Category: Families

Trauma and Blessing in the Family System – Enid Welford

Enid Welford

Berne referred to the ‘family scripting’ that can be seen as a pattern through several generations, and the important influence of the grandparents. Thus difficulties with our immediate parents may have begun several generations in the past, and often seem to be related to unresolved traumas. Fanita English (1979) described these traumas as a ‘hot potato’ passed on to subsequent generations. Knowledge of these traumatic experiences is held within the introjected Parent, and the theme of this TA Tuesday is the usefulness of working at the source of the difficulty, i.e with the ancestor who first had the traumatic experience.

Unfortunately the knowledge we hold of our family history is not always available to our conscious mind. There are signs in the therapeutic process that indicate the presence of an impasse that spans the generations, and hopefully there will be time to discuss these signs. I also hope to discuss aspects of Family Constellations that inform my approach to these difficulties, along with TA techniques that Transactional Analysts can use to address intergenerational trauma.

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