Understanding features of trauma: The importance of in-depth trauma screening instruments

Date: October 19, 2026

Time: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET

Facilitator: Ian Robertson, MSW, RSW.

CE hours: 6

This training is suitable for:

• Mental Health Professionals: psychotherapists, counsellors, psychologists, social workers.

Level of training: Introductory/Intermediate

Client age category: For professionals who work with adult populations.

Description: As with all effective treatment plans, good treatment begins with clear clinical understanding of the client’s presenting issues. Trauma presentation is individualized and unique from one person to another. With this, so are the trauma specific symptoms and presentation itself. The epidemiology of trauma is influenced by ancestry, early development and attachment, culture, family systems, environment, and the degree of compounding exposures all implicating the inner and outer world of the client.

This training provides the learner with detailed and practical explorations of current best practices in assessing and case formulation in working with adults having complex trauma survivors. It explores the importance of the therapeutic relationship in the assessment process and reviewing formal, standardized screening instruments as well as informal assessments, interviews, and activities, while also applying a trauma-sensitive assessment process method. 

Participants will be able to summarize the collected trauma screening results, identifying target treatment areas for the development of an individualized (multimodal) treatment plan. This training will have an interactive learning component for incorporating all of the screening instruments for the development of a treatment plan and treatment summary report.

Learning objectives:

• Supporting safety throughout the screening process.
• The role of the therapeutic attunement in the assessment process.
• The potential risks of trauma screening to early.
• A structured assessment process for suicide risk and safety planning.
• Applying a trauma-informed methods to the Trauma screening and assessment process.
• Cross-cultural screening and assessment.
• Overview of a broad range of trauma screening instruments.
• Identify processes for selecting tools for trauma.
• Incorporating Traumagram as part of the assessment process.
• Pulling all the collective data together to establish a case conceptualization and case formulation for a treatment plan.
• Matching specific multimodal treatment approaches to the presenting areas identified from the trauma screening process.

Register now to learn how to integrate in-depth trauma screening into individualized, multimodal treatment planning.