Concentration in Narrative Focused Trauma Care
Learn to listen deeply. Engage harm with courage. Walk with others toward restoration.
1 concentration-specific courses
2 trainings with the Allender Center
In a world marked by the wounds of trauma—personal, systemic, and generational—there is a growing need for therapists who can respond with depth, presence, and care. The Concentration in Narrative Focused Trauma Care equips you to become that kind of therapist.
Available as part of the Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology (MACP), this concentration prepares students to engage the complex realities of trauma and abuse through a holistic, story-centered lens. Drawing from decades of clinical wisdom developed by Dr. Dan Allender and the Allender Center, this concentration integrates theology, trauma science, and narrative engagement to form therapists who can accompany others through their most painful stories.
This concentration is for those who are not only curious about trauma theory, but who also sense a call to tend to the places in others—and in themselves—that ache for healing.
What Makes This Concentration Unique
Narrative Focused Trauma Care
Learn a deeply integrative approach to trauma care that combines story work, somatic awareness, shame resilience, and attachment theory—all grounded in a spiritually attuned, relational frame.
Experiential, Immersive Learning
Complete two intensive trainings with the Allender Center, where you’ll engage in trauma-informed practices in community, explore your own story, and begin to embody the presence required for deep healing work.
Personal Formation as the Foundation
Healing requires courage and self-awareness. You will be invited to explore your own experiences of harm—because we believe you can only lead others as far as you’re willing to go yourself.
Whole-Person Approach to Trauma
Integrating neuroscience, bodywork, psychodynamic theory, and theology, this concentration trains you to attend to the emotional, spiritual, and physical dimensions of trauma.
Dr. Allender’s Leadership
Dr. Dan Allender, co-founder of The Allender Center and co-founder of The Seattle School, is a pioneering voice in the field of trauma and abuse recovery. For over three decades, his work has shaped a distinctive therapeutic approach—Narrative Focused Trauma Care® (NFTC)—that integrates clinical insight, spiritual formation, and story engagement. As a core influence in this concentration, Dr. Allender’s vision and teaching help form therapists who can walk with others through profound harm with empathy, courage, and depth.
What You’ll Learn
Through this concentration, you will:
- Develop a foundational understanding of Narrative Focused Trauma Care®
- Learn trauma-informed strategies for assessment, treatment planning, and clinical care
- Explore your own story of harm and how it informs your therapeutic presence
- Practice deep listening to the body and memory, helping clients tell the truth about what’s been lost—and what might be restored
- Cultivate a trauma-informed, narrative-driven philosophy of healing that can guide your clinical vocation
“As we get closer to our stories of trauma we may experience difficult emotions connected to these painful events of the past. Navigating these exact moments together as a group, with care and honor for one another, is what we believe opens the door to deep healing and increases our capacity for meaningful presence with others.”
Danielle Zurinsky, Research Manager at the Allender Center Explore The Research Behind NFTC
Program Format
Designed to be completed alongside the Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology
66 total credits, including:
- 1 concentration-specific course (2 credits)
- 2 immersive trainings with the Allender Center
- Offered in a lab-style, experiential format blending theory, practice, and self-exploration
For more details on all course requirements, please see our MA in Counseling Psychology with a Concentration in Narrative Focused Trauma Care course rotation.
Who Is This For?
This concentration is designed for those called to integrate faith, psychology, and cultural awareness as they walk with others—through trauma, story, and spiritual formation—toward healing and transformation.
This concentration is ideal for:
- Future therapists who want to specialize in trauma and abuse recovery
- Students drawn to narrative therapy, spiritual formation, and story work
- Practitioners seeking to integrate faith, psychology, and cultural awareness
- Wounded healers who feel called to walk with others toward transformation
“Trauma gives us a context to engage upheaval, not only to help mitigate it and stabilize, but to actually walk with a person through the process of helping them reform and reconfigure who they wish to be in the midst of a world that allows this kind of harm.”
Dr. Dan Allender
Begin the Journey Toward Healing—For Yourself and Others
If you feel called to the slow, sacred work of walking with others through trauma, grief, and healing, this concentration will give you the tools—and the formation—you need. Request more information or apply today, and we’ll send you everything you need to know begin your journey.