Teaching Trauma
Best Practices

Best Practices

ISTSS has formulated Best Practice Parameters for trauma professionals as teachers, clinicians, and scholars. The aim is to stimulate discussion and exchange of information within the traumatic stress community.

Best Practice Parameters for Teaching and Training

Trauma professionals who teach or conduct trainings:

Strive to ensure that their material is up-to-date and is conveyed truthfully and accurately.
Do not exploit students or supervisees professionally or personally.
Make every effort to accurately represent program content. Inform students or supervisees about any potential conflicts of interests including financial benefits using particular texts.
Communicate students or supervisees the potential impact of trauma work (vicarious, secondary or indirect traumatization) and the duty to self-care.
Prepare the audience, when possible, when case or media examples could trigger audience members’ trauma reactions in predictable ways.
Do not require students to participate in individual or group experiential training exercises that encourage self-disclosure about personal histories without first providing informed consent with a genuine option to decline participation.

Learn more about the Best Practice Parameters