Description
Childhood adversities and trauma, which are highly prevalent among the general pediatric population, can
negatively affect lifelong health, child development, and social outcomes. This 7 session, video-based series aims
to empower pediatric clinicians with the knowledge and skills to implement evidence-based, trauma-informed care
and resilience promotion in their everyday practice.
This course provides a comprehensive foundation in trauma informed care by reviewing the most common symptoms of trauma, equipping learners to understand the neurobiology and developmental impacts of trauma, promote relational health and resilience, identify, manage, and
respond to trauma through evidence-based screening and interventions, and support children through trauma
informed treatment, referral, and appropriate medication management
1. Trauma-Informed Care: The Science Behind It
Learners will be able to:
- Compare human stress responses: freeze, fight or flight, and affiliate.
- Describe effects of prolonged stress without sufficient buffering on brain connectivity and immune function.
- Identify the seven resilience skills supported by safe, stable, nurturing relationships.
2. Trauma-Informed Care: Presentations of Trauma
Learners will be able to:
- Summarize the concept of social thinning resulting from trauma.
- Identify areas of functioning impacted in developmental trauma disorder.
- Describe how trauma can result in different behavioral health ecophenotypes.
- Identify how trauma symptoms present differently across developmental stages.
3. Trauma-Informed Care: Primary Prevention - Relational Health Care
Learners will be able to:
- Describe relational health, relational health care, and affiliate response.
- Explain the role of safe, stable, nurturing relationships.
- Describe ways caregivers support healthy child development.
- Identify anticipatory guidance concepts that support parent-child relational health.
4. Trauma-Informed Care: Secondary Detection - What and How
Learners will be able to:
- Differentiate trauma screening from social drivers of health screening.
- Identify validated trauma screening tools.
- Describe how neuroception can inform strategies that promote psychological safety during patient encounters.
5. Trauma-Informed Care: Primary Prevention and Tertiary Treatment - The What and How in the Office
Learners will be able to:
- Identify strategies that promote caregiver self-regulation.
- Provide psychoeducation to families on the effects of trauma.
- Describe strategies that help children develop regulation skills, including collaborative problem solving and the cognitive triangle.
6. Trauma-Informed Care: Tertiary Treatment - Therapeutic Options
Learners will be able to:
- Describe key elements of trauma-informed treatment.
- Demonstrate use of warm-handoff referrals.
- Identify evidence-based trauma treatments, including:
- Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT)
- Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP)
- Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
7. Trauma-Informed Care: Tertiary Treatment - Medications
Learners will be able to:
- Identify when medication is appropriate for children exposed to trauma.
- Describe medication's role in addressing sleep difficulties associated with trauma symptoms.
- Develop strategies for deprescribing psychotropic medications when risks outweigh benefits.
