Family of Origin & Trauma

Your Family of Origin

The family we grew up with profoundly influenced who we are.  The good. The bad. The ugly. The beautiful.  

Who we are today is a direct reflection of what we experienced during our development years.

While everyone experiences painful events during their developmental years, the response, connection, support, and nurturing (or lack thereof) we receive from our family of origin vastly impacts how we transition through them.  If any of that is lacking, we often find that emotional development is unable to fully mature and progress as it should have. 

These times when our emotional growth was stifled impacts our ability as adults to create healthy relationships with ourselves, with others, with our jobs, with our communities, and more.

At The Bridge to Recovery, we help clients “un-cover, understand, and un-shame” painful events, many of which often stem from the development years. These can include:

This list is incredibly general and only describes a tiny portion of the types of things that can stifle emotional growth.  

At The Bridge to Recovery we define childhood trauma as anything less than nurturing that caused pain.  Helping our clients “let go” of this pain is what we have done for five decades.

It’s Not My Shame – Understanding the Patterns of Generational Trauma

Recognizing and wanting to heal from our childhood trauma is not about blaming or scapegoating our actions as adults.  By learning to recognize how trauma is generational, and that until we break those cycles, the pain and shame we inherited from our family of origin will then be passed down to our own children. 

At The Bridge to Recovery, we educate our clients so that they can differentiate between blame and shame, learn to let go of that shame, and regain healthy emotional response mechanisms so that they can begin to break those generational chains of trauma.

Connection Between Childhood Trauma, Adult Trauma, and Our Response System

Trauma happens to everyone.  EV-ER-Y-ONE.

For some individuals, when they experienced trauma in their formative years, it was met with a nurturing, caring and compassionate response, which enabled them to learn healthy ways to manage turbulent and traumatic times in their future.

The adults in these children’s lives modeled very different behavior. And, not just instances of trauma, but, in their lives we can only assume that the modeled behavior was the norm.  Thus, the young man in example 2 is much more likely to find himself struggling with substances, relationships, grief, emotional connection, self-esteem, and more due to his family of origin.

Family of origin and generational trauma are not the only types of trauma that can impact overall quality of adult life, but many of our clients learn the foundational impact it had and healing can begin.

If you can relate to any of these situations, meaning, if you find yourself utilizing people, places, or things in an unhealthy manner in your life, you can learn to let go of shame, heal from the effects of trauma, and relearn healthy emotional coping skills.  Learn more about our residential program and how attending The Bridge to Recovery can help.