[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-147268-en":3,"doc-seo-147268-105":29,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":90},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":4,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":11,"language":21,"language_code":22,"site_id":23,"html_lang":22,"table_of_contents":24,"faqs":25,"seo_title":26,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":27,"read_time":28},147268,962084926284,"Aria Callaghan","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_29158cc5080c5b710cf443261637dec0",7,"Healthcare","Interrupting Intergenerational Trauma - Attachment-Centered Family Therapy and a Case Study","Effective family therapy depends on broadening the clinical lens beyond the client’s presenting behavior to the history of intergenerational trauma shaping it. The approach emphasizes attachment-centered work with parents, inviting them to examine how their own childhood experiences contribute to current dynamics. A detailed case study follows John and his 11-year-old son Adam, exploring anxiety, parenting philosophy, fears, and the mismatch between lectures and a frightened child’s needs, along with attachment-based assessment questions and adult attachment concepts.","Interrupting Intergenerational Trauma  \nOne of the most important decisions a therapist makes is how broadly to define the problem that clients bring into treatment. In an individualistic culture such as ours, it’s common to focus narrowlyon whomever is exhibiting problem behavior, without understanding the wider family context that’s shaping the issues that are the immediate source of concern. Often the key to working effectively with a family is expanding the therapeutic perspective to include the history of intergenerational trauma that underlies the present day issues, even though that’s not the family’s view of the origins of the presenting problem.  \nIt’s not easy to introduce this perspective to parents. When parents bring their child for therapy, they don’t expect or want to be as much the focus of work as their child. That is why one of the first items I tell parents when introducing my method of therapy, is that I work from an attachment perspective and will be working as much or sometimes more with them. I will be asking them to look into their own childhood history and how it may be contributing to the situation. Because of the confidence I have in this approach, most parents are willing to give attachment centered family therapy a try. Then the real work begins.  \nCase Study  \nJohn’s entire identity was his family business. He owned a wood processing plant and a small horse farm, and worked all the time, even on weekends. He never meant to become a client, but when he brought his 11-year-old son, Adam, to see me, I insisted he come too, since I specialize in family therapy. I would’ve asked that mom join us, but she worked the swing shift as a nurse and wasn’t available after school.  \nAdam had anxiety and executive functioning deficits, and had been diagnosed with ADD and oppositional defiant disorder. When I asked for details, John said,“Adam is in his own world: he doesn’t listen. Even simple things like clearing his cereal bowl from the table is something I have to tell him three times. Same with most everything else. Doing his chores, going to school, going to bed, whatever we say, he stalls and doesn’t listen.” At the time I met Adam, he was on three different psychotropic meds, including a sedative for sleeping  \n.  \nWhen I talked to Adam, he told me what he thought the problem was: “I can’t think straight sometimes. I forget. Like when my dad tells me to do something, it sounds far away.  \n“ It turns out, that was John’s entire  \nparenting philosophy. Whenever Adam was scared, John told him he had to put mind over matter  \nand be courageous.“  \nThen he gets mad and yells at me.”“How does that feel to you?”“Not good.”  \nI then asked Adam about the anxiety and fears that the psychiatrist was medicating him for. “I can’t sleep at night because I’m scared someone is going to crawl through the window. My dad tells me that’s impossible because we’re so high up, but my sister can climb the tree. Also, I’m scared of Kiko, one of our mares, because she gets scared by critters, and twice she kicked me when she saw a mouse.”“How do you deal with these fears?”  \n“I try to tell my dad that I don’t want to muck the stalls. I’ll fill the trough and the water buckets and stuff, but I don’t want to go in behind her because she gets spooked so easily.”  \nI turned to John and asked,“Is that a fair deal? He’ll take care of the chores outside of the stall but won’t go in?”  \n“That’s fine for now, but it’s not really a solution. Adam has to learn that he’s in charge. Horses are social animals. If you’re scared, they’re scared. But if you’re confident, they are as calm as can be.”  \nIt turns out, that was John’s entire parenting philosophy. Whenever Adam was scared, John told him he had to put mind over matter and be courageous. This also applied to the bully Adam was contending with on the school bus and when he had fears about going to sleep alone at night.  \nI tried several different tactics in family therapy to help John und","cbCaitmxrypFOOe1","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaitmxrypFOOe1","pdf",1346324,1,"English","en",105,"# Introduction\n## Expanding the therapeutic perspective\n# Talking with parents about attachment-centered work\n## Building willingness to participate\n# Case study\n## John and Adam’s presenting concerns\n## Parenting philosophy and fear management\n## Family therapy tactics and implementation\n# Adult attachment and clinical questions\n## Attachment classifications and assessment prompts","[{\"question\":\"Why should therapists define the client’s problem broadly in family treatment?\",\"answer\":\"Because focusing only on the individual’s behavior misses the family context shaped by intergenerational trauma that underlies today’s concerns.\"},{\"question\":\"What is the core reason parents may be challenged when therapy begins?\",\"answer\":\"Parents often expect the work to center on the child, not themselves, since the attachment approach requires them to explore their own childhood history.\"},{\"question\":\"What does the case study show about parenting philosophy and a frightened child?\",\"answer\":\"John’s advice to rely on “mind over matter” and be courageous did not address Adam’s fears; education about the brain and strategies that involve doing tasks together were used instead.\"}]","Interrupting Intergenerational Trauma - Attachment-Centered Family Therapy and a Case Study | PDF",1787761025,18,{"code":4,"msg":30,"data":31},"ok",{"site_id":23,"language":22,"slug":32,"title":13,"keywords":33,"description":14,"schema_data":34,"social_meta":85,"head_meta":87,"extra_data":89,"updated_unix":27},"interrupting-intergenerational-trauma-attachment-centered-family-therapy-and-a-case-study","",{"@graph":35,"@context":84},[36,53,67],{"@type":37,"itemListElement":38},"BreadcrumbList",[39,43,47,50],{"item":40,"name":41,"@type":42,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":44,"name":45,"@type":42,"position":46},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":48,"name":12,"@type":42,"position":49},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/healthcare/",3,{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":42,"position":52},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/interrupting-intergenerational-trauma-attachment-centered-family-therapy-and-a-case-study/147268/",4,{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":22,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":61,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":62,"interactionStatistic":63},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":40,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-08-26",true,{"@type":64,"interactionType":65,"userInteractionCount":4},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":66},"ViewAction",{"@type":68,"mainEntity":69},"FAQPage",[70,76,80],{"name":71,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":73},"Why should therapists define the client’s problem broadly in family treatment?","Question",{"text":74,"@type":75},"Because focusing only on the individual’s behavior misses the family context shaped by intergenerational trauma that underlies today’s concerns.","Answer",{"name":77,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":78},"What is the core reason parents may be challenged when therapy begins?",{"text":79,"@type":75},"Parents often expect the work to center on the child, not themselves, since the attachment approach requires them to explore their own childhood history.",{"name":81,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":82},"What does the case study show about parenting philosophy and a frightened child?",{"text":83,"@type":75},"John’s advice to rely on “mind over matter” and be courageous did not address Adam’s fears; 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