Understanding your own trauma
- Adults
- English
- Modules
- Voiceover
- Course Modules
1.1 Welcome!
1.2 You and this course
1.3 Definition of trauma
2.1 The natural response to threat: fear
2.2 Evolutionary, cognitive and emotional response
2.3 Introducing the 'window of tolerance'
2.4 Your response to threat
3.1 Trauma memories
3.2 The cupboard
3.3 So far, so good?
4.1 Recognising trauma
4.2 Having negative thoughts
4.3 Increase in reactivity
4.4 Coming up: our feelings and trauma
5.1 Understanding feelings
5.2 How we know we're happy
5.3 How we know we're sad
5.4 How we know we're tired
5.5 How we know we're anxious
5.6 Feelings
6.1 What's coming up
6.2 Feeling worse
6.3 Feeling better
6.4 Containment: the basics
6.5 Containment: learning more
6.6 And more
6.7 What can happen when we have our own worries
6.8 Making space in your mind
7.1 Revisiting emotional health
7.2 Anxiety
7.3 Anxiety and you
7.4 Depression
7.5 Common signs of depression
7.6 How to help
7.7 Feeling understood
7.8 Making changes
7.9 Getting help
8.1 Processing emotions
8.2 Feeling emotions
8.3 The individual impact of trauma
8.4 Previous experiences and genetics
8.5 What helps us to process emotions?
8.6 Looking after our wellbeing
8.7 Downregulating
8.8 Processing trauma
9.1 More about recovery
9.2 Recovery
9.3 A sense of coherence
9.4 Autobiography in 5 chapters by Portia Nelson
9.5 Stages of recovery
9.6 Recovery and neurology
9.7 Role of the amygdala and hippocampus
9.8 Trauma is normal
9.9 Containment and recovery
9.10 The setting and recovery
9.11 Reflections
10.1 Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and the impact on adults
10.2 ACEs and probabilities
11.1 Key messages
11.2 Changes
11.3 Congratulations!
11.4 Acknowledgements and certificate
About this course
This online course is for people who want to understand more about their own trauma or to support others in managing trauma.
Psychological trauma is an emotional response to a distressing event or series of events that overwhelms an individual’s ability to cope. Trauma overwhelms the processes in our brain, which usually help us to make sense of experiences and can have a lasting impact on our lives.
Research shows that by making sense of traumatic events, people can process them and effectively manage triggers. This course is designed to support a better understanding of trauma, and it will guide your personal journey – everyone’s experience of trauma is different and finding the right way to process and manage your experience is personal.
Understanding your own trauma is for people who have experienced trauma at any point in their lives, perhaps through loss, bereavement, an accident, or illness. It is also for those who want to support friends or family through trauma. This course is not a replacement for therapy or counselling. You may find it difficult at times, and perhaps you would find it helpful to talk to someone, so we have included some signposts for further support, should you need it.
Understanding your own trauma
Understanding your own trauma has been developed by a team of Clinical Psychologists, Psychotherapists, and professionals with experience of trauma as well as those with lived experience. Everything you will follow and learn in the course has been informed by experience and is designed to be practical, to help you and your family in your relationships. You’ll also learn about the foundations of wellbeing and mental health, as well as how our brains work at different times in our lives and what this means for the way we think, interact and express ourselves.
In this course, you can learn about processing trauma, and we hope you will find a way that works for you.