Course

What is this course?
Traumatology is a course offering students an introduction to the study of trauma. The course examines how trauma is understood, experienced, and addressed across individuals and society. It draws on sociology, psychology, and healthcare science to give students a comprehensive foundation in trauma science and trauma-informed practice. Students study trauma as a field, including its history, its mechanisms, its social dimensions, and its relevance to the careers they are preparing to enter. This is not group therapy or personal processing, and instead offers students a rich space to learn more about the in-depth history and future of trauma healing.

Who should take this course?
Traumatology is a great course for students from a range of diverse backgrounds and academic career paths:

• Human Services — This course has direct relevance to client populations and trauma-informed service delivery, necessary for those entering helping professions

• Recovery Support Specialists (RSS) — This course centers harm reduction theory in understanding how trauma is often central to addiction, recovery, and relapse prevention

• Psychology — This course provides foundational exposure to trauma theory, neuroscience of stress, and clinical frameworks necessary for psychology majors

• Sociology — This course examines trauma as social phenomena, providing a unique lens through intersectionality, advocacy work, and uplifting social justice

• Criminal Justice — This course provides an understanding of trauma that is key to working in corrections, policing, victimology, and restorative justice

• Early Childhood Education — This course centers developmental trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), necessary for creating trauma-informed classrooms

• Nursing / Pre-Health — This course acknowledges the reality that in today’s medical landscape, trauma-informed care is deeply needed in all clinical settings

• Workforce learners — Childcare workers, advocates, first responders, and anyone seeking professional development in trauma-informed practice is welcomed

Why study traumatology?
Trauma-informed education is not a luxury, it is a professional competency. Employers and universities alike increasingly expect applicants to have foundational knowledge in trauma science. ECC’s Traumatology course gives our students access to this critical content at community college tuition without needing to transfer or pay graduate-level fees to study it elsewhere.

• “Traumatology is the study of trauma—how it works, how it affects people and communities, and how we respond to it. It’s relevant to almost every career path.”

• “If you’re going into any kind of helping profession, understanding trauma is going to be part of your work. This course gives you that foundation before you get into the field.”

• “If trauma matters to you, this is a way to learn the science behind it in an academic setting. It covers theory, research, and real-life applications of how to heal from trauma.”

What is the course about?
Topics include:

• The history and evolution of trauma as a field of study

• Learning about trauma therapies and finding a trauma therapist

• The neuroscience of trauma, including how trauma impacts the brain

• Different forms of trauma, including:

• Attachment and developmental trauma, including Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES)

• Relational trauma, coercive control, and narcissistic abuse

• Intimate partner violence, rape, and sexual assault

• Systematic and institutional forms of trauma, including moral injury

• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex PTSD

• Healing from trauma, including evidence-based and somatic (body-based) approaches

• Justice, repair, and post-traumatic growth

For student inquiries, please contact:
EHealy@elgin.edu

For general inquiries, please contact:
SociologyofTrauma@gmail.com