Trauma Training
Basics of Traumatology
A Foundational Trauma Training for Therapists and Helping Professionals
Trainer: Crystal Wildes, PsyD, LP
On-Demand: Available with lifetime access for asynchronous learning. This course was recorded on May 22, 2024.
Trauma shows up in every room you work in. And yet most professional training programs leave you underprepared for what trauma actually looks like, how it lives in the body, and what it takes to create conditions for healing.
Basics of Traumatology is a foundational on-demand training with Dr. Crystal Wildes, licensed clinical psychologist and TTI senior faculty member, designed to give therapists and helping professionals a comprehensive, clinically grounded introduction to trauma. You will learn how trauma is defined and experienced, how it affects the brain and autonomic nervous system, how it manifests across the lifespan and across populations, and what trauma-informed care actually requires in practice.
This course stands alone as a complete introduction to traumatology. It is also the first module of TTI's Foundations of Traumatology: Key Skills for Trauma Therapy, a 9-module, 20 CE comprehensive program. You can enroll in this module individually or access all nine modules through the full program.
No prerequisites required. Built for therapists, and open to any professional who works alongside people affected by trauma.
Practical Interventions You Will Learn
This course covers the foundational clinical knowledge every trauma-informed professional needs. Each topic is taught with neuroscience-informed depth and direct application to your work with clients or the people you serve.
In this foundations of traumatology training, you'll learn how to:
- Define trauma using an expanded, subjective framework that centers the individual's experience rather than the objective event, and apply that definition across diverse client presentations
- Explain the neurobiological impact of trauma on the brain, including the roles of the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex in processing emotions, memories, and threat responses
- Recognize the autonomic nervous system's role in trauma, including fight, flight, freeze, and fawn responses, and understand how these survival mechanisms shape your clients' day-to-day functioning
- Differentiate between acute, chronic, and complex trauma and understand how each type affects psychological and physical wellbeing differently across the lifespan
- Apply trauma-informed care principles in your practice, including how to create a therapeutic environment that minimizes re-traumatization and supports healing
- Account for cultural variation and special populations in your understanding of how trauma is experienced and expressed across communities
What You’ll Learn in This Advanced Training
This training gives you a clinically grounded, neuroscience-informed foundation in traumatology.
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
- Identify an expanded definition of trauma that focuses on subjective impact rather than the objective event, and apply it to clients whose experiences fall outside traditional diagnostic criteria
- Demonstrate knowledge of the neurological impact of trauma, including how the brain and nervous system process, store, and respond to traumatic experiences
- Describe common psychological, emotional, and behavioral responses to trauma in both the short and long term, including PTSD and sub-threshold presentations
- Discuss how trauma affects development and functioning across the lifespan, including its cognitive, emotional, and social impacts from childhood through adulthood
- Recognize how trauma disproportionately affects special populations and communities, and apply cultural awareness to your understanding of how trauma is expressed and held differently across groups
- Identify key conditions for post-traumatic growth and apply this framework to how you orient clients to their own resilience and recovery.
Who Is This Training For
This course was designed with therapists and mental health professionals in mind, and it is open to any professional who works alongside people affected by trauma. No prerequisites are required.
Basics of Traumatology is a strong fit if you are:
- A licensed therapist or mental health professional wanting a comprehensive, neuroscience-informed foundation in trauma before pursuing specialized trauma training
- A clinician who completed a general therapy program and feels undertrained in trauma's neurobiological and physiological dimensions
- A helping professional - educator, first responder, healthcare worker, yoga teacher, lawyer, or advocate - who regularly encounters people affected by trauma and wants a deeper clinical framework
- Someone preparing to enroll in more specialized trauma or EMDR training and looking for a solid foundation first
- A therapist seeking to build or refresh your trauma-informed care approach across your full caseload, not just specific clients
- Any professional seeking NBCC or ASWB/ACE continuing education in foundational traumatology in a flexible, on-demand format
About Your Trainer, Crystal Wildes, PsyD, LP
Dr. Crystal Wildes is a licensed clinical psychologist with over 20 years of experience in clinical work, training, and supervision across a range of settings. She is a senior faculty member and trainer at Trauma Therapist Institute and an expert EMDR clinician.
Crystal specializes in complex trauma and EMDR therapy, and has worked with individuals and families across the lifespan, including adjudicated youth, at-risk teens, families involved with social services, and crime victims. She brings over two decades of clinical experience to her teaching, grounded in a commitment to compassionate, evidence-based trauma care.
As a trainer, Crystal is known for her authentic, direct facilitation style. She is committed to equipping clinicians and helping professionals with the practical tools and conceptual frameworks they need to navigate complex trauma with clarity and confidence.
