Enhance resilience and well-being in those affected by trauma and adversity.

Resiliency-based & Trauma-Informed Practices

Gain a deeper understanding of trauma, build resilience, and foster positive youth development through trauma-informed, resiliency-based, and interprofessional practice sequences. Enhance your skills, collaborate with professionals, and make a positive impact on the lives of children, youth, and families.

View Courses and Apply

Ready to get started?

Request Information

Submit this form to receive additional program information.

Program Snapshot

Summer Start Date

May 18, 2026

How Often

Every spring, fall, and summer

Cost

Contact an Enrollment Advisor

Learning Format

Hybrid

Duration

1 Year

VA Benefit Eligible

No

Scholarships

No

Credits

9 to 15 Credits

Additional Details

UVM’s Resiliency-Based & Trauma-Informed Practices program equips educators, counselors, and human service professionals to support children and families affected by trauma. Through 9–15 credits of graduate-level hybrid coursework, you’ll learn restorative, collaborative, and equity-centered approaches that build resilience, strengthen partnerships, and foster well-being across communities.

Overview

Trauma-Informed, resiliency-based, and Interprofessional Practice Sequences

UVM’s College of Education and Social Services offers this coursework to prepare educators and health and human service professionals to address the complex challenges associated with trauma and adversity using restorative, strength-based, and collaborative approaches that build resilience and encourage children, youth, and families to thrive and learn. 

Through 9 to 15 credits of graduate-level coursework, students will:

  • Gain a deeper socio-ecological understanding of the structural solutions inherent in equity, culturally sustaining partnerships, and resilience
  • Learn about the impact of trauma and adversity
  • Develop a toolbox of skills for fostering resilience through building and restoring relationships with families, schools, and communities

The program will include core coursework and then allow participants to select a track for specialization and complete a micro-credential in either:

  • Trauma-responsive and Evidence-Informed Practices
  • Community Schools
  • Collaborative & Resiliency-Oriented Practice in Schools (CROPS)

Through the course work students will:

  • Learn to effectively partner with children, youth, families, and professionals from other disciplines to enhance resilience and well-being in those affected by trauma and adversity.
  • Understand how social and cultural factors influence how children experience, identify, interpret, and respond to traumatic events.
  • Understand the relationship between trauma, behavior, brain development, and learning.
  • Recognize the signs of secondary traumatic stress among professionals and caregivers and learn prevention and coping strategies.
  • Learn how to build trauma-informed, resilience-fostering schools and organizations that can enhance academic success, social-emotional well-being, and positive youth development.
  • Gain new skills that harness interdisciplinary collaboration to build resilience and impact trauma and adversity.
  • Build a toolkit of evidence-informed strategies for effectively engaging children, youth, and families within and beyond school walls.
  • Earn credits that can stand on their own or may be applied to graduate degrees in education or social services at the University of Vermont.

What sets UVM apart

Gain new skills that harness interdisciplinary collaboration to build resilience and impact trauma and adversity.

Learn from experts at UVM’s College of Education and Social Services.

Foster resilience through building and restoring relationships with families, schools, and communities.

Earn credits that can stand on their own or may be applied to graduate degrees in education or social services at the University of Vermont.

Admissions

Our graduate courses are for you if you’re a: 

  • Child welfare worker
  • Educational leader
  • Health professional
  • Mental health clinician
  • School counselor
  • Social worker
  • Teacher
Apply Now

Curriculum

Learn trauma-responsive, positive behavioral and restorative approaches

UVM’s Sequences in Resiliency-based & Trauma-Informed Practices provide targeted instruction on trauma-responsive, positive behavioral, and restorative approaches. This instruction aims to enhance social-emotional and behavioral well-being and promote positive organizational climates.

“Being Trauma-informed does not mean that you see trauma in everyone, it means that you see resilience in everyone. And then transforming the surrounding systems to support the growth of that resilience”

UVM graduate student

Benefits

Sample Graduate Courses

EDSP 6300 The Trauma Lens (3 credits)
EDSP 6320 Fam, Schl & Interprof Partnerships (3 credits)
EDSP 6330 Resilience-Orient Systems Chng (3 credits)
EDSP 6340 Restorative & Trma Pract w/Child (3 credits)
EDSP 6350 Community Schools (3 credits)
CNSL 6360 Trauma, Crisis & Suicide Prevention (3 credits)
CNSL 6070: Counselors as Educators (3 credits)
CNSL 6880: Families & Couples (3 credits)
EDML 6220: Social Justice Teaching & Advocacy

View Courses

Sequence Requirements for Continuing Education Students

To complete the full 15-credit sequence, students must complete a 3 credit foundational course, 9 credits of applied courses, and a 3 credit capstone course. The capstone will apply skills and learning from earlier coursework.

Requirement DescriptionCredits
Foundational Courses (1 required)
EDSP 6300The Trauma Lens3
EDSP 6320Family, School, & Interprofessional Partnerships3
Applied Courses (3 required. Others as approved by program coordinator)
EDSP 6320Family, School, & Interprofessional Partnerships (If not taken as foundations course)3
EDSP 6330Resilience-Orient Systems Chng3
EDSP 6340Restorative & Trauma informed Practices w/Children3
EDSP 6350Community Schools3
CNSL 6360Trauma, Crisis & Suicide Prevention3
CNSL 6070Counselors as educators3
CNSL 6880Families & Couples3
EDML 6220Social Justice teaching & Advocacy3
EDLP 6009Critical pedagogies3
EDSP 6130Collaborative Consultation3
Capstone Courses (1 required or as approved by program coordinator)
CNSL 6991Counseling Internship3
EDLP 6008Inequalities in ed policy3
EDRM 6310Mixed Methods3
SWSS 6160Integrative Approaches to Transformational SW3
EDML 6220Social Justice teaching & Advocacy3
Others as approved by program coordinator
Students must take of the following 3 of the following: courses: EDSP/CSNL 5300, EDSP 6320, EDSP 6330, EDSP 6340, EDSP 6350, CNSL 6360

Short Sequences for Continuing Education Students

If a student does not want to complete the full 15 credits, they may also take one of the 9-credit shorter sequences below.

Collaborative & Resiliency-Oriented Practice in Schools (CROPS)

  • EDSP 6300: The Trauma Lens
  • EDSP 6320: Family, School & Inter-professional Partnerships for Resilience
  • Elective: EDSP 6130: Collaborative Consultation, EDML 6220: SJ Teaching & Advocacy, CNSL 6070: Counselors as educators, CNSL 6880: Families & Couples, EDLP 6009 critical pedagogies, or other approved course.

Community Schools

  • EDSP 6300: The Trauma Lens or EDSP 6320: Family, School, & Inter-professional Partnerships for Resilience
  • EDSP 6350: Intro to Community Schools
  • Elective: EDSP 6340: Restorative, Trauma, & EBPs, CNSL 6070: Counselors as educators, CNSL 6990 Rural MH, PH 5990 Rural Health, EDLP 6008 Inequalities in ed policy, or other approved course

Trauma-Responsive & Evidence-Informed Practices

  • EDSP 6300: The Trauma Lens
  • EDSP 6340: Restorative, Trauma-Responsive, & Evidence-Based Practices
  • Elective: CNSL 6360: Trauma, Crisis & Suicide Prevention or other approved course, CNSL 6990: Racial trauma, CNSL 6880 Families & Couples, CNSL 6990: Internal Family Systems
Foundational
(Select 2; sample courses)		Advanced
(select 2; sample courses)		Applied Capstone
(select 2; sample courses)
Must take 5 courses; *Must select 3 of 5 from the core sequence: EDSP 6300; 6320; 6330; 6340 or EDCI 6310
EDSP 6300* – The Trauma Lens: Understanding core concepts of trauma and resiliency
EDCI 6310*: Society, Stress and the brain

Other classes with permission of CGS coordinator (EDSP 5250; 6320; CNSL 6770)		Pathway 1: Trauma-responsive and restorative practices
EDSP 6340*: Trauma-informed & Evidence-based Practices with Children and Families
EDSP 6180 (w/ permission of CGS coordinator) Behavior Analysis in Special Education
SWSS 6300: Assessment in Social Work (MSW students only)
CNSL 6520: Assessment in Counseling

Pathway 2: Family-School-Community & Interprofessional Collaborations
EDSP 6130: Collaborative Consultation
EDSP 6320*: Trauma-informed, Resiliency based, and Interprofessional Practices in Schools and Social Service Agencies

Other classes with permission of CGS coordinator (eg. CNSL 6770; SWSS 6360)		EDSP 6330*: Resilience oriented systems change in schools and human service agencies
EDSP 6990: Social Justice Teaching and Advocacy
ECSP 6550: Implementation Science in Early Childhood Special Ed
EDRM 6310: Mixed Methods Research
SWSS 6160: Integrative Approaches to Transformative SW (MSW students only)
CNSL 6991: Counseling Internship

Other classes with permission of CGS coordinator

Instructors

FAQ

UVM’s trauma-informed, resiliency-based and inter-professional graduate courses are designed for teachers, educational leaders, school counselors, mental health clinicians, social workers, child welfare workers, and health professionals in Vermont and out-of-state.

Yes. Courses may be taken individually or as a sequence. Register for one course from each of the focal areas (Foundational, Applied, and Capstone).

Yes, it’s offered such that students can take one course per term, summer, fall, and spring.

For the most up-to-date listing of UVM’s tuition and fees, please visit the UVM’s Student Financial Services website.

Learn about options for discounts, grants, loans, scholarships, and more on our tuition and financial aid page or contact UVM’s Student Financial Services Office for more information on Federal and Institutional Financial Aid.

For more information about advanced study in this area, please contact Dr. Jessica Strolin-Goltzman at jstrolin@uvm.edu.