Current Approaches to Trauma

(1 Credit)

This course will be an introduction to the assessment and diagnosis of psychological trauma, with an emphasis on its physiology. It will provide an overview of the history of psychology's understanding of traumatic experience and how that has shifted over time. Dissociative disorders, as traumatic sequelae, will be discussed. New diagnostic categories of Complex PTSD and DESNOS, Disorders of Extreme Stress Not Otherwise Specified, will be explained. Then, an in-depth exploration will highlight cutting edge research into current treatment modalities, including body-oriented psychotherapies and EMDR. Vivid clinical case material will be presented and films will be used to illustrate phase-oriented treatment of trauma.