The Family Separation Clinic has always been focused on helping and healing families affected by transgenerational trauma, however that presents itself. Transgenerational trauma can be caused by inter-family repetition of behaviours which are violent, aggressive, intrusive, manipulative, threatening or otherwise deployed to cause anxiety, fear and stress and perpetrators as well as victims are all part of the transgenerational transmission process. Understanding the transgenerational patterns of trauma which are normalised and passed down through the generations is the first step to fully escape the harm that it causes.
We also help parents in the rejected position to heal from the reactive splitting which is caused by this transgenerational trauma, so that they can build a new approach to helping their children. No longer a passive observer, parents who work with us are engaged in building a strong sense of self, a depth understanding of attachment trauma and the therapeutic parenting approaches which are proven to heal disorganised attachments in abused children.
A child’s rejection of a loved and loving parent in the context of divorce and separation, when it is accompanied by psychological splitting behaviours, is an attachment trauma which flags hidden harm at home. The harm may be psychological overwhelm due to a parent’s inability to cope with the dynamics of divorce or it may be overt behaviours designed to frighten the child into alignment. Whatever the cause, the impact on the child remains the same, the onset of a defensive structure which creates a false self which then acts out the projected intentions of a controlling parent. All of these dynamics are transgenerational in origin, they are learned in childhood and normalised and the group of families affected by them are distinct in their lack of containment, enmeshed systems and drive to control others.
When you work with the Family Separation Clinic you are challenged to change but that challenge comes with immense care and support. We challenge you because we know that you are your child’s best hope for a healthy future and because when you shift from a victim mindset to that of a healing force in your child’s life, the whole system changes.
Our courses are open now. Our community is a warm, safe and protected space for mothers and fathers who are hurting and in need of healing. We welcome extended family members who wish to help and heal too and we always ensure that the child’s experience is central to what we do.
Home is where we start from, home is where alienated children long to return. We work to help you to help them to come home, first to you and through you, home to their own sense of self.
Karen Woodall - Psychotherapist, Writer, Researcher, Trainer 
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