FSOS4107: Traumatic Stress and Resilience in Vulnerable Families Across the Lifespan

This course focuses on trauma(s) paired with stressful events and processes that take place across the lifespan, including ?but not limited to?childhood adversities, relational/family dissolution, human-caused disasters (e.g., terrorist attacks, war/civil conflict, sexual assault), social disparities and discrimination (e.g., racism, poverty, housing inequalities), medical crises (e.g., acute injury, chronic illness), and natural disasters (e.g., floods, tsunamis, hurricanes). An examination of personal and interpersonal/family strengths and cultural diversity within multiple approaches to working with individuals and families across clinical (e.g., private practice, hospital), fieldwork (e.g., push/pull interventions) and community-based (e.g., classrooms, municipal programs, public service agencies) settings will be emphasized. This course is designed to increase knowledge about conditions that place people (including children, adults, and elders) at risk, theories and frameworks helpful to understand these risks, and individual and collective resilience vis-a-vis these risks. We will thereby focus on: (a) individual, couple, family, community, and developmental contexts of risk and resilience, and (b) preventive and responsive intervention frameworks and approaches to support coping, adjustment, adaptation, healing, recovery, and growth. Students interested in working in the helping professions (e.g. family therapy, social work, nursing, education) will benefit from this course across systemic understanding and application of trauma informed care.

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