Catholic · Emmaus course
More Than the Wound: A Catholic Christian Approach to Treating Trauma
Trauma does real damage. It does not get the last word. In this one-hour lesson, Divine Mercy University faculty apply the Catholic Christian Meta-Model of the Person to trauma care — showing how to treat the wound without reducing the person to it.
NBCC CE · 1 clock hour · Counseling Theory and Practice
With Craig Steven Titus, S.T.D., Ph.D. and Harvey Payne, Psy.D.
- Length
- 1 hr
- Lessons
- 1
- Level
- Intermediate
- Version
- Catholic
- Price
- Free
About this course
Some clients walk in and say, "I have a problem." Survivors of trauma often say something else: "I am the problem." This lesson is about that difference — and what a clinician can do with it.
A beautiful glass vase slips and shatters. That image, from a Divine Mercy University faculty panel, holds two truths at once: the breaking is real, and the thing that broke is still a person of immeasurable worth. Most trauma training picks one of those truths. This course keeps both.
Over a focused hour, you will watch the panel discussion, then work through how the Catholic Christian Meta-Model of the Person reframes trauma care: why trauma touches the whole person rather than one isolated symptom, how moral injury marks the conscience differently than fear-based trauma, how a clinician's steady presence rebuilds the capacity for trust, and where realistic hope actually comes from. The lesson is grounded in published scholarship, including Craig Steven Titus's work on resilience and the virtue of fortitude and the current moral-injury research.
You will leave with a way to recognize the identity-level wound behind "I am the problem," and a framework for treating it that honors the whole person.
Earn 1.0 NBCC clock hour (Counseling Theory and Practice). Asynchronous, self-paced, with a short post-test and certificate of completion.
Who this course is for
Licensed and graduate-level counselors who integrate, or want to integrate, Catholic anthropology with clinical practice
The reason is the quiet professional ache the panel names directly: knowing how to reduce symptoms while still feeling unequipped to answer the client who says, "inside, my whole world is shattered, and I am the problem."
Also for Trauma-focused clinicians; Pastoral-care workers; Spiritual directors who accompany survivors.
From the course syllabus
Trauma does real damage, and it does not get the last word. This one-lesson course takes a Divine Mercy University faculty panel discussion and works out what the Catholic Christian Meta-Model of the Person means for the clinician who treats trauma. Using the image of a beautiful glass vase that shatters, the course holds two truths together: the breaking is real and has lasting effects, and the person who broke remains a person of immeasurable worth whose dignity runs deeper than the wound.
Participants watch the panel, then study how the Meta-Model reframes trauma care — why trauma reaches the whole person rather than one isolated symptom, how moral injury marks the conscience differently than fear-based trauma, how the clinician's steady presence rebuilds the capacity for trust, and where realistic hope comes from. The lesson is grounded in published scholarship, including the Meta-Model itself (Vitz, Nordling & Titus, 2020), Craig Steven Titus's Resilience and the Virtue of Fortitude, and the current moral-injury literature.
Curriculum
-
Module 1
More Than the Wound: A Catholic Christian Approach to Treating Trauma
- 1.Lesson: When the Vase Shatters: Trauma, Dignity, and the Whole Person
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