Course Description

This introductory session explores the clinical landscape of medical trauma and healthcare-related complex PTSD (cPTSD). Participants will examine how traumatic medical experiences develop across a spectrum from acute medical events to chronic illness, with particular attention to prevalence data, contributing factors to cPTSD development, and the unique vulnerabilities of marginalized populations including BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and neurodivergent clients. Ethical mandates for cultural responsiveness across major counseling codes of ethics are reviewed as a framework for trauma-informed, identity-affirming care.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this session, participants will be able to:

1. Distinguish between medical PTSD and complex medical trauma, including the clinical criteria and presenting characteristics associated with each presentation in chronically ill populations.

2. Identify at least three contributing factors to the development of cPTSD in clients with chronic or complex medical conditions, including biological, environmental, and systemic influences.

3. Apply culturally responsive frameworks to the assessment of medical trauma in marginalized client populations, including BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and neurodivergent individuals, consistent with ethical standards across major mental health disciplines.

Course Description

This session examines countertransference as it arises specifically in clinical work with chronically ill clients. Drawing on current research, participants will explore the distinction between containing and enacting countertransference reactions, and how therapist self-awareness functions as a measurable factor in session quality and client outcomes. Common chronic illness-specific countertransference triggers are identified — including diagnostic uncertainty, non-linear grief, treatment refusal, and client rage at medical systems — alongside evidence-based practices for internal and external monitoring of countertransference responses.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this session, participants will be able to:

1. Differentiate between containing and enacting countertransference responses, and describe how each affects the therapeutic relationship when working with clients managing chronic illness.

2. Analyze research findings on the relationship between therapist countertransference awareness and client outcomes, including working alliance strength and symptom reduction.

3. Identify at least three chronic illness-specific countertransference triggers and select appropriate reflective practices — including supervision, peer consultation, and process notes — for monitoring and managing countertransference responses in clinical practice.

Course Description

This session examines chronic illness through a family systems lens, exploring how illness reshapes roles, relationships, and dynamics across the entire family unit. Participants will distinguish between family involvement and caregiving along a clinical continuum, identify the systemic and relational sources of both patient medical trauma and caregiver burnout, and apply culturally responsive frameworks to family assessment and role negotiation. The session introduces practical tools for proactive burnout prevention, including social history mapping, standardized assessment instruments, and the Social Circles model for building distributed, resilient support networks.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this session, participants will be able to:

1. Distinguish between family involvement and direct caregiving along a clinical continuum, and identify how role collapse, ambiguous loss, and secondary traumatic stress contribute to caregiver burnout in families managing chronic illness.

2. Analyze systemic layers of the family system — including triangulation in medical decision-making, role flexibility versus rigidity, and relational ruptures as traumatic compounders — as they present in clinical work with chronically ill clients.

3. Apply culturally responsive frameworks and proactive role negotiation strategies — including values clarification, standardized family assessment tools, and the Social Circles model — to support both patient autonomy and caregiver sustainability in treatment planning.

Course Description

This session examines the grief and identity disruption that accompany chronic illness and disability, situating clinical work within both psychological and sociopolitical frameworks. Participants will explore the medical and social models of disability alongside the principles of disability justice, and apply the five-stage model of medical trauma and disability adaptation developed by Salick and Auerbach (2006) — from apprehension through integration — to understand how clients navigate identity reconstruction over time. Clinical attention is given to the distinction between internal adaptation and external pressure to be "inspirational," and to the role of self-compassion, humor, and reclaimed agency in the rebuilding process.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this session, participants will be able to:

1. Distinguish between the medical and social models of disability and explain how disability justice principles — including intersectionality, interdependence, and recognizing wholeness — inform a more equitable clinical approach to chronic illness and identity.

2. Identify the five stages of medical trauma and disability adaptation as described by Salick and Auerbach (2006), including the clinical presentations and therapeutic needs associated with each stage.

3. Apply stage-informed clinical strategies to support identity reconstruction in chronically ill clients, including interventions targeting internal locus of control, social reconnection, and self-compassion across the rebuilding and integration phases.

Course Description: This session examines evidence-based approaches to treatment planning for clients with chronic illness and medical trauma, with an emphasis on pain psychology and somatic considerations. Participants will explore the clinical rationale for modalities including EMDR, TF-CBT, and ACT, including current theoretical explanations for how these approaches function with this population. The session addresses nuanced somatic intervention—including contraindications for breathwork and movement with conditions such as POTS or dysautonomia—and introduces Disability Justice as a framework for embedding systemic awareness directly into the treatment plan. Practical coping tools including locus of control mapping, awareness-based pain reduction, and support system building are reviewed for immediate clinical application.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

1. Identify at least three evidence-based treatment modalities appropriate for clients presenting with medical trauma, and articulate one clinical consideration relevant to each modality's application with chronic illness populations.

2. Distinguish between symptom-reduction and values-based treatment goals within an ACT framework, and explain how cognitive defusion from illness identity supports clinical work with clients managing chronic conditions.

3. Apply a Disability Justice lens to treatment planning by assessing at least two systemic barriers—such as financial or access-related factors—as part of the client's clinical presentation.

Course Description: This closing session challenges the commodified framing of self-care and reorients the conversation toward building a clinical practice that is structurally sustainable over time. Participants will examine the emotional load specific to chronic illness specialization — including cumulative countertransference, moral injury, and grief without resolution arcs — and identify the types of professional support that actually address these experiences. The session integrates the six dimensions of wellness with informal assessment tools, practical sustainability strategies designed for clinicians with dynamic or fluctuating capacity, and a framework for engaging in advocacy without depletion. Emphasis is placed on specialty-specific community as the most consistently supported protective factor against burnout in this clinical niche.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

1. Distinguish between at least two forms of emotional load specific to chronic illness specialization — including cumulative countertransference and moral injury — and identify one type of professional support that addresses each.

2. Apply at least two informal wellness assessment strategies to evaluate their own emotional sustainability in clinical practice, accounting for the impact of dynamic or fluctuating physical capacity on caseload management.

3. Construct a personal sustainable advocacy framework by identifying at least one advocacy activity aligned with their capacity and one internal limit that protects against depletion.