Understanding Interventions for Generational Trauma From the Experienced Counselors’ Perspective

Healing generational trauma involves counselors’ understanding and recognizing the symptoms of unhealthy coping mechanisms in adults who witnessed adverse emotional reactions as children. Generational trauma occurs when generations have trouble building healthy relationships and pass unhealthy coping mechanisms to future generations. There has been a reported increase in youth and adults seeking mental health services for generational trauma. The problem was that there was insufficient information about how counselors recognize and respond to the symptoms of generational trauma or what treatment methods or modalities to use to support patients. The purpose of this generic qualitative study was to explore the experiences of counselors who have more than three years of licensure and who understand the symptoms of attachment difficulties, adverse childhood experiences, and generational trauma to provide current information for the continuation of generational trauma. Bowlby’s attachment theory framed the study. A purposeful criterion sample of ten participants participated in one-on-one, semi-structured interviews. Oral data were collected, transcribed, and analyzed using a thematic content analysis approach. The themes included interfamily generational trauma, traditional assessment and therapeutic approaches, barriers to treatment, and professional challenges and coping strategies. The information from this study may contribute to social change and the understanding of the social determinants of health by providing insights into counselors’ strategies for treating and preventing the continuation of generational trauma.