TTC Trauma-Informed Care and Techniques 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which principle of trauma-informed care emphasizes that clients should have choices in their treatment and feel a sense of agency?
- Trustworthiness
- Empowerment and choice (Correct answer)
- Peer support
- Cultural sensitivity
Correct answer: Empowerment and choice
Empowerment and choice is a core TIC principle that restores agency to survivors who experienced powerlessness during trauma.
Question 2: A trauma-informed clinician notices a client suddenly dissociates mid-session. The most appropriate immediate response is to:
- Continue the session to avoid reinforcing avoidance
- Use grounding techniques to bring the client back to the present (Correct answer)
- Terminate the session immediately
- Increase emotional processing intensity
Correct answer: Use grounding techniques to bring the client back to the present
Grounding techniques help re-orient a dissociating client to the present moment and restore a sense of safety.
Question 3: The 'window of tolerance' concept in trauma treatment refers to:
- The maximum duration a trauma session should last
- The emotional range in which a client can process trauma without becoming dysregulated (Correct answer)
- The amount of trauma content a therapist can ethically hear per session
- A legal standard for trauma disclosure
Correct answer: The emotional range in which a client can process trauma without becoming dysregulated
The window of tolerance is the optimal arousal zone where clients can process traumatic material without hyper- or hypo-arousal.
Question 4: Somatic experiencing as a trauma treatment modality primarily focuses on:
- Cognitive reframing of traumatic beliefs
- Tracking and releasing physical body sensations tied to trauma (Correct answer)
- EMDR bilateral stimulation protocols
- Narrative exposure therapy techniques
Correct answer: Tracking and releasing physical body sensations tied to trauma
Somatic Experiencing, developed by Peter Levine, works with body sensations and physiological responses to help discharge trauma.
Question 5: Secondary traumatic stress (STS) in trauma clinicians is BEST differentiated from burnout by:
- STS develops gradually from workload demands, while burnout is sudden
- STS results from indirect exposure to traumatic material, while burnout stems from chronic workplace stress (Correct answer)
- STS only affects new clinicians, while burnout affects veterans
- STS is less severe and resolves without intervention
Correct answer: STS results from indirect exposure to traumatic material, while burnout stems from chronic workplace stress
STS mirrors PTSD symptoms arising from exposure to clients' traumatic content, distinct from burnout's cumulative occupational exhaustion.
Question 6: When working with a client from a collectivist culture who experienced community-level trauma, the trauma-informed clinician should:
- Focus exclusively on individual symptom reduction
- Integrate culturally relevant community and relational resources into treatment (Correct answer)
- Avoid discussing community context to keep sessions focused
- Refer immediately to a clinician from the same culture
Correct answer: Integrate culturally relevant community and relational resources into treatment
Cultural responsiveness in TIC means honoring collective healing frameworks that may be central to recovery for clients from collectivist backgrounds.
Question 7: In EMDR therapy, the 'installation' phase is designed to:
- Identify and assess the target traumatic memory
- Strengthen and solidify a positive cognition associated with the target memory (Correct answer)
- Conduct body scan for residual tension
- Complete the desensitization of traumatic material
Correct answer: Strengthen and solidify a positive cognition associated with the target memory
The installation phase uses bilateral stimulation to strengthen the positive cognition and increase its validity score (VOC).
TTC Trauma-Informed Care and Techniques 2
Which principle of trauma-informed care emphasizes that clients should have choices in their treatment and feel a sense of agency?