Understanding preverbal trauma and the impact of early adversity on later life

When working with adoptive parents, foster carers, social workers and special guardians, we understand that many wonder how a child could have experienced trauma if they were removed into care from birth or shortly afterwards. You might have heard people say phrases like “Well, they were adopted at 3 years old, so they’ll be fine!” We know that this isn’t the case, and this webinar aims to help professionals working with children and young people understand why.

What does the course cover?

  • What are the key questions asked about preverbal trauma?
  • Typical Brain development in babies
  • What is preverbal trauma?
  • How are memories stored without language?
  • Trauma in the womb

  • Long term effects of trauma
  • Impact of trauma on the brain
  • Case study and breakout discussion

  • Practical applications – how professionals can support families
  • Therapeutic interventions that can help with preverbal trauma
    • e.g. therapeutic parenting support, DDP, BUSS, Theraplay®, SSP, EMDR

  • Practical applications – how professionals can support families
  • Therapeutic interventions that can help with preverbal trauma
    • e.g., DDP, EMDR, Therapeutic Life Story Work, or more traditional psychological models such as CBT

  • Question and answer discussion with the presenters

Exercises, activities, video clips and discussions are used throughout the course to enhance the teaching and content.

Training is delivered by a highly qualified clinical psychologist and/or therapist with many years’ experience working with trauma and attachment.

Course details:

Level: Advanced

Days: One

Session length: 6 hours

Cost: £160 + VAT

Group discounts: Please contact us if you would like to book as a group

Location: This course can be delivered virtually (Zoom)

Dates: Please view our upcoming events for the next available course or contact us if you would like to book the training for your team

Consultation package: ongoing support for your team

This one-day course can be followed by regular (monthly or bi-monthly) consultations with a staff team, facilitated by a Gateway Psychology clinician, to assist in application of the ideas and principles of the programme. However, this is not costed for within the one-day training fee and would need to be negotiated separately.

What professionals think about our CPD courses

0%
would recommend the course to others
0%
found the content useful and informative
0%
valued the expertise of our psychologists

“Informative and helpful course. Engaging and educational, with practical tips to apply to real life situations.”

“Very informative. Great to learn about things that relate to daily struggles and having strategies to try to support the children.”

“Very very interesting, informative, useful and engaging. Couldn’t have gone any better. Taking a lot from it. Best training I’ve been on. Thank you!!! :)”

“The best CPD training, will definitely recommend.”

“Powerpoint and discussions all directly linked to what we hoped to achieve. Engaging from start to finish. Thank you.”

“Having light bulb moments and being able to think of specific children and now understand how to help more and support them.”

Upcoming CPD courses

Preverbal Trauma Training for Professionals (Sep 2025)

16 September

Understanding Blocked Care Training for Professionals (Oct 2025)

30 October

Trauma Informed Classrooms (Sept 2025)

24 November @ 09:30 - 16:00

Prenatal Alcohol Exposure & FASD (Dec 2025)

11 December

FAQs

There are a variety of ways to access our training services. If you wish to book on to a session as an individual, please view our upcoming events. You will find more details on how to apply on the specific event page.

If you want to book a dedicated training course for your team, please get in contact with us for a quote. It would be helpful for us to know if you would prefer us to deliver your training programme face-to-face or virtually, and your expected numbers.

For our live, interactive courses, each participant will need a laptop or tablet device, webcam, microphone and an internet connection. Mobile phones can be used, but they do not offer the best possible experience for the participant.

We typically host our live virtual courses on Zoom.

Please contact our team to discuss your requirements. We will discuss feasibility with you, and provide an outline of costs.

Yes, we offer a range of options to help provide ongoing support to your team.

Please get in touch with us to talk about your consultation requirements, such as frequency, your goals and the type of families your organisation works with (or the difficulties they typically experience). We will work with you to create a bespoke consultation package that works for your needs.

Cost is dependent on the type of course you are accessing, in addition to the length and number of clinicians presenting. Please take a look at the individual course pages for more information.

Bespoke courses may involve a higher cost, as development time will need to be included. We will work with you to find a pricing structure that works for your needs.