Psychotherapeutic Work with Intergenerational Trauma

Interrupting intergenerational cycles of trauma and violence Part II

In this presentation, Clinical Psychologist, Dr Pamela Alexander, author of Intergenerational Cycles of Trauma and Violence: An Attachment and Family Systems Perspective (W.W. Norton, 2014), discusses the significance of research that predicts the dynamics of future intimate partner relationships and parenting abilities from early childhood attachments, showing how the parent-child attachment relationship can either exacerbate or mitigate against the effects of a history of maltreatment on intergenerational cycles of violence. We will see that intimate partner violence both results from a history of child maltreatment and contributes to these intergenerational cycles through the impact on the child’s ability to regulate emotions and through internal working models of self and other. The trauma history of both partners in childhood is found to be important, however most parents who experienced violence in childhood do not become abusive towards their own children or partners. How they are somehow able to interrupt the intergenerational cycle of trauma is of great interest as we can learn from the types of resilience these people display. We will see that alternative sources of attachment, such as a therapist or at least one non-abusive parent, can counteract the effects of a history of maltreatment and interrupt the cycle of violence before it reaches the next generation.