Unit 2 – Case Study
Case Study: A Trauma-Informed Screening Interview With a Child
This is a demonstration interview from CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services), showing a clinician conducting an ACE screening conversation directly with a ten-year-old boy, Sam, after his mother had already raised some initial concerns. Where Unit 1’s case study showed a trauma-informed response after an incident had already occurred, this one shows something different: careful, open-ended screening at the very start of the process, before anything has been confirmed.
Watch closely for the interview technique itself — the clinician never asks leading questions, checks in with Sam throughout about how the conversation feels for him, and moves through sensitive territory (including direct, appropriate questions about physical and sexual safety) without ever making Sam feel like he’s being accused of something or pushed toward a particular answer. This is a genuinely useful model for how to ask difficult questions of a child without causing harm in the asking itself.
A brief content note: this interview surfaces real neglect (inconsistent meals, family conflict, emotional distance from a parent), though nothing more severe — the interview explicitly and appropriately rules out physical and sexual abuse. As with the rest of this course, give yourself space to sit with it if anything here lands close to home.
Case Study: Living With a Dissociative Disorder
This is a genuine first-person account from Jen, who has lived with depersonalization-derealization disorder for 14 years. Unlike the role-played scenario above, this is real, lived experience — a chance to hear directly what dissociation actually feels like from the inside, in someone’s own words, rather than through clinical description alone.
Listen for how closely her description matches what you’ve already covered: the sense of watching her own life “like a movie,” the feeling of a glass wall between herself and the world, and the way dissociation intensified during a period of significant life stress. You’ll also see EMDR in genuine practice, including her therapist checking in with her mid-session and noticing when she begins to dissociate — a real illustration of the trauma-specific treatment approaches covered in Unit 4.
Jen is thoughtful and clear about her own boundaries throughout — she openly declines to detail the traumatic experiences behind her dissociation, noting simply that some of it “isn’t fully my story to tell.” As with the rest of this course, give yourself space to sit with this if anything lands close to home.
