Healing intergenerational trauma through parent-child attachment work

Course Description

As a child, when your parent or caregiver does something bad to you or chronically ignores you, you have no choice but to think: this is my fault. Every child that gets abused and/or neglected will have a deep sense of self-loathing. They believe: I’m defective, there is something wrong with me. Why? Because as children, we believe we were too compliant, to weak, couldn’t stand up for ourselves, didn’t do enough, etc. What happens when that child becomes a parent himself? Those same demons in his head will emerge towards his child when his child shows similar feelings or weaknesses that the parents once had. This is a form of intergenerational trauma. How can clinicians can help their patients heal the cycle of intergenerational trauma through their relationship with their child? That is what this workshop will teach you.

Program Content

Through real treatment cases and clinical vignettes, you will learn about 3 families with intergenerational trauma that were able to stop the cycle of disrupted attachment: A detached, unfeeling father becomes a tender and empathic parent to his 6 year old daughter through examining his wounds from his own distant parent. A frightening, intimidating father learns to care and have compassion for his vulnerable 10 year old son after coming to terms with the violence his own father perpetrated on him. A mother with dissociation from her own childhood learns to be a loving presence to her troubled adolescent daughter.


  • Notice signs that an adult (parent) playing out their own attachment wounds onto their child
  • Identify the non-conscious dramas the parent is playing out in their relationship with their child
  • Determine the sequence of when to work with parent alone, parent and child together, both parents and multiple children, etc.

Target Audience

This training is appropriate for social workers, counselors, psychologists, psychiatrists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, teachers and case workers.

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