Crisis and Trauma Counseling in Clinical Counseling

This academic course is designed to meet three-semester units of crisis or trauma counseling for LPCC licensing in California.

Crisis and Trauma Counseling in Clinical Counseling supports students to acquire the knowledge, and to develop the skills and professional dispositions, associated with providing crisis and trauma counseling to diverse populations. The course aligns with and supports 20/20: A Vision for the Future of Counseling’s unified definition of counseling as a professional relationship that empowers diverse individuals, families, and groups to accomplish mental health, wellness, education, and career goals.

Instructional Strategy:
This course is designed for adult learners. It is offered in an online instructional format that is both instructor- and peer-driven. Students are expected to engage in up to four learning activities per course section.

Learning activities include:
1. Reading the assigned sections of the texts.
2. Viewing video lectures and/or PowerPoint presentations, when applicable.
3. Responding to two discussion questions.
4. Completing a practice quiz (sections 1-14) and final examination (section 15).

Course Learning Outcomes:
•    CLO1: Demonstrate knowledge of fundamental theories of trauma and trauma processes.
•    CLO2: Demonstrate knowledge of common signs and symptoms of trauma -- including cognitive, affective, neurobiological, and behavioral effects -- and the potential impact of psychological, psychopharmacological, developmental, and cultural factors upon trauma response and presentation.
•    CLO3: Understand models and tools for the assessment of trauma in diverse populations.
•    CLO4: Understand the similarities and distinctions between evidence-based practices for disaster, crisis, brief, intermediate, and long-term interventions.
•    CLO5: Demonstrate knowledge of evidence-based, culturally-competent interventions for working with special populations, including those traumatized by bereavement, disability, sexual trauma, early childhood trauma, adolescent trauma, adult trauma, intimate partner violence, elder abuse, military conflict, criminal victimization and/or racial/ethnic intolerance or hate crimes.
•    CLO6: Demonstrate knowledge of evidence-based interventions for working in specific contexts, including within the community, schools, and the workplace.
•    CLO7: Understand the role of the professional counselor as member of an interdisciplinary trauma response team.
•    CLO8: Understand the specific legal and ethical issues related to disaster, crisis, and trauma counseling.
•    CLO9: Demonstrate understanding of burn-out, vicarious trauma, secondary trauma, and compassion fatigue, and the importance of self-care to ethical practice.

Required Text Books:
Levers, L. (Editor) (2012). Trauma Counseling Theories and Interventions. Springer Publishing Company. New York, New York.
Miller, G. (2012). Fundamentals of Crisis Counseling. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Hoboken, New Jersey.

Instructor:
Diana M. Concannon, PsyD, PCI, is is a forensic psychologist, certified forensic examiner, and a professional certified investigator. She works extensively with individuals who have been exposed to violence, natural disasters, and other traumas, as well as with organizations, correctional institutions and forensic mental health facilities to assess threats of violence. She is a certified Rape Escape instructor and a certified Management of Aggressive Behavior instructor. She is the author of Kidnapping: An Investigator’s Guide to Profiling, Associate Provost for Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships at Alliant International University, Associate Professor in the California School of Forensic Studies, and Interim Director of the online Master’s in Clinical Counseling program.