The Impact of Traumatic Events Over Generations

All families go through difficult times during the family’s life span. But, there can be particular times and events that leave a mark in the family… And the effects of this event are felt over several generations of the family.

A middle age man described, with tears in his eyes, how his grandmother would not accept her 4 year old boy (this man´s father) as her own son after being separated from him for 3 months.

The gentlemen considered this event as one that in many ways defined his father, himself and his children. This single, but traumatic event for the man’s father also explained many of the events that happened later in the life of his family.

How can we understand and better manage “self” when we confront previous family events affecting relationships in the present?

With me again is my colleague Mr. Douglas Murphy. Mr. Douglas Murphy. Doug has been a faculty member of the Georgetown Family Center since 1992. He received his graduate degree from Antioch College in Human Communication Theory. He trained in the Postgraduate Program at the Georgetown University Family Center from 1977 to 1981. Doug now serves as Director of the Clinic at the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family, and associate editor and book review editor of Family Systems Journal. Doug is also is the clinical director of a nonprofit agency in Baltimore County, Maryland that provides services to families experiencing violence and he maintains a private practice in Towson, Maryland.