Trauma in the Family: Concrete Skills to Achieve Long-term Healing and Stability
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An event is not traumatic while it is happening. In the moment it is a crisis. Whether it becomes trauma is decided afterwards, by how the person processes it and by how everyone around them responds. Nathan Croy’s point is that if the environment has that much say in whether trauma takes hold, treating the individual and sending them back into that environment is always going to be half a treatment.
He starts by working through the systemic models properly, for the benefit of clinicians without family therapy training: cybernetics, Bowen, structural, narrative and the strategic cluster. Then he says plainly what he thinks is wrong with them. They are fault-oriented, so someone in the family ends up carrying the blame. They carry their authors’ cultural assumptions about what a family is supposed to look like. They tend to describe rather than prescribe. And they leave the therapist out of the system while giving them a great deal of power inside it.
Eleven hours across two days, and the second day is applied rather than theoretical. Getting buy-in from parents and caregivers before anything else. Safety planning treated as a skill the family learns, and folded into the treatment plan rather than run beside it. A set of rules the family agrees before they need them. Working with primary emotions underneath the behaviour everyone is reacting to. Parenting mapped across the whole life cycle. There are recorded session excerpts, so you see the questions being asked rather than only hearing about them.
You’ll walk away with
- A working tour of the main systemic models, with the specific limitation of each, so you can borrow from them without inheriting their assumptions about what a family should be
- The distinction between responsibility and fault, which is what lets a family look at their part without someone becoming the identified problem
- Getting genuine buy-in from parents and caregivers first, since without it the rest of the work does not hold once everyone goes home
- Safety planning taught as a skill the family builds rather than a form completed in session, and integrated with the treatment plan rather than sitting alongside it
- Rules of the game agreed in advance: catching warning signs early, using coping skills until calm, naming the primary emotion, then responding
- Primary emotions worked with directly, including fear and hurt as the experience of loss, which is usually what the behaviour everyone is arguing about is sitting on top of
- Fight, flight, freeze and fawn covered as a set, including the fawn response many clinicians have not had named for them
- A three-phase model of parenting across the life cycle, protect, prepare and participate, that helps a parent see where they actually are and what the next stage asks of them
- A way to build empathy for the family member who is hardest to feel warmly toward, while still taking the sensible precautions their behaviour calls for
- Recorded session excerpts showing the questions being asked with a young client, so the technique is visible rather than described
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CPD Information For Mental Health Professionals
Enjoy complete flexibility with 100% self-paced learning you can access anytime, anywhere, and on any device. This course is included with your Tatra Training membership, along with every other course in the library.
Course Duration: 11 learning hours
Certificate and CPD hours: On completion you’ll receive a Certificate of Completion to support your CPD records. Your certificates are yours to keep.
Assessment: Complete a short quiz at the end (80% pass mark), which you can resit as many times as needed.
Revisit Anytime: Come back to the course as often as you like while your membership is active, whenever you want a refresher for practice.
CPD Eligibility: This program may be suitable for CPD for professionals such as:
- Psychologists
- Counsellors and Psychotherapists
- Social Workers
- Community Workers
- Mental Health Nurses
- General Practitioners (GPs)
- Occupational Therapists
CPD requirements vary between professional bodies, so please check with your association or credentialing body to confirm you can claim CPD hours/OPD points for this program and what evidence they require.
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Meet Your Instructor
Families caught in destructive cycles that seem impossible to break - and individuals struggling to find meaning in their suffering - often feel trapped between wanting things to be different and not knowing how to create authentic change. Nathan D. Croy has spent over 15 years developing Existential Family Therapy (ExFT), a groundbreaking approach that helps families move beyond surface-level conflict resolution to discover deeper meaning and create genuinely authentic lives together.
As President and Founder of Existential Family Therapy (ExFT, LLC) and Clinical Fellow of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, Croy brings unique expertise that bridges existential philosophy with systemic family therapy. His master's thesis on "Integrating a Christian and Systemic Existential Psychotherapy Theory" reflects his innovative work in creating therapeutic approaches that honor both spiritual and psychological dimensions of human experience. His extensive training in Trauma Systems Therapy, combined with his work across acute psychiatric hospitals, university medical centers, and residential treatment facilities, gives him deep understanding of how trauma and crisis can become catalysts for authentic transformation rather than just problems to solve.
Croy's expertise spans existential family therapy, systemic existential psychotherapy, trauma therapy, anxiety and depression treatment, LGBTQ+ affirmative therapy, Christian counseling, grief work, and what he calls "meaning-making in crisis." His approach recognises that families often get stuck not because they don't know the right techniques, but because they're avoiding the deeper existential questions about who they are and what truly matters to them. He specialises in helping families navigate major life transitions, trauma recovery, adoption issues, end-of-life concerns, and situations where traditional therapy approaches have failed to create lasting change.
What sets his training apart is philosophical depth combined with practical application. Croy doesn't just teach family therapy techniques - he shows practitioners how to help families wrestle with the fundamental questions of existence that drive their conflicts. His philosophy that "living well is about learning the difference between being right and right being" reflects his commitment to moving beyond winning and losing to discovering authentic ways of being together.
For your practice, expect to gain specific techniques for helping families find meaning in crisis, tools for integrating existential exploration with family systems work, and frameworks for addressing the spiritual and philosophical dimensions that often underlie family problems. His approach particularly benefits clinicians working with families in crisis, those interested in meaning-centered therapy, or practitioners wanting to integrate spiritual and psychological perspectives.
Quick Win: Croy's "meaning interruption" technique helps families shift from arguing about surface issues to exploring the deeper values and fears driving their conflicts - helping to transform fights into meaningful conversations about what truly matters to each family member.
Qualifications
- MA, Marriage and Family Therapy/Counseling, Bethel Seminary San Diego, 2012
- BA, Psychology, Mount Vernon Nazarene University (Lead psychology T.A. senior year)
- Licensed Clinical Marriage and Family Therapist (LCMFT), Kansas
- Licensed Clinical Addiction Counselor (LCAC), Kansas
- Clinical Fellow, American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT), since January 2015
- Certificate, Trauma Systems Therapy, 2013
- Certificate, Prepare Enrich, 2009
Leadership & Innovation
- President and Founder, Existential Family Therapy (ExFT, LLC), Overland Park, KS, August 2015–present (10+ years)
- Developer of Existential Family Therapy (ExFT) approach
- Licensed Clinical Marriage and Family Therapist, Private Practice, current
- 15+ years in clinical practice
Professional Experience
- Therapist, Acute Psychiatric Hospital, Marillac, Overland Park, KS, August 2014–December 2016
- Behavioral Health Therapist, The University of Kansas Hospital, Overland Park, KS, August 2014–December 2016
- Residential Therapist, KVC Health Systems, Kansas City, KS, June 2013–September 2014
- Family Service Coordinator, KVC Health Systems (foster home licensing and support), June 2013–September 2014
Clinical Specialties
- Existential Family Therapy (ExFT) and systemic existential psychotherapy
- Family conflict resolution and meaning-making in crisis
- Trauma therapy including Trauma Systems Therapy
- Anxiety, depression, and mood disorders treatment
- LGBTQ+ affirmative therapy and Christian counseling integration
- Adoption issues and foster care family support
- Grief counseling and end-of-life existential concerns
- Suicide prevention, safety planning, and crisis intervention
- Personality disorders and complex family dynamics
Ready to help families move beyond surface conflicts to discover deeper meaning and authentic ways of being together? Discover how Nathan Croy's Existential Family Therapy methods can transform your ability to guide families through crisis toward genuine transformation and meaningful living.
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This course includes:
- Lessons 8
- Topics 0
- Duration 11 hours
- Quizzes 1
- Language English