At Talking Therapies UK, we are passionate about equipping professionals with the knowledge, confidence, and compassion to support mental health across diverse settings. With decades of combined experience in clinical practice, public health leadership, and service transformation, our training programmes are rooted in evidence-based approaches and real-world application.
We specialise in delivering high-impact, trauma-informed mental health training tailored to the needs of health, education, social care, and voluntary sector teams. From safeguarding and suicide prevention to emotional resilience and therapeutic communication, our courses are designed to empower practitioners at every level—whether you’re frontline staff, a strategic commissioner, or part of a multi-agency partnership.
Our facilitators bring many years clinical expertise , and a deep understanding of the social determinants of mental health. We prioritise co-production, reflective practice, and inclusive learning environments that foster curiosity, empathy, and professional growth.
Whether you’re looking to upskill your workforce, embed mental health into your organisational culture, or meet statutory training requirements, we offer flexible delivery formats including in-person workshops, webinars, and bespoke consultancy.
Together, we can build psychologically safe, responsive systems that promote wellbeing, reduce inequalities, and improve outcomes for individuals, families, and communities. Let’s shape the future of mental health—one conversation, one training, one transformation at a time..
Trauma-Informed Practice & EMDR Awareness · Foundation
Understanding Trauma and PTSD
The cognitive behavioural understanding of post-traumatic stress
This comprehensive six-hour introductory course provides clinicians and trainees with a rigorous, evidence-based exploration of post-traumatic stress through the lens of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. Rooted in the principles outlined in the practice's Comprehensive PTSD and Complex PTSD Recovery Guide, this module moves beyond surface-level definitions to examine the profound impact trauma has on an individual's memory, physiology, and core beliefs. You will gain a deep understanding of the cognitive behavioural model that explains why symptoms persist, analysing the intricate interplay between intrusive memories, hyperarousal, and avoidance behaviours. The curriculum covers the diagnostic picture with precision, distinguishing between standard PTSD and Complex PTSD as defined by ICD-11, ensuring you can accurately identify and conceptualise client presentations. Beyond conceptualisation, this course places a critical emphasis on the preparatory work essential for effective trauma therapy. You will study the therapeutic stance required to work with trauma survivors, learning how to establish safety and build a foundation of trust before engaging in any processing work. The module details the importance of stabilisation techniques and psychoeducation, explaining why these elements are non-negotiable prerequisites for successful trauma-focused interventions. By mastering these foundational skills, you will learn to assess client readiness, manage potential triggers, and create a secure environment that facilitates recovery. This course serves as the vital gateway to advanced trauma interventions, equipping you with the necessary theoretical knowledge and practical grounding to handle complex cases with confidence and competence.
▶ See inside the digital classroom1 minute 36 seconds · how a course is laid out, how each lesson is taught, and how the tutor helps
Before you start
This is a Foundation course in the trauma-focused CBT pathway. It assumes nothing: it is written for someone meeting the approach for the first time. What it adds is the working model, its vocabulary and its evidence base, so that the Practitioner course can assume them; it revisits the foundations only as far as it needs to before building on them, so it does not repeat the course below.
The trauma-focused CBT pathway. The NICE-recommended treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, taught as a protocol: understanding trauma and PTSD, trauma-focused CBT in practice, then complex PTSD and specialist populations.
15.5 study hours15.5 CPD hours certified6 months of accessAI tutor in every lessonCertificate on completion (pass mark 70%)
What you will be able to do
✓Explain the cognitive model of PTSD, including memory disorganisation and appraisals
✓Describe the ICD-11 distinction between PTSD and complex PTSD
✓Recognise re-experiencing, avoidance, threat and dissociative phenomena in presentations
✓Explain why avoidance maintains PTSD and what that implies for treatment
✓Deliver psychoeducation about trauma responses that normalises without minimising
✓Describe the evidenced trauma-focused therapies and the NICE recommendations
What you will study
Module 1: What trauma does
Trauma's effect on memory, body and belief, and the diagnostic picture.
The cognitive behavioural model of PTSDThe Ehlers and Clark model in brief
The Window of ToleranceThe Window of Tolerance represents the optimal state of arousal for emotional regulation and processing.
Somatic Memory: The Body as a Trauma ArchiveTo grasp why trauma can feel so pervasive and why conventional talk‑based approaches sometimes stall, it is essential to recognise that the human organism store…
Complex PTSD and the Broader Diagnostic LandscapeComplex PTSD expands the classic PTSD symptom cluster to include affective dysregulation, negative self‑concept and relational disturbances.
Module 2: The foundations of trauma work
Stance, safety, stabilisation and psychoeducation before processing.
Stance, safety and stabilisationThe trauma-informed stance
Psychoeducation that healsNormalising post-traumatic responses
Trauma Assessment and Collaborative FormulationA trauma‑informed assessment combines a respectful interview, standardised symptom measures and a thorough safety check.
Assessing Readiness for Trauma Processing: Window of Tolerance, Pacing and Collaborative Decision‑MakingThe window of tolerance provides a practical, moment‑to‑moment gauge of a client’s capacity to engage with traumatic material.
Developing Personal Resources and Stabilisation TechniquesHaving established a stance of safety and collaboratively assessed readiness using the Window of Tolerance, the next critical phase involves equipping the clien…
Module 3: Memory, the body and the diagnostic picture
Why trauma memory behaves as it does, the physiology and the window of tolerance, the ICD-11 distinction between PTSD and complex PTSD, and the presentations that resemble post-traumatic stress and are not.
Trauma memory: why it behaves differentlyAn ordinary memory is elaborated and contextualised; the trauma memory is poorly elaborated and poorly contextualised, which explains nowness, sensory triggering and fragmentation
The body, arousal and the window of toleranceImmobilisation under inescapable threat is selected by the nervous system rather than chosen, and saying so early relieves the most painful appraisal many people carry
PTSD and complex PTSD in ICD-11ICD-11 narrowed PTSD to three clusters: re-experiencing in the present, deliberate avoidance, and a persistent sense of current threat
What trauma is notMost people exposed to a traumatic event do not develop PTSD, and distress in the first month is the normal response rather than the start of a disorder
Module 4: Assessment, and who needs what
Taking a history without doing harm, the instruments worth using, the comorbidities that govern the plan, culture and context and ongoing danger, and the judgement about when processing can begin.
Taking a trauma history without doing harmYou need the category of event, the timing, whether it was single or repeated, the current symptoms, the safety position, the comorbidities and what they want; you do not need the narrative
Screening and measurementScreen routinely, because services that do find cases they were missing; the brief instruments are designed to over-identify and establish nothing alone
Comorbidity and what it changesSubstance use is the strongest negative predictor and is modifiable; integrated treatment has supportive evidence and abstinence should not be a precondition of all help
