Professional’s Guide to Trauma-informed Decision Making

Cortny Stark

Dr. Cortny Stark (she, her, hers) is an Assistant Professor, and the Substance Use and Recovery Counseling program coordinator with the University of Colorado Colorado Springs Department of Counseling and Human Services. She is also a telehealth therapist with the Trauma Treatment Center and Research Facility, providing trauma reprocessing and integration, clinical services for substance use and process addictions, and supporting transgender and gender-expansive youth. In addition to her role as a clinician, Dr. Stark provides supervision for provisionally licensed counselors seeking their Licensed Addiction Counselor (LAC) credential, is a Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT) member, and facilitates nationwide trainings with the Motivational Interviewing Training Center out of Albuquerque, NM. Dr. Stark's research utilizes qualitative and mixed methods, and focuses on LGBTQQIA+ issues in counseling, leader development, integrative approaches to trauma reprocessing and integration, trauma-informed care, and substance use and recovery.

Jose "Joey" Tapia Jr

Dr. Jose Luis Tapia Jr. (he, him, his) is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. He graduated with his PhD in counseling at the University of North Texas. His research is focused on disability-responsive care across the lifespan. Dr. Tapia has been highlighted for her service by the American Counseling Association with the Arthur A. Hitchcock Distinguished Professional Service Award, the Outstanding Graduate Student Leadership Award by ACES, and Doctoral Student of the Year from the American Rehabilitation Counseling Association.

Dr. Tapia has served the community in public and private rehabilitation settings as well as, in private and community practice for 10 years. He has provided individual, relationship, play, and family therapy with a special focus in serving people with disabilities in three languages (English, Spanish, and American Sign Language). He is a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor, Licensed Professional Counselor, Registered Play Therapist, and National Certified Counselor. Additionally, he is a Certified Child-Centered Play Therapist-Supervisor, and Certified Child-Parent Relationship Therapy-Supervisor and has advanced training in Emotionally Focused Therapy.

Kylie Rogalla

Dr. Kylie Rogalla (she, her, hers) is an Assistant Professor within the Department of Counseling and Human Services at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs.  She has been a Counselor Educator in CACREP master's-level programs for 11 years, as well as a telemental health counselor with BetterHelp.com for the past six years.  Dr. Rogalla began her professional journey as a Professional School Counselor, collected clinical credentials as a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), expanded into the realm of substance use treatment with a Licensed Clinical Addiction Counselor (LCAC) endorsement, and secured the Board Certified Telemental Health (BC-TMH) provider credential to support her virtual practice.  Kylie specializes in crisis and trauma work, pedagogy, and research, originating in her roles within emergency crisis shelters for families experiencing intimate partner violence, as well as alternative high school programs serving underrepresented populations. Her additional research passions include anticipatory and disenfranchised grief, with a widened emphasis on personal and posttraumatic growth.

Kate Bunch

Kate Bunch (she, her, hers) is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC) in New Mexico.   She is also a Registered Play Therapist Supervisor (RPT-S), an Endorsed Infant Mental Health provider (IMHE-III) and an EMDRIA Approved Consultant.  She has engaged in continuing education around the treatment of trauma through somatic, attachment, and mult

Professional's Guide to Trauma-informed Ethical Decision Making offers helping professionals a framework comprising the 10 Principles of Trauma-informed Ethical Practice (Stark, Tapia-Fuselier, & Bunch, 2022) enhanced with prominent ethical decision making models. These principles build upon the SAMHSA (2014) conceptualization of trauma-informed care, address key concepts such as Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and their long-term impact, marginalization stress, the influence of military and law enforcement experience, and others.

Despite distinctions between the diversity of helping professions (in credentials, scope of practice, and theoretical approach), the same decision making models for trauma-informed care is a requirement for best practice. Thus, this volume is designed to address the needs of professionals serving diverse clientele, particularly those who've experienced trauma and adversity. Practitioners may utilize this text to as a guide to assistwith ethical decision making when working with client survivors of trauma, and educators may select this text as required reading to support the development of trauma-informed clinicians-in-training.