UVic professor helps create online tool to deal with complex PTSD

UVic professor helps create online tool to deal with complex PTSD

Published 11:00 am Thursday, February 5, 2026

A new digital resource co-created by the University of Victoria will streamline access to tools for clinicians who support people with complex post-traumatic stress within B.C.

To enhance trauma-informed health care for people experiencing complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD), an online site has been created, using multimedia including videos, handouts and quizzes, to provide information on C-PTSD, how it affects people mentally and physically, and how to provide trauma-informed care.

Colette Smart, a UVic psychologist and an Island Health research scholar in residence for mental health and substance use, co-developed the tool to help better educate health-care providers about the needs of individuals who have C-PTSD, mainly within the context of close relationships, which is referred to as complex relational trauma.

“Survivors of C-PTSD often experience long-term mental and physical health challenges, but we know from hearing from them directly that the care they receive could be enhanced through more trauma-informed approaches,” noted Smart in a news release.

C-PTSD arises when trauma is prolonged, repeated and inescapable, compared to PTSD, which typically arises from a singular, isolated event.

The idea for the tool originated with Lori Herod’s Out of the Storm, an online educational platform and community with 14,000 members from more than 87 countries. From the site’s inception in 2014, survivors have expressed that they struggled to find mental and physical health-care providers who understood effective C-PTSD treatment, according to the release.

“There are a lot of health-care inequities, but I’m hoping survivors come out and tell health-care providers what’s needed. It’s not that the professionals don’t care, it’s that they don’t know,” noted Herod in the release.

During an International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies meeting in 2024, Herod connected with Smart, and they convened a team of clinicians, researchers and survivors, conducted a research study and developed the Complex Relational Trauma and Complex PTSD: Closing the Gap in Healthcare digital resource.

Smart helped create the resource as part of her work with the Island Health Research Scholar in Residence Program, which was funded by Island Health

“As a learning organization, Island Health is committed to improving knowledge, information and tools that help our clinical care teams strengthen effective, empathic and outcome-oriented care to the patients we serve,” said Nelson Collins, South Island division head of mental health and substance use for Island Health.

The Complex Relational Trauma and Complex PTSD: Closing the Gap in Healthcare resource is available online and is being rolled out to Island Health primary care networks.

So far, the resource has been disseminated to 47 institutions and professional associations in Canada and the U.S., and Smart and Herod are investigating options for promotion in health sectors and beyond.