Trauma Informed NICU Care: Supporting Families and Ourselves

This two-hour training was created for bedside NICU professionals - the ones who are present in the room when the diagnosis lands, the alarms go off, or the questions have no clear answers. Led by perinatal mental health expert Krysta Dancy, LMFT, this course offers an honest, practical approach to trauma-informed care. You’ll learn how to recognize trauma in both parents and professionals, reduce unintentional harm, and bring emotional steadiness to moments that feel overwhelming. If you’ve ever walked away from a shift carrying the weight of what just happened - this training is for you. What You’ll Learn: -How trauma shows up in NICU parents - and what to do when it does -Practical ways to support bonding, even during medical separation -Why trauma isn't always caused by what happens, but how it’s experienced -A clear, repeatable framework developed by Krysta Dancy (R.E.S.T.) to guide trauma-informed care in the NICU -The difference between burnout, moral injury, and secondary trauma -Tools to protect your own nervous system while showing up with compassion Course Description This 2-hour, on-demand training provides NICU professionals with a working understanding of trauma-informed care in the neonatal intensive care environment. The course explores the impact of trauma on parent–infant bonding, communication, advocacy, and regulation. Using the R.E.S.T. model developed just for you, participants will gain actionable tools for responding to trauma reactions at the bedside and for managing their own secondary trauma exposure over time. Designed for those working in real time with NICU families — not for outpatient therapists — this training centers the emotional realities of daily NICU work and offers a path toward care that is more connected, more confident, and more sustainable. This course is worth 2 CE Hours.