Trauma, Stress, and Mental Health Outcomes (1 credit hour)

Program Summary:  This course explores how adverse experiences such as trauma and stress impact mental health.  The course reviews trauma- and stress-related mental health conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, substance abuse disorders, and personality disorders.  DSM-5 criteria and evidence-based treatments are examined.  Terms such as allostatic load, dose-response, biological embedding, and neuroplasticity are highlighted.  Risk and protective factors are identified.

This course is recommended for social workers, counselors, and therapists and is appropriate for beginning and intermediate levels of practice.

Reading: Trauma, Stress, and Mental Health Outcomes by Mo’men Bany-Mohammed, Syed Asim, Majid Elalami, and Devendra K. Agrawal // Journal of Psychiatry and Psychiatric Disorders

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Course Objectives:  To enhance professional practice, values, skills and knowledge by exploring how adverse experiences such as trauma and stress impact mental health.

Learning Objectives:  Describe the relationship between trauma, stress, and mental health outcomes.  Identify the clinical manifestations of trauma- and stress- related mental health conditions.  Identify evidence-based treatment approaches and strategies for trauma-related mental health conditions.

Course Available Until: September 30, 2030.

This is our free sample course. In order to take this course, you will need to log in. If you do not have an account, you will need to register for a free account.

1: Researchers increasingly view trauma and stress as
 
 
2: Which term describes the cumulative physiological burden of chronic stress?
 
 
 
 
3: Which of the following describes how the number of different types of traumatic or stressful events, rather than a single exposure, is a stronger predictor of negative outcomes?
 
 
 
 
4: Early life stress appears to have milder and shorter-lasting effects on neurodevelopment.
 
 
5: Which refers to the idea that early experiences become encoded in physiological systems during sensitive developmental windows, potentially altering a person's trajectory of health and behavior?
 
 
 
 
6: Which refers to the brain's ability to adapt and change in response to experience?
 
 
 
 
7: All responses to trauma are pathological.
 
 
8: Which psychiatric condition involves intrusive memories or flashbacks, avoidance or reminders, negative changes in mood or cognition, and hyperarousal?
 
 
 
 
9: Which psychiatric condition involves persistent grief and functional impairment beyond what is expected in a typical bereavement process?
 
 
 
 
10: Which of the following therapies has the strongest empirical support for reducing PTSD symptoms and associated distress?
 
 
 
 

This is our free sample course. In order to take this course, you will need to log in. If you do not have an account, you will need to register for a free account.

Review our pre-reading study guide.

G.M. Rydberg-Cox, MSW, LSCSW is the Continuing Education Director at Free State Social Work and responsible for the development of this course.  She received her Masters of Social Work in 1996 from the Jane Addams School of Social Work at the University of Illinois-Chicago and she has over 20 years of experience.  She has lived and worked as a social worker in Chicago, Boston, and Kansas City.  She has practiced for many years in the area of hospital/medical social work.  The reading materials for this course were developed by another organization.

Course Available Until: September 30, 2030.
Filed under: Clinical, Diagnosis / Treatment, Free