Trauma Informed Family Therapy

Program Overview

The Doctor of Marriage and Family Therapy in Trauma Informed Family Therapy starts from a simple observation: trauma rarely happens to one person alone. Abuse, violence, war, disaster, and sudden loss enter whole households, and a family's patterns can either contain the injury or pass it on to the next generation. This program trains therapists to see trauma as a relational injury and to make the family part of the healing rather than only its setting. Students begin with the science: the Adverse Childhood Experiences research and its dose-response findings, the neurobiology of threat, the window of tolerance, developmental and complex trauma, and the ways attachment is shaped by early danger. The clinical sequence follows the phase-oriented tradition Judith Herman described — safety and stabilization first, then processing, then reconnection — and applies it to couples and families: trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy with caregivers, child-parent psychotherapy for young children, emotionally focused work with traumatized couples, and systemic approaches to intergenerational transmission. The six principles of a trauma-informed approach — safety, trustworthiness and transparency, peer support, collaboration, empowerment, and attention to culture, history, and gender — are studied as a way of running a whole service, not only a session. Safety assessment receives special care, including the situations in which conjoint therapy must not proceed. Christian faith brings lament, a theology of suffering, and communities that can either shelter survivors or wound them again; the program takes all three seriously, including spiritual injury caused by churches. The doctoral project develops and evaluates a trauma-informed intervention or service redesign in the student's setting. Graduates lead family trauma services, train congregations and agencies, and supervise therapists exposed to secondary trauma. The degree forms practitioners academically and is not, on its own, a route to licensure.

Core Courses

• TFT 801 — Trauma, Attachment, and the Developing Brain (6 credits)
• TFT 812 — Adverse Childhood Experiences and Family Systems (6 credits)
• TFT 824 — Safety, Stabilization, and Assessment (6 credits)
• TFT 836 — Trauma Treatment with Children, Couples, and Families (6 credits)
• TFT 848 — Trauma-Informed Systems and Congregations (5 credits)
• TFT 860 — Applied Research Design in Trauma Care (4 credits)
• TFT 899 — Doctoral Project in Trauma Informed Family Therapy (24 credits)

Admission Requirements

• Master's degree in marriage and family therapy, counseling, psychology, social work, ministry, or a related field
• Experience in counseling, family ministry, chaplaincy, or human services
• Statement of purpose describing the families you serve and the question you want to pursue
• Current resume or professional profile
• Official transcripts from prior institutions when available
• Signed acknowledgment that the degree does not by itself confer a license to practise therapy in any jurisdiction