Why Trauma Therapists Need This Specialized Training
Do you really need another trauma-related training? Yes, you do. At least one of these reasons will surprise you.
There are More Victims Than Most of Us Realize
Most therapists don’t realize there is a huge number of fraud victims. I hear this often when I talk about my work! Many victims, possibly most of them, never tell anyone what happened. They feel embarrassment, shame, and are afraid of people’s reactions. They also don’t tell their therapists. Training marks you as a safe person for them to tell, and someone that will help them gain healing with. Certification helps even more, because it offers an easier way for a victim/survivor to find you.
On top of that, most people don’t realize is that scams are happening more and more frequently, and it is increasing at a frightening level. This is a crisis we aren’t prepared for.
Victim-Blaming
Victim-blaming can be very subtle. I’ve been helping people who have been scammed since 2013 and over this time, I have realized the ways that I was using victim-blaming language and didn’t realize it. It has taken a lot of experience to learn this, and you can learn from MY mistakes by taking this training. Of course, I never intended this and you don’t either. It re-traumatizes victims. It causes them more shame, and is why scam victims hide it from others. We want scam victims to get support in our field so it is important to really get this.
Getting scammed is not the victim’s fault, but many people believe that it is. They do not understand how skilled scammers are, or how they are playing a long game when it is a romance scam, or the wide range of manipulative tactics they use to steal from people. This course has an extensive section on the psychological weapons that scammers use and I say it this way on purpose. It is easy to see someone as a victim when another kind of weapon is used in the crime. We need to start seeing scam tactics as psychological weapons so we can see it for what it is – a crime – and help others see this, too.
Psychological Weapons
These psychological weapons are a wide range of skills that are used to steal from people. They include coercion, persuasion, and social engineering tactics. Scammers study sales techniques and the ideas in thought reform (colloquially referred to as “mind control” or “brainwashing”); they study therapeutic techniques to find ways to use them in atrocious ways instead of for healing; they have scripts and teach each other how to coerce people.
Colleagues, we need to lead the charge with this. The most important thing a scam victim needs after this has happened is emotional support. They need someone who understands how scams/fraud happen. Possibly most important, they need someone who understands victim-blaming. Victims almost never get their money back, and the emotional distress lingers for years afterwards. Advocates, law enforcement, clergy, friends, family – as helpful as these supporters are, they cannot help a scam victim heal the way that we can. Please join me in this important work.
Do you worry about being the victim of a scam yourself?
Learning the psychological weapons, those manipulation tactics that scammers use, can help you to protect yourself and to share this information with people in your life that you care about.
Have you been the victim of a scam? If so, please reach out to me. First, I’d like to support you because it is truly an awful experience. Second, and unfortunately, this gives you a unique perspective in supporting scam victims. I’d like to talk with you about doing this work, however, because it could be overwhelming to work with victims when it has also happened to you.
The Skills You Learn Overlap Into Other Areas of Clinical Work
Do you know that the skills you learn in this class overlap with other areas of our work? Possibly the most important one is when you work with trauma that is associated with shame. Trauma such as rape, incest, or domestic violence often leads people to hide what happened to them, out of fear about the way people will react to them. You will get unique and valuable knowledge that helps support people with these traumas, too.
Is this trauma? Many therapists do not believe that being scammed causes trauma. This is not the case for every single victim, but definitely the majority. I’ve had many therapists tell me this doesn’t meet the criteria for trauma, and if you believe this, I’d love to talk with you about it! Victims are often seeking help to heal from the trauma of being scammed, and the more deeply you understand this, the better you will be able to help.
Click below to register for the course today!
Continuing Education Credits for Financial Trauma from Scams and Fraud
Hours to Complete: 6.5
Join Cathy Wilson, LPC, ACS, in this professional development course in the treatment of a specific form of trauma, to understand the unique challenges of working with scam and fraud victims. Experiencing this type of crime is traumatic, and effective clinical treatment requires a thorough understanding of how it is different than other forms of trauma. Scams in particular are shrouded in secrecy, stigma, and victim-blaming. The information you learn in this course will prepare you to effectively guide clients in their healing process.
This course is created from many voices of victims (who are also survivors!) about what they experienced and what they needed. There are very few published resources about the emotional impact victims experience. Those resources are based on what people share when they are willing to make the information public such as through interviews, social media, research, or an FBI report. This course, however, allows you to also gain an understanding directly from my work with scam and fraud survivors who were unwilling to share the information publicly. You’ll gain a deep understanding of the reluctance so many people have about telling anyone, even their closest friends and family.
In addition to the voices of victims/survivors, this material applies many concepts related to the power of manipulation and influence.
Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this course, student will have the skills to:
- Understand psychological effects of a fraud of this nature such as emotional, cognitive, relational, and identity changes.
- Understand the use of psychological manipulation in this type of crime that includes leveraging a person’s vulnerabilities, amplifying emotions, and persuasion techniques.
- Avoid victim-blaming language or subtle cues, learn strategies in helping clients overcome the trauma of this experience, and a detailed section on helping a person extract themselves from a scammer/criminal when at first the client does not want to accept that this is what is happening.
- Become proficient in development of treatment plan goals, and conceptualizing treatment approaches for the healing of trauma as a result of this type of crime.
Includes an in-depth section on ways you can help a client who does not want to accept that they are in a relationship with a scammer, or to support a family in this situation. This requires patience and gentleness, and you’ll learn several ways to approach the topic and support them through the process.
Instructor Credentials:
Cathy Wilson is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Colorado and Arizona, USA, and is also an Approved Clinical Supervisor. She has over a decade of experience with and specializes in working with people who have been scammed, and helping them heal and overcome this difficult experience. She has facilitated presentations on many aspects of the emotional impact of being scammed, has written a book on this topic, titled The Emotional Impact of Being Scammed and How to Recover, and has also created several trainings and informative videos on this topic as well.
Colorado Licensed Professional Counselor #6143
Arizona Licensed Professional Counselor #22949
Approved Clinical Supervisor #3328
Please reach out to Cathy Wilson for more information: phone +1 303-801-7878; cathy@scamsurvivorhealing.com or cw@lifepathscounseling.com; 7906 S. Flower Ct., Littleton, CO 80128.