Family Work / Weekends

Trauma is a Family Systems Issue

Trauma is most often generational.  

We are parented by parents who were parented by parents – all of whom experienced some sort of trauma, such as:

Societal Trauma

• War
• The Great Depression
• Immigration to a New Country
• Religious, Cultural, Ethnic, Gender, Sexual Orientation Persecution
• Unattainable Societal Expectations 
• Overstepping of Power (i.e. assuming control of land, sending children away from their families, separation of families, etc.)

Familial Trauma

And much, MUCH more. 

When trauma is left unresolved within the family, we pass it down (often unintentionally) to the next generation.  We do this by modeling. 

We parent what we know, and what we know we learned from our parents.

Trauma is no exception, nor are the behaviors and emotions that come with it.  Unintentionally, we exhibit our symptoms of trauma, often shame-based, which is then inherently passed down.

Healing the Family

When clients attend The Bridge to Recovery, they heal from their own trauma by:

• Letting go of that inherited shame
• Learning to set healthy boundaries for themselves
• Having the tools to cope with future events.  

When someone returns to their family group in a healthier place, it can be a difficult time for the other family members who have not yet attended to their own emotional health needs.  Newly placed boundaries can be tricky to navigate, and the family group can be left feeling even more fractured.

This is why at The Bridge to Recovery, we place huge importance on whole family healing.  

A healthy person can live a happy, healthy life, BUT a healthy family will create happy, healthy generations.

We support whole family healing by:

• Providing unlimited Family Weekend Workshops for our clients.

We host monthly family weekends for our clients who attend our program for at least 4 weeks (as we feel that is the most primed opportunity for whole-family healing work).  

Family weekends are a Friday-Sunday workshop facilitated by Bridge clinicians to help those family members invited by the client process, understand, and nurture the healing process that is underway.

• We provide options for other adult members of the family to attend our program as well.

While not able to attend at the same time, we often have family members attend our program consecutively so that they can also attend to their own emotional health needs.  

We provide family and alumni discounts to support the opportunity for other adult members of the family.

• We make referrals for additional family support options.

Sometimes, families may find that they need more support than our Family Weekend Workshops offer, or they may want to find resources for a minor child who is unable to attend The Bridge to Recovery because of age.  We make it our mission to find appropriate referrals to support the family healing, such as:

Structured Family Recovery (SFR)

Created by Debra Jay, author of “It Takes a Family,” SFR uses trained counselors and interventionists to create a recovery team that supports the whole family.  

Buy Debra’s Book Here

Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation Family Program

This renowned program is available to anyone in need at NO COST, regardless of where they live, and offers a number of different services for families, from support groups specifically for family members to coaching from licensed addiction counselors.

www.hazeldenbettyford.org

To learn more about Family Weekend Workshops as The Bridge to Recovery, please call and speak with our Client Relations Team.