IVAT Specialty Certification

The Institute on Violence, Abuse and Trauma (IVAT) serves a public need by providing oversight certifying mental health and other treatment providers competent to deliver high quality services to a range of challenging populations. Specialty certification assures the consumer that specialists designated and monitored by IVAT have successfully completed the educational, training, and experience requirements of the specialty area, and that their expertise has been objectively reviewed and documented.

Each Specialty Certification Program consists of three levels of expertise: Level 1 = Certified Specialist, Level 2 = Certified Supervisor, and Level 3 = Diplomate-Trainer. The criteria and levels of each specialty area were generated by a group of national and international experts with extensive training and experience in working within the designated specialty area. Through a series of meetings and discussions, focus groups, and think tanks, they agreed upon the required training, experience and verification of experience that is required in order to work effectively at various levels within a specialty area.

For more information, please contact:

Nanette Burton | NanetteB@ivatcenters.org

Types of Specialty Certification Programs

Currently there are eight Specialty Certification Programs. Each specialty area is listed below along with a brief description.

Comprehensive Course on Dissociation in Children & Adolescents

This course will cover theories on dissociation & treatment; neurobiology of trauma; indicators, co-morbidity, and evaluation of childhood dissociation; three phase treatment model covering stabilization, trauma processing, integration/ post integration; caretaker’s roles in child’s recovery; and strategies to engage various systems as partners. Clinical cases and artwork will depict how to effectively work with dissociative youth who exhibit aggression, anxiety, self-harm, soiling, eating disturbances, and a host of other co-morbidities.

Interested parties please email Fran S. Waters with your CV/resume and list any training that you have taken in trauma of youth: franwatersusa@gmail.com

New cohort begins January 2025! See a testimonial below from one of our current cohort members:

“Your knowledge and help are so much appreciated and so helpful not only for me but for my whole team of clinicians with whom I share all my new insights! This is really incredible and I am very grateful for this opportunity! We have a whole clinic full of dissociative clients with whom we very frequently do not know what to do and often don’t know why we are not getting any progress. I always knew it is because a lack of knowledge from our side but it has taken me a very long time to find the right people to help me get insight. This is invaluable and the newly acquired knowledge will be spread!”

Specialty Certification in Child Custody Evaluations

Includes an understanding of child development, parenting abilities and issues, dynamics and concerns related to the best interests of children, and assessment techniques in general and specifically regarding child custody cases. The dynamics of legal, forensic, and mental health issues are included.

Specialty Certification in Trauma Care

Includes an understanding of the various forms of trauma, short and long-term effects of trauma, and assessing and treating adults or children who have experienced trauma and complex trauma. The dynamics of post-traumatic stress disorder and the neurobiology of trauma are included.

Child and Adult Maltreatment Specialty Certification

Focuses on experiential, interdisciplinary, ethical, and culturally sensitive content that provides professionals a common knowledge base for responding to child and adult maltreatment. This certification focuses on development of understanding of the numerous factors that lead to child and adult maltreatment and existing responses to child and adult maltreatment.