Problems in adulthood are prolific.
Think about all those people with depression, anxiety, guilt and shame, those with personality disorders such as bipolar and OCD, those addicted to alcohol, drugs, shopping, and pornography, the workaholics, compulsive liars, cheaters and manipulators, the perpetrators of domestic violence, gun violence and child abuse, those in trouble with the law and those in prison, as well as the vast number of couples in perpetual conflict whose relationships end in divorce. What appears widely different on the surface becomes interconnected as we probe deeper. All these and many more widely disparate problems have something in common. Can you guess what that is?
What these diverse problems have in common is trauma.
What appears widely different on the surface becomes interconnected as we probe deeper. And that deeper truth is the experience of trauma.
At the root of trauma is insecure attachment.
But there is one more step that needs to be taken. If we track back into their very early histories, what we find at the root of trauma is insecure attachment. It is the relationship between infant and parent at the very foundation of life that sets the stage for everything that follows.
The way these people were parented failed to satisfy their basic emotional and physical needs as infants and as children. Perhaps they were emotionally, physically, or sexually abused. Perhaps they were severely neglected. Having parents who were unable to empathize or attune to their needs, how could they feel safe or cared about? From these sad origins, they developed dysfunctional patterns that carried forward into their adult lives. Then all too often they repeated the same pattern of inadequate parenting with their own children.
It is time to break the cycle of intergenerational trauma & attachment injuries.
The Early Trauma Protocol offers an approach to do just that.
As clients, discover what went wrong in your own childhood and overcome it to become a better person.
As therapists, use this methodology to help heal those whose pain may have caused them to hurt others at the same time as it hurt themselves.
As parents and would-be parents, learn what it means to offer secure attachment to your own infants and children.
As family members, educators, and people who care, begin to cultivate a deep and compassionate understanding of trauma and its roots in insecure attachment.