1. Multigenerational Trauma
Breaking the Cycle of
Multigenerational Trauma
Yael Danieli, PhD

2. Identity: A complex interplay of multiple systems
Biological, intrapsychic
Interpersonal – family, social, community
Ethnic, cultural, religious, spiritual
Environmental, political, national, international

3. Trauma and the Continuity of Self: A Multidimensional, Multidisciplinary, Integrative (TCMI) Framework Danieli, 1998

4. Multigenerational transmission of trauma
rupture and fixity
Survival
strategies
Adaptational
Styles
Reparative
Adaptational
Impacts
Survivors
Survivors
Survivors
Survivors’
Offspring
Family History and Family Milieu
Society
Time

5. Parents’ posttrauma adaptational styles (higher and lower order factors)
Numb Style
Fighter Style
Victim Style
Over-
Protectiveness
Emotional
Volatility &
Control
Stuck in the
Loss & Trauma
Rupture
Isolation &
Detachment
Conspiracy of
Silence in
the Family
Valuing
Mastery
& Justice
Valuing Identity
(Ethnic/Group)
Intolerance
for Weakness
Danieli et al., 2015a

6. Adult child’s reparative adaptational impacts (higher and lower order factors)
Protectiveness
Need for Power
and Control
Insecurity re:
Competence
Defensive
Psychosocial
Constriction
Obsession with
Traumatic Event(s)
Immature
Dependency
Danieli et al., 2015b

7. Percent “any disorder” by severity of reparative adaptational impacts (low, moderate, high)
Values are the %
of the group meeting
criteria for disorder
lowest third on RAI
middle third on RAI
highest third on RAI

8. Hypothesized, testable model
Family History
Parents’
Posttrauma
Adaptational
Styles
Offspring’s Reparative
Adaptational
Impacts
Family Milieu

9. Path model tested (streamlined based on preliminary analyses)
Family History
Mother’s age cohort
Nature of trauma
Parents’
Victim
Styles
Offspring’s Reparative
Adaptational
Impacts
Family Milieu Sociocultural setting
Post-Trauma SES
Post-Trauma family size
Survival of mother’s mother
Broken generational linkages
Continuity in ethnic traditions
Danieli et al., in press

10. Conclusions
Together, the earlier model and the findings from the clinical study suggest the presence of a causal chain in which the influence of parents’ styles on offspring’s risk for disorder occurs earlier in the sequence. This is illustrated below.
Family History
Parents’
Intensities of
Victim Style
Offspring’s Reparative
Adaptational
Impacts
Current Mood or Anxiety
Disorder
Family Milieu
Danieli et al., 2016

11. The Inventory in clinical practice
Developed primarily as a research tool, the Danieli Inventory may nonetheless be useful in clinical practice with adult children of survivors
First, the inventory provides a map of issues common to survivors and their families
Second, completing the inventory gives patients the opportunity to reflect, in a systematic way, on the posttraumatic styles of their parents and their own reparative adaptational impacts. Therapist and patient can then explore together the meaning of individual items, elaborating on the particular experiences that led the patient to rate them as they did
Third, using the scoring guidelines for clinical practice, the clinician can determine whether the patient has experienced low, average, high, or very high impacts relative to other adult children of survivors who have completed the Inventory

12. Hope
Necessary conditions for and dimensions of Hope (Examples) :
The phenomenological definition of hope is the consciousness of optionality or the awareness of the possible existence of options even when one doesn’t/cannot see them.
Structure
vs.
Disorganization/Disorientation
Order
Chaos
Safety
Danger
Flow
Stasis
Freedom
Oppression, Slavery, Tyranny
Rights
Injustice
Realistic
Magical
Active
Passive
Internal
External
Object
Subject
Self
Other
Open
Closed
Forward
Back
Process
Outcome orientation
Competence
Helplessness
Mastery/coping
Defense
“Hope is the creation of the other shore of the abyss and the bridge to reach it.”