PTSD: Understanding & Recovery

PTSD: Understanding and Recovery

A dedicated, trauma-informed education course on PTSD: the four symptom clusters, how trauma affects the brain, intrusions and nightmares, the central role of avoidance, hypervigilance, post-trauma beliefs, and the evidence-based treatments (PE, CPT, EMDR). It delivers the psychoeducation that opens trauma-focused therapy, not the therapy itself.

10 Lessons 3-4 hours APA Practice Guidelines PTSD 2024

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Create your Digital Wellness Academy account and start this course today. Working with a provider? They can add it to your care plan.

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Clinical Framework

PE/CPT Psychoeducation (patient-facing, adjunct)

APA Practice Guidelines PTSD 2024

Course Overview

Educational, not medical advice

This course delivers the psychoeducation that opens trauma-focused therapy, not the therapy itself. PE, CPT, and EMDR are evidence-based treatments that require a trained trauma therapist to deliver safely and effectively. If you are in crisis, call or text 988.

What You'll Learn

✓Recognize the four PTSD symptom clusters and understand PTSD as a treatable response to overwhelming events
✓Understand in plain terms how trauma affects the brain and why those changes can improve
✓Understand why avoidance maintains PTSD and how gentle, supported approach helps
✓Use grounding and orienting skills for hypervigilance, drawing on body-based regulation
✓Know the evidence-based treatments (PE, CPT, EMDR) and build a personal recovery roadmap

Evidence & Clinical Approach

Built on PE/CPT Psychoeducation (patient-facing, adjunct) and taught at a deliberately high evidence bar: it separates well-supported practice from popular-but-contested theory, and is psychoeducation designed to support, not replace, professional care.

Course Lessons (10 total)

1What Is PTSD: The Four Symptom Clusters25 min
2How Trauma Changes the Brain: And Why That Is Reversible25 min
3Intrusive Memories and Flashbacks: Why They Happen25 min
4Nightmares and Sleep: Working With Trauma at Night25 min
5Avoidance: Why It Feels Safe and Why It Keeps PTSD Going25 min
6Hypervigilance and the Threat-Detection System25 min
7Negative Beliefs After Trauma: It Was My Fault30 min
8Evidence-Based Treatments for PTSD: PE, CPT, and EMDR25 min
9Supporting Someone With PTSD20 min
10Your Recovery Roadmap20 min

Each lesson includes interactive exercises, quizzes, and progress tracking inside the platform.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is this different from the Trauma Recovery and Somatic courses already on the platform?

Trauma Recovery and the somatic track cover trauma broadly, including stabilization and body-based regulation. This course is PTSD-specific: the four diagnostic symptom clusters, why avoidance keeps PTSD going, hypervigilance, post-trauma beliefs, and, distinctly, direct psychoeducation on the evidence-based trauma-focused treatments themselves, PE, CPT, and EMDR, so you understand what a trauma therapist may recommend before you start.

Is this course a replacement for therapy?

No. It provides psychoeducation and skill-building based on evidence-based frameworks, but it is not a substitute for individualized professional treatment. It works best alongside care, as structured learning between sessions.

What if I'm currently in crisis?

If you're experiencing a mental health crisis, contact emergency services (988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, 911) or go to your nearest emergency room. The platform includes safety monitoring that alerts assigned providers when distress is detected.

How is this different from self-help content?

Structured, sequential lessons with interactive exercises, progress tracking, and provider oversight. Your assigned provider can see your progress and tailor sessions to what you are learning.

Start learning

Create your account Practice Licensing Info

Course Features

✓10 comprehensive lessons
✓PE/CPT Psychoeducation (patient-facing, adjunct)
✓Interactive exercises and quizzes
✓Progress tracking
✓Provider coordination
✓Self-paced learning

24/7 Platform Safety

The platform runs the MAIA distress classifier on every text input and alerts your assigned provider if distress is detected, ensuring clinical oversight when needed.

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Inside the experience

What this course actually looks like

Every course lives inside the Digital Wellness Academy app: short, practice-first lessons, daily check-ins, an AI coach that knows what you have learned, and a dashboard that makes progress visible. These are real product screens.