Restorative Justice Practice and Trauma-Informed Care

The Advanced Certificate in Restorative Justice Practice and Trauma-Informed Care is a 12-unit online program designed to educate professionals in contemporary mental health practices focused on mental health recovery, restorative justice, and trauma-informed care in schools, social service agencies, and community organizations.

Program Overview

The certificate draws upon integrated recovery and strength-based approaches and emphasizes the role of trauma-informed treatment models in understanding the causes of mental ill-health and practices to address human suffering caused by familial and environmental trauma. Students will learn about the latest knowledge and practices used to work with people experiencing severe mental illness. The certificate explores applications of trauma-informed care in education and community settings.

Key Features

• Online: The certificate is offered online to accommodate healthcare professionals and counselors worldwide.
• Flexible Courses: While courses are situated within the traditional SDSU semester structure, assignments and lectures are designed to be accessible at your convenience, and completed at a pace that fits your lifestyle.
• Short Program: The certificate program runs from August to December (5 months).
• Transferability: All 12 units of the certificate courses transfer to the Master of Arts Education (Counseling) degree.
• Low Cost: Tuition at SDSU is significantly lower than at the UC system, private universities, and the national average.

Competencies & Skills

• Knowledge of theories, models, and methods within systemic and social constructionist paradigms
• Application of theories, models, and methods to produce effective clinical practice with diverse populations
• Understanding of mental health recovery-oriented care
• Effective practice in community-based and public mental health settings
• Use of research to inform clinical practice
• Conceptualization and practice in the counselor role from a position of social responsibility and social change

Evidence-based Analysis of the Value of Online and Hybrid Learning

• Students in online conditions performed modestly better, on average, than those learning the same material through traditional face-to-face instruction.*
• Instruction combining online and face-to-face elements had a greater advantage than purely face-to-face instruction.*
• The effectiveness of online learning approaches appears quite broad across different content and learner types.*

* U.S. Department of Education (2010). Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies. Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development Policy and Program Studies Service (September).

Our Core Emphases

• Provide a culturally responsive curriculum focused on socially responsible, resilience-based perspectives that promote diversity and social justice.
• Implement trauma-informed practices with diverse families, schools, and communities, in which students consider complex problem situations that do not pathologize individuals and families.
• Apply innovative restorative practices in homes, schools and communities as alternatives to traditional discipline and retributive punishment.
• Employ contemporary technology to deliver high-quality accelerated learning for counseling and counseling-related fields to students and working professionals who wish to continue their education and advance their careers.