Interpreting the Unspoken: Clinical Skills for Recognizing Trauma in Voice, Movement and Affect

Friday, January 16, 2026
9:30 a.m. - 12:30  p.m.

Zoom Webinar

Registration Fee: $50

OVERVIEW:  Trauma reshapes the way people communicate—what they say, how they say it, and what they can’t say at all. Survivors may rely on humor, detachment, or composure to tell their stories, yet their voices, expressions, and silences often reveal deeper layers of pain and adaptation. Understanding these shifts requires listening beyond content to the embodied language trauma creates.

This advanced Zoom webinar invites clinicians into the deeper nuances of trauma communication. Through exploration of voice, movement, and affect, participants will learn to recognize the implicit markers of trauma and respond with greater precision and care. The training also highlights the therapist’s own communicative presence—how subtle shifts in tone, pacing, and relational stance can shape the safety and depth of the client’s healing experience.

OBJECTIVES: After attending this Zoom webinar, the participant will be able to:

• Identify how trauma alters verbal and nonverbal communication, shaping clients’ tone, pacing, affect, and narrative expression,   
• Interpret implicit trauma markers in voice, movement, and language to uncover the unspoken dimensions of clients’ experiences, 
• Demonstrate therapeutic attunement by adapting one’s own tone, rhythm, and presence to enhance client safety, trust, and emotional processing.  

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:
This continuing education Zoom webinar is designed for case managers, social workers, psychologists, therapists, counselors, and health care workers.  The community is also invited to attend. 

CONTINUING EDUCATION:                                                              
Mental Health America of the Heartland is a pre-approved provider for social workers through the Kansas Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board (BSRB) Provider Number 17-007. This continuing education provider is approved 3.0 hours for social workers and accepted for psychologists, professional counselors, masters prepared psychologists, marriage and family therapists and addiction counselors.

In order to receive continuing education credit and a certificate of attendance for this Zoom webinar, you will be required to participate in the Zoom webinar. You will receive a Zoom invitation via email within a week of webinar. Also you will need to take an online exam and complete an evaluation that will be sent in a separate email after the live Zoom webinar. You must pass the test by 70%. The Zoom webinar will not be available by recording and viewing at any other time.