Most clinicians who assess trauma know the PTSD criteria, and the harder clinical work sits in the steps around them. Clients use the word trauma for experiences that have shaped their lives, and only some of those experiences meet the DSM-5-TR definition of a traumatic event (American Psychiatric Association, 2022). Self-report screening can miss exposure that a careful interview would find (Nester et al., 2024), and PTSD shares enough symptoms with depression and generalized anxiety that a symptom count on its own can mislead (Baker et al., 2023; Duek et al., 2023).

The session follows one fictional client through a complete evaluation. She reports an assault earlier in life, exposure to severely injured people through her work, a recent car accident and a job loss, and she believes she may have PTSD. Taking her history in the order it would come up in an appointment, the session starts with which of those events meet Criterion A and how she was exposed to each, and it makes clear that an experience can matter clinically without meeting the criterion. It then turns to the Life Events Checklist for DSM-5, extended self-report form, and to how a clinician reviews and clarifies a client's responses before choosing a qualifying event to anchor the PTSD assessment (Gray et al., 2004; Weathers et al., 2013).

The longest segment shows how to establish whether current symptoms are related to that event, including what to do when intrusive memories turn out to concern a different event from the one first assessed, and how to apply the full criteria for each symptom cluster along with duration, impairment and exclusions. The session then returns to the experience the client named as most distressing and works through adjustment disorder, a major depressive episode, generalized anxiety disorder and acute stress disorder, using the PCL-5, PHQ-9 and GAD-7 to guide questions in the interview (Blevins et al., 2015; Kroenke et al., 2001; Spitzer et al., 2006; Weathers et al., 2014). It closes with how to share a clinical impression before the client leaves, whether that is a diagnosis, a provisional impression or a decision to defer, and how to set up the follow-up when you may see a client only once.

The session is primarily didactic and built around the case. Participants can send questions through the Q&A panel and the chat throughout, and the final fifteen minutes are reserved for moderated questions.

This session is for social workers, counselors and marriage and family therapists who assess or treat clients with trauma histories, including associates working toward licensure and the clinical supervisors who guide them. It assumes familiarity with the DSM-5-TR criteria for PTSD and with basic trauma-informed care. Content level: intermediate.

Agenda (approximate, ET)

• 1:00 Welcome, continuing education details, and the case: where the assessment starts
• 1:05 Criterion A and what people mean when they say trauma
• 1:17 The Life Events Checklist and other measures
• 1:32 Assessing PTSD symptoms in relation to a Criterion A event
• 1:52 Returning to the experience the client finds most distressing: differential diagnosis
• 2:05 Sharing a clinical impression before the client leaves
• 2:20 Moderated questions and answers
• 2:30 End.

Completion: Attend the full live session, pass the post-test with a score of 80 percent or higher, and complete the course evaluation. Your certificate is emailed once your evaluation is submitted.

Disclosure: Lashauna Cutts is paid by Motivo to develop and present this series. The series has no commercial support.