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
Trauma-Informed Foundations
What trauma does to memory, body and trust, and the principles every service should practise.
Trauma rewrites the body's rules before the mind has a say, and services that do not understand this retraumatise the people they exist to help. This course teaches the foundations every practitioner and every service should hold: what trauma actually does to memory, body and trust, and the principles that make practice safe, for clinicians, trainees and anyone in a trauma-facing role.
The first module teaches the mechanism. You will learn why traumatic memory behaves unlike ordinary memory, fragmentary, sensory and present-tense, through the threat cascade and its neurobiology, and then work with the window of tolerance: hyperarousal, hypoarousal, and the band between them where processing and connection are possible. The second module turns understanding into stance: the trauma-informed principles, safety, trustworthiness, choice, collaboration and empowerment, translated from poster language into daily practice, and grounding techniques as psychological first aid you can use the same day.
Full written lessons with key points and immediately usable practice tasks, with a built-in study tutor available throughout. Six hours of CPD, around six months of access, a final assessment, and a personalised certificate on passing.
▶ 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-informed practice 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-informed practice pathway. How any practitioner works safely and well with trauma, whatever their modality: what trauma does and the trauma-informed stance, trauma in everyday clinical practice, then advanced trauma work with an awareness of EMDR. It is a way of practising, not a treatment protocol.
6 study hours6 CPD hours certified6 months of accessAI tutor in every lessonCertificate on completion (pass mark 70%)
What you will be able to do
✓Explain how traumatic memory differs from ordinary memory, and why reminders trigger re-experiencing
✓Describe the window of tolerance and recognise hyperarousal and hypoarousal in clients
✓Apply the principles of trauma-informed care: safety, trust, choice, collaboration and empowerment
✓Teach grounding and stabilisation techniques and judge when they are the priority
✓Recognise dissociation on its continuum and respond safely
✓Describe the phased model of trauma treatment and each phase's purpose
What you will study
Module 1: What trauma does
Memory, body and the window of tolerance.
Traumatic memory and the threat cascadeTraumatic memory: fragmented, sensory, present-tense
The window of toleranceWithin the window: processing possible
Neurobiological Foundations of Trauma: How the Brain and Body Respond to ThreatTrauma reshapes the amygdala, hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, altering threat detection, memory integration and emotional regulation.
Somatic Markers and Trauma: How the Body Anchors the Past in the PresentSomatic markers are visceral, often unconscious bodily responses that signal past trauma in the present moment.
Attachment, Relational Safety and the Impact of Trauma on the SelfTrauma reshapes attachment patterns, narrowing the relational window of tolerance and amplifying hyper‑arousal or dissociation.
Module 2: The trauma-informed stance
Principles into practice, and grounding as first aid.
The principles in practiceAsk what happened, not what is wrong
Grounding: the first-aid kitGround through senses, body, orientation, exhale
Establishing Safety and Stabilisation in Trauma‑Informed WorkSafety is a dynamic, ongoing process that must be maintained throughout therapy.
Trauma‑informed communication: language, pacing and collaborative consentSafety is conveyed through predictable session framing and clear boundaries.
What's included
2 modules and 9 lessons
An 8-question final assessment, with a 70% pass mark
A certificate for 6 CPD hours when you pass it
An extended clinical case study with discussion questions
A glossary of key terms
Private notes, a reflection for each module, and a CPD log you can print or save as a PDF
📖 Written lessons with key points and practice tasks◆ Visual teaching diagrams🎥 Video where it helps🎧 Listen-to-this-lesson narration👩⚕️ A full clinical case study🧠 AI tutor in every lesson📄 Full course workbook (PDF) on completion📕 The course book (PDF) while you study, with your name in it
Speak the language: by the end you will use Traumatic memory · Re-experiencing · Window of tolerance · Hyperarousal · Hypoarousal · Dissociation · Grounding · Phased treatment · Stabilisation · Titration and more, precisely.
The evidence base this course draws on
Ehlers, A. and Clark, D. M. (2000) 'A cognitive model of posttraumatic stress disorder', Behaviour Research and Therapy, 38(4), pp. 319–345. view source ↗
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (2018) Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. NICE guideline NG116. London: NICE. view source ↗
£99.00Non-refundable under the practice’s terms and conditions, as course access starts as soon as payment is confirmed.Secure card payment by Stripe. No account yet? One is created for you from your payment email.
