Skills Class 16 - An Evidence-informed PRACTICE Course for Individual and Organizational Well-being

Burnout and secondary traumatic stress (STS) have well-documented negative impacts on individuals, organizations, and even clients (e.g., Delgadillo et al., 2018; Wagaman et al., 2015). Mental health professionals in the trauma field may be particularly at risk, as a higher caseload of clients with posttraumatic stress has been associated with greater burnout and STS (e.g., Craig & Sprang, 2010). The PRACTICE Course (Deblinger et al., 2025a) was designed to address well-being among trauma professionals at both the individual and organizational levels. This virtual, multi-session course is structured based on the PRACTICE components of Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT; Cohen et al., 2017), the treatment for childhood trauma with the strongest research support (Dorsey et al., 2017). Course participants, child trauma professionals with TF-CBT experience, are encouraged to use the skills they teach their clients in TF-CBT (“PRACTICE what you preach”). Participants attend as organizational teams including clinicians, supervisors, and senior leaders. The course has been applied to participants across the continental United States, Puerto Rico, and Ukraine. A recent wait-list randomized controlled trial found significantly greater improvements in coping skills and burnout, and, for the subset of direct service providers, significantly greater improvements in STS and TF-CBT competency for the immediate condition compared to the waitlist condition (Deblinger et al., 2025b). These are important findings given the impact burnout and STS can have on individuals, organizations, and clients, and that greater perceived TF-CBT competency is associated with better client outcomes (Espeleta et al., 2022), which may, ultimately, help ensure clients receive high-quality evidence-based treatment. The proposed skills class would review the impact of burnout and STS and the importance of addressing these issues, as well as highlight strategies leadership can use to support the well-being of their team. In addition, an overview of the PRACTICE course components and the research documenting the course’s efficacy would be provided. Further, several examples of PRACTICE skills would be presented through interactive activities.