Certified Childhood Trauma Counselor Online Course
Welcome!
Hello, I am Dr. Jane Simington, PhD. I am a grief and trauma specialist, educator, researcher, and author. I am a CCPA (Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association) qualified supervisor. I have considerable professional experience helping those who experienced childhood trauma heal, and reclaim their personal power, and thus allowing them to live more whole and complete lives.
I designed the Certified Childhood Trauma Certification Course based on theory and research outlining the short-term and long-term effects of trauma during childhood.
A More Soulful Approach
Repeated trauma in adult life erodes a personality already formed, but repeated trauma in childhood forms and deforms the personality (Herman, 1997). Repeated trauma in childhood creates spiritual disconnection (Kalsched, 2013 and fragmentation of the human spirit (Simington & Wagner 2020).
The recognition of spirituality as a key factor in post traumatic stress (PTSD) is studied and described (Bormann et al. 2011; Currie, et al. 2015; Hinton et al. 2020; Eisenbruch 2017; Simington & Wagner, 2020; 2021). In attempting to escape the distressing emotions involved in reliving the trauma details, PTSD patients with prolonged traumatic experiences, such as childhood abuse, show a clinical syndrome characterized by dissociation (Lanius, 2010). Spiritual interventions can be effective in addressing the soul loss that can occur during dissociation (Simington and Wagner, 2021).
Enhancing spiritual connection helps traumatized people achieve a sense of mastery over the traumatic events (Mutambara and Sodi, 2018), and healing of the spiritual fragmentation helps traumatized them live more complete lives. (Simington & Wagner, 2021).
In this course. and in all the courses I develop and facilitate, I apply a framework that addresses first, the spiritual distress resulting from the trauma. When this occurs, strategies to resolve the emotional, mental, social, and physical issue, are more effective.
Healing All Aspects of Trauma
In the course, spirituality is defined as, “The animated essence of one’s being that guides one’s life and gives meaning and purpose to one’s existence and can be described as a process of acknowledging the three R’s of spiritual growth. Once the animated essence is REMEMBERED in one’s own life, one can begin to RELATE to that essence in others. Once this takes place, one is able to RECOGNIZE that essence in all that is created.” ©Jane A. Simington.
In completing the course, you use Guided Visualizations as a method for helping those who are traumatized. In the visualizations are words of a spiritual nature. Once you are familiar with the exercises, you may use the words in the texts provided, or change them for words that would be more meaningful to your client.
References
Bormann, J. E., L. Liu, S. R. Thorp, and A. J. Lang. 2011. “Spiritual Wellbeing Mediates PTSD Change in Veterans with Military-related PTSD.” International Journal of Behavioural Medicine 19(4): 496–502.
Currie. J. M., J. M. Holland, and K. D. Drescher. 2015. “Spirituality Factors in the Prediction of Outcomes of PTSD Treatment for U.S. Military Veterans.” Journal of Traumatic Stress 28: 57–64. https://doi.org/10.1002/ jts.21978
Eisenbruch, M. 2017. “Mass Fainting in Garment Factories in Cambodia.” Transcultural Psychiatry 54(2): 155–178. https://doi. org/10.1177/1363461517703918
Herman, J. (1997). Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence. New York: Basic Books.
Hinton, D.E., R. Reis, and J. de Jong. 2020. “Ghost Encounters among Traumatized Cambodian Refugees: Severity, Relationship to PTSD and Phenomenology.” Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry 44: 333–359. https:// doi.org/10.1007/s11013-019-09661-6
Kalsched, D. (2013). Trauma and the Soul: A Psychospiritual Approach to Human Development and Interruption. New York, NY: Routledge.
Mutambara, J. and T. Sodi. 2018. Exploring the role of spirituality in coping with war trauma among war veterans in Zimbabwe. SAGE Open January– March: 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244017750433
Simington, J. and Wagner, I. J. 2020. Retrieving a Soul Part that Fractured During Trauma. Religious Studies and Theology 39(1): 5–20. https://doi. org/10.1558/rsth.41174.
Simington, J. and Wagner, I. J. 2021. Soul Retrieval Following Trauma: A Cultural Comparison. Religious Studies and Theology 40(1). 25-43. https://doi. org/10.1558/rsth.19921,
