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Hello and welcome to the ‘Trauma Awareness Course’.

Our understanding of the impacts of trauma (including neuro-developmental differences) as a society has exploded over the past 10-15 years. While there is much more research to do in this space, the clinical and research literature is showing just how important it is that people from all walks of life become aware of the impacts of trauma and how we best respond to it and build systems and communities which seek to minimise re-traumatising people.

Trauma, shame and neurodiversity are complex topics that affect a huge number of people, and have wide-ranging impacts touching almost every aspect of people’s lives and the lives of those around them.

This course adopts a strengths-based approach both to our understanding and responses to trauma, discussing the reality that trauma is a functional response to a situational event and that this response was successful in getting you, your patient, or your loved one to this point.

What will I be learning

In this course we’ll address:

• Trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences
• The impacts of trauma on the brain, body, and development
• Intergenerational trauma
• Shame-sensitive and trauma-informed environments.

Your learning outcomes

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to:

• Explore the different types of traumas and how Adverse Childhood Experiences are related to poorer psychosocial outcomes.
• Investigate how trauma affects the brain, body, and development.
• Identify how trauma impacts people in stressful situations (fight/flight/freeze/fawn), but also in everyday life.
• Gain an understanding of the intergenerational transfer of trauma.
• Investigate practical experience in creating environments that are shame-sensitive and trauma-informed.

Access to this course

Free access is available for each run of this course (approximately 4 weeks at a time). You may like to consider an upgrade (see current costs and options), to allow more time to study the material in-depth. The upgrade gives you access to this course for as long as it’s on FutureLearn, access to the course’s test and a Certificate of Achievement once you are eligible.

We’ve worked hard to provide an engaging online learning experience that allows you to unpack trauma, neuro, and shame awareness and explore trauma and shame-sensitive practice. We’ve utilised various ways to enhance your learning using text, videos, animated case studies, and peer discussion boards, while also linking you to many other fantastic and useful publicly available resources. We hope you take something from the course and enjoy it.

Meet the team

Your Lead Educators for this course are Professor Peter Miller and Dr Hannah Bereznicki

Professor Peter Miller

Peter Miller (PhD) is a Violence Prevention and Addiction Studies Professor at the School of Psychology, Deakin University. He is the co-director of Deakin University’s CONNECT and co-convenor of the Trauma-Informed Policing SIG – GLEPHA.

Peter has published over 300 journal articles, books and peer-reviewed reports and completed five of the largest studies ever conducted into alcohol policy, licensed venues, and violence, comparing 12 Australian cities over 10 years and talking to more than 25,000 patrons. In particular, he is the lead investigator on the Queensland Alcohol-related Violence and Night Time Economy Monitoring (QUANTEM) study, a 13-arm state wide evaluation over 3 years.

He is currently running major studies assessing the impact of Policy initiatives in the Northern Territory (including Minimum Floor Price and the Banned Drinkers Register) and testing the impact of last drinks data collected in Emergency Departments to identify and intervene with problem venues across Australia.

Dr. Hannah Bereznicki

Hannah Bereznicki (PhD) is a Research Fellow and Lecturer in the School of Psychology, Deakin University. She is a member of the Cognitive Neuroscience Unit and CONNECT within the School’s Centre for Social and Early Emotional Development. Hannah is an early-career researcher whose interests include trauma and shame, with a focus on trauma-informed and shame-sensitive practices. Hannah is particularly interested in the neurocognitive underpinnings and consequences of trauma and shame.

Experts from the field

Throughout this course, you’ll also hear insights from other experts, including:

• Dr Carmen Cubillo
• Prof Luna Dolezal
• Prof Nikola Graham-Kevan
• Prof Gery Karantzas
• Assoc Prof Liz Temple
• Dr Tom Brunzell
• Supt Justin Srivastava
• Dr Jocelyn Lowinger
• Dr Nicole Downes
• Mr Ray Messer
• Ms Sarah-Michelle Stilianos

If you haven’t already, view your team’s profiles and follow them for course updates, feedback, and discussions. At times, these expert voices will be highlighted in the text and attributed. Where other text is highlighted, this is a stylistic device to enhance readability.

Watch and share

Watch the video to find out more about what you’ll be covering in this course. When you’re done, use the comments to introduce yourself and share why you’re taking this online course and what you hope to get out of it.

Next, select the “Mark as complete” button and move on to Step 1.2.