Children, Families, Stress and Trauma

Catalog description

The purpose is to help students understand the nature and impact of traumatic experiences on children, adolescents, adults, and families. Examines the history, scope, and impact of human trauma, resiliency, and adaptation. It explores traumatic stress syndromes, vicarious trauma, and universal traumatic response patterns. Considers the impact of these experiences from a biopsychosocial and developmental perspective: psychological trauma has somatic consequences. Treatment, intervention, adaptation, resiliency, recovery, attachment, personal meaning, and the spiritual aspects of trauma are explored. Intended to provide students with a clear understanding of the physical and psychological processes involved in adaptation and integration and how untreated trauma can lead to lifelong pathology and dysfunction.