Fishing Lessons for Treating the Traumatized: History of the Traumatology Certification Program

Abstract

The article relates the history of the Traumatology Certification Program from its beginnings at the laboratory of the Florida State University (FSU) Psychosocial Stress Research Program in 1996, a program that emerged as a response to one of the worst acts of domestic terrorism in the United States. Along the way the Program won a prestigious award, stimulated the establishment of the Traumatology Institute at FSU as its home, created the Certified Traumatologist, Field Traumatologist, and Certified Compassion Fatigue Specialist certifications, and established fourteen other teaching institutes nationally and internationally. The Program’s journey from Oklahoma City to Tallahassee to Tampa, and back to Tallahassee, are chronicled along with a description of the Program’s Certification Standards, the courses, and the people who are part of this history. The final section of the paper discusses the importance of maintaining, reviewing, and improving the standards of practice for the field of traumatology, the certification standards that support such practices, and the accreditation standards for teaching institutes that teach the sanctioned courses. As a result there are more assurances that evidence-based best practices are taught with sensitivity to culture, region, nationality, language, and history. Moreover, developing competence in these best practices not only insures the protection of the public, it insures that such standards will permeate all levels of professional education from the training of paraprofessionals and volunteers through the education of graduate and doctoral students.