New Initiatives in Training for Complex Trauma Assessment and Treatment: Filling the Gap

Abstract
Although guidelines for the assessment and treatment of complex trauma and dissociation are disseminated by several professional associations (e.g., APA, Blue Knot Foundation, ISTSS, Phoenix Australia) and the revised ISSTD guidelines are soon to be released, there are very limited and no systematic resources for training and putting those guidelines into practice The TeachTrauma.com website provides educational syllabi, teaching materials, and textbook reviews, but nevertheless, with regard to complex trauma most mental health graduate training programs have limited or no offerings, most professionals receive limited or no training, and the available education and training tends to be either conceptual (and not practice/skills based) or specific to self-contained treatment models. Following the PRISM framework described in Treatment of Complex Trauma (2^nd Edition; Guilford Press; see also Courtois & Ford, 2022), a personalized, relational, integrative, sequenced/skill-based, and multi-dimensional approach to education and training for complex trauma assessment and treatment will be presented by this panel. The practice-focused, skills-based, and experiential framework for complex trauma education and training will be illustrated by projects and tools that have been developed by each panelist. Joseph Spinazzola will describe the development and national implementation of the Complex Trauma Training Consortium’s 20-module training curriculum and train-the-training program which addresses complex trauma assessment, individualized matching of evidence-based psychotherapy, cultural, systemic and historical trauma, key vulnerable and under-served populations, adaptations for service sectors (including schools, juvenile justice, substance abuse treatment, and homelessness programs) and comorbidities, neurobiological factors and interventions, and clinical decision-making in complex critical cases and situations.

Richard Kagan will describe the newly developed Multi-dimensional Assessment Guide for Complex Trauma (MAGCT; Kagan et al., 2023) which provides a series of practical steps and a summary chart to help clinicians to focus assessment and treatment on the effects of past, ongoing, and potential future complex(including historical and multi-generational) trauma while developing and sustaining a therapeutic alliance and collaborative engagement by focusing on who and what are most important and empowering for each client.

Jana Pressley will describe a companion Practice Guide which walks clinicians and trainees through the MAGCT step-by-step, and will share case vignettes from the Guide that demonstrate how the process can be adapted for clients with different complex trauma profiles and cultural and identity backgrounds.

Julian Ford will present the Center for the Treatment of Developmental Trauma Disorders Complex Trauma Pre-Professional and Professional Training Curriculum Development Project and its 50+ webinar series. He will present samples of the films from that series that show therapy sessions and case conferences with more than 25 clinicians conducting unscripted sessions with actors portraying clients (youths, adults, and families) in crisis. The panel will conclude with discussion of future directions for systematic complex trauma training at the graduate and professional levels and the presenters will elicit and respond to audience input and questions.