The Current Status of Trauma Education in Clinical Education Programs: A Scoping Review

Abstract
This poster session is to present findings from a scoping review that we have conducted to examine the current state of trauma education in US-based graduate counseling and related programs (i.e., psychology, counseling, counselor education programs). Specifically, the review was guided by the following research questions: (a) What trauma-related content areas, teaching methods, and frameworks are used in graduate counselor education?; (b) How are educators prepared and supported to deliver trauma-related instruction?; and (c) How do graduate programs prepare students for trauma-informed care or trauma-specific treatment?

It is imperative for clinical educators such as counselor educators and clinical education programs to integrate trauma content into the clinical education curriculum as required by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP). When teaching sensitive content such as trauma, complex trauma, and dissociation, it is important for counselor educators and counseling programs to employ trauma-informed approaches (Carello & Thompson, 2022; Felter et al., 2022; Authors et al., 2023). For instance, centering culturally responsive teaching (Gay, 2018) in a manner that supports counseling students’ academic and professional development while preventing or minimizing the risks of traumatization or retraumatization would be important (Butler et al., 2017; Carello & Thompson, 2022). Although findings were inconsistent, a systematic review (Roseby & Gascoigne, 2021) suggested that trauma-informed education programs can have a positive impact on academic functioning pertaining to a decrease in suspension rates (Millenky et al., 2018) and attendance (Dorado et al., 2016). Despite a few documented trauma-informed approaches to teaching practices (Authors et al., 2023 Author, 2022; Butler et al., 2017; Carello & Thompson, 2022) in clinical education, at the time of writing, there was a dearth in the application of empirically supported and trauma-informed teaching practices to counselor education and its impact on the perceived learning about trauma content. We believe the findings from this scoping review can inform counselor educators and clinical education programs regarding specific ways to teach students and contents to include in their curricula.