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filler@godaddy.com
Intergenerational trauma refers to the emotional, psychological, and relational pain passed down from one generation to the next. It often begins with a traumatic experience, such as abuse, neglect, loss, or high-conflict family dynamics, and continues to affect how people parent, relate, and cope.
When trauma isn’t recognised or healed, it can shape the way family members think, feel, and behave. Children may absorb distorted beliefs about love, trust, conflict, or loyalty, and grow up repeating the very patterns that caused harm. Some may even gravitate toward relationships where they’re mistreated or where familiar patterns of rejection, control, or victimhood play out again.
In families where coercive control or alienation occurs, intergenerational trauma is often a key factor. A parent’s unresolved wounds can spill into their parenting, shaping how they see the other parent, how they speak to their child, and how safe the child feels to love freely. Recognising and addressing this trauma is essential to break the cycle, heal relational wounds, and protect future generations.
50% of the adult participants that were alienated in childhood were also alienated from their own children because of parental alienating behaviours. (Verhaar et al., 2022)
Adults that were alienated in childhood explained intergenerational dysfunctional relationships at the grandparent level, highlighting there were learnt behaviours that were passed down generationally (Bentley & Matthewson, 2020)
Parental Alienating Behaviours
are Child Abuse & Family Violence.
This serious form of abuse and family violence can no longer be ignored. Parental alienating behaviours must be acknowledged in Australia as it is in other parts of the world. We need legislation that not only acknowledges its existence but firmly and clearly legislates against it.