Program Description
Vermont State University’s Trauma Studies Certificate program is an 18-credit interdisciplary program designed for police and corrections officers, nurses and emergency medical technicians, social workers, and educators. As a student in this program, you will learn more about the nature of trauma, how trauma can manifest itself, and self-care for those who work with individuals experiencing trauma.
The curriculum, which includes courses in vicarious trauma, racial, ethnic and gender discrimination, family violence, and abnormal psychology, helps you to develop the skills needed to become a compassionate and effective trauma specialist and to better understand the needs of individuals recovering from trauma.
After completing the certificate program in Trauma Studies, you will be better qualified for work in crisis response and to provide trauma-informed care in community mental health, addiction and recovery treatment, and support programs for veterans and survivors of domestic violence.
The program is designed to be completed in conjunction with an undergraduate degree program but can also be completed as a stand-alone program for working professionals.
Program Outcomes
- Students will be able to demonstrate how structural inequality (such as racism, gender inequality, heteronormativity) contributes to individual trauma and that while building individual resiliency is important, it is also necessary to dismantle the inequality that causes trauma.
- Students will demonstrate how the intersectionality of race, class, gender, sexuality, and ableism influences levels of trauma and how this trauma manifests itself.
- Students will be able to apply trauma informed care that will benefit them in their future occupations.
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of the link between ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) and physical and mental health problems later in life.
- Students will demonstrate the difference between big T traumas and little t traumas.
- Students demonstrate an understanding of how to navigate vicarious trauma that might result from their professions in the future and also will apply methods of self-care.
- The interdisciplinary nature of this certificate means students will demonstrate an understanding of trauma from multiple perspectives and professions. This will enable students to better understand the far-reaching implications of trauma and identify ways that we see the impact of trauma in everyday life.
- Students will be able to apply the trauma informed understanding to the diverse work and career opportunities involving trauma.
