a full refund. No forms, no questions, no partial credit games.
Three ways to take it
This course
$69
- 6 hours of instruction
- Final exam and certificate of completion
- 12 months of access
- Courses that are not open yet offer a waitlist
Secure checkout by Stripe. Invoice included automatically. Full refund within 30 days if you have not yet passed a final exam. Email us to request it.
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$99
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$149/year
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- Every course we have open
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- Certificates stay yours if you cancel
The Psychology.com standard
How our courses are developed and delivered.
Development
Built to a specification written by licensed clinicians, first-drafted with generative AI, and reviewed by our editorial board before release. The development disclosure appears on each course page. We disclose the AI drafting because you deserve to know how the material was made, and because a course you rely on professionally should never hide its method.
The exam
The final exam opens after you mark every reading module complete. Question and answer order are randomized for each attempt; retakes are allowed.
Sources and dates
The course reader includes a bibliography. Our state requirement guides identify board sources and show a last-verified date.
Credit
Our courses are not CE-approved and carry no license-renewal credit. Completion earns a certificate of completion.
Eligibility
This course is self-paced and asynchronous, so it does not satisfy any requirement for live or synchronous training. CE credit approvals for this course are in progress with our accreditation partners. Until an approval is confirmed for your license type and state, treat this course as professional development. This page will list the exact approvals the course carries; we do not claim approvals we do not have.
Crisis resources
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 (Suicide and Crisis Lifeline) in the US. Our courses train professionals and are not a crisis service.