Preventing PTSD, at work and elsewhere.
A 3-day course in post-incident support for mental health professionals and their teams.
How do you support someone after a traumatic incident in a way that genuinely helps — and reduces the risk of long-term psychological harm?
This 3-day course provides a clear, practical answer.
It focuses on preventing PTSD and other long-term trauma-related difficulties by helping professionals respond well in the hours, days and weeks after an incident — whether in the workplace or elsewhere.
You will learn how to offer support that is calm, structured and psychologically informed, helping people feel understood and supported, while reducing the risk that distress becomes entrenched.
Executive Summary:
Preventing PTSD, at Work and Elsewhere is a practical 3-day course for professionals who may need to provide post-incident support to colleagues, clients or teams following traumatic or potentially traumatic events.
It covers both:
- Single major incidents (e.g. assault, suicide, accident, sudden death), and
- Cumulative or repeated trauma (e.g. ongoing exposure to aggression, distress, or emotionally demanding work).
The course shows how to:
- Respond effectively in the immediate aftermath of an incident.
- Assess impact without causing further distress.
- Provide meaningful emotional and practical support.
- Use simple, evidence-informed frameworks to guide intervention.
- Support both individuals and groups.
- Recognize when more specialist help is needed.
Throughout, the emphasis is on what actually helps in real-world settings — not theory for its own sake.
Who should attend:
This course is suitable for professionals who may be involved in supporting people after traumatic incidents, including:
- Mental health professionals.
- Nurses, psychologists, therapists and social workers.
- Managers and team leaders in high-pressure environments.
- Staff in healthcare, social care, forensic, custodial and emergency settings.
- Professionals involved in staff wellbeing, supervision, HR or occupational health.
- Teams who want a shared, psychologically informed approach to workplace trauma.
What the course covers:
Understanding PTSD and post-traumatic reactions
What PTSD is — and is not — and why accurate understanding matters in preventing long-term harm.
Workplace trauma and cumulative stress
How repeated exposure to difficult incidents (e.g. aggression, lack of support, emotional strain) can gradually increase risk, as well as the impact of single major events.
Immediate post-incident support
What to do — and what not to do — in the critical early period. How small responses can make a large difference.
Assessment without retraumatisation
How to understand the impact of an incident without unnecessarily revisiting the trauma itself.
Formulation and structured thinking
Using a simple, practical 5Ps framework (Purpose, Predisposing factors, Perpetuating factors, Positives, Plan) to guide support.
Supportive conversations and informed empathy
How to genuinely understand and validate someone’s experience — and why this is often harder than it sounds.
Coping skills and emotional regulation
Helping people use and strengthen their existing coping strategies, and develop additional ones where needed.
Group and team interventions
When group approaches can help, what they can realistically achieve, and how to avoid unhelpful or counterproductive practices.
Organizational response and learning
How organizations can respond in ways that support staff, reduce risk, and improve future practice.
Practical checklists and tools
Clear, usable frameworks for supporting people after both single incidents and repeated exposure.
What you will be able to do:
By the end of the course, you will be able to:
- Respond to traumatic incidents in a way that reduces the risk of PTSD developing.
- Provide practical, compassionate post-incident support to individuals and teams.
- Assess the impact of trauma without making things worse.
- Use a clear framework to formulate and plan appropriate support.
- Offer support that helps people feel understood, supported and less alone.
- Recognize when someone may need additional or specialist intervention.
- Contribute to a more psychologically informed organizational response to trauma.
The Two Checklists
There are multiple resources included in the course; one of the most valued is a pair of detailed checklists for post-incident management:
- Checklist A covers the 30 days following a single major traumatic incident, from the first 24-48 hours through to facilitating access to specialist support if symptoms have not resolved.
- Checklist B covers the recognition and management of cumulative traumatic stress — the harder-to-see pattern where no single incident stands out but the person is being gradually worn down.
Why this course matters
After a traumatic event, people often remember not only what happened, but how others responded afterwards.
A thoughtful response can help someone recover.
A poor response can deepen the impact — adding isolation, shame, anger or mistrust.
This course helps professionals and organizations get that response right.
It is grounded in real-world experience of traumatic events — including assaults, patient suicides, accidents and cumulative occupational stress — and focuses on what is practical, humane and effective.
Course style
The course is active and practical, with case examples, exercises, discussion and resources.
It is designed to be immediately useful — whether you are supporting a colleague informally, contributing to a post-incident response, or shaping your organization’s approach to workplace trauma and staff wellbeing.
APT accreditation and CPD
This is an APT professional course, written by APT and accredited by the professionals who attend it through their ratings of its relevance and presentation quality.
Successful completion provides access to APT accreditation and 18 hours of CPD with peer approval.
Booking this training is easy...Booking Options... for individuals or small groups For teams and organizations:Option 1: Online Live and Exclusive course: Live and interactive online course, delivered via Zoom or Teams exclusively for your team or organization. Price: $8,230 + GST/HST for a group of up to 15 people (price includes a workbook for every delegate, posted to one address, or a PDF version can be provided). Extra delegates $540 + GST/HST per person. Option 2: Face-to-Face Onsite course: We bring the course and tutor to you, for an all-inclusive fee. Price: $13,150 + GST/HST and tutor travel and accomodation, for a group of up to 15 people (price includes a workbook for every delegate, posted to one address, or a PDF version can be provided). Extra delegates $855 + GST/HST per person. Option 3: 'Train the Trainer': If you or a colleague are a senior professional (e.g. consultant psychologist) and have a talent for communication and teaching, then you are welcome to apply to become an APT-accredited tutor. You could then tutor the course in your own organization, under license. This is not only a highly appropriate use of senior professionals, but it also saves your organization the tutor-component of the fee each time you run it or your chosen modules (50% of the 'Online Live and Exclusive' fee, regardless of whether the course is held Face-to-Face or Online). To see the full benefits of this and to see whether you are eligible, click the button:
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Feedback Ratings.
We continuously monitor the quality of our training by obtaining feedback on the two key scales of relevance and presentation from every course delegate. Below are the average ratings for the last five runnings of this course, which are updated periodically.
Face-to-Face
Presentation: 92%
Relevance: 92%
Online Live*
Presentation: 98%
Relevance: 96%
*This online live ratings are taken from the latest running of the course in this format.
Reviews.
APT prides itself on the feedback we receive about our courses. Below are just some of the great comments the Preventing PTSD, at work and elsewhere course has received.
"The tutor successfully completed the almost unheard of task of providing excellent, informative training to a group of very tricky psychologists! He was interesting, knowledgeable and greatly added to our understanding. He represented APT very, very well and he has increased my likelihood of using APT again."
"The best course I have been on in years. I feel empowered to make a change."
