Amy Yetter-Scroggin, Chief Learning Officer for The Lincoln Center for Family and Youth, is speaking at the 5th Annual Jefferson University Trauma Conference, July 14-15.

The crux of her presentation will talk about how to prevent violence and promote healing in today’s trauma-impacted youth by understanding the way trauma shapes families from generation to generation.

Yetter-Scroggin, (MA, LPC, NCC, CCTP, CCFP, Chief Learning Officer at The Lincoln Center for Family and Youth) will present “Addressing Transgenerational Trauma and Its Role in Preventing Violence,” which explores effective ways to help children and adolescents heal from longstanding trauma as members of families with a legacy of generational trauma.

Healing Children as Members of Traumatized Families

The presentation by Yetter-Scroggin uses evidence-based research to explore how a family line’s trauma stories can powerfully predict repeated patterns in family systems and identify how each trauma impacts future generations.

Amy describes how this multi-systems approach develops positive coping techniques and improves family functioning within the traumatized family unit.

In turn, the improved family functionality contributes to breaking patterns, reducing re-traumatization, and preventing violence for children living in these families.

Essentially, helping families name and break unhealthy coping mechanisms can help children and adolescents choose a different pattern of responses. As they develop new patterns of thinking and responding, children in families with transgenerational trauma can intentionally change the next chapter of their family history while developing into adulthood.

The goals of the presentation by Yetter-Scroggin are to:

• Name Traumatized Development: Recognize the impact on children’s development into adolescence and adulthood from the traumas they experience personally and the traumas they inherited from their family history.
• See Trauma-Shaped Patterns: Identify the unique behavioral patterns, outliers, and impacts trauma can have on family systems from generation to generation, and the long-term effects of trauma on family lines.
• Create Pattern Interrupt: Address how connection, treatment, and posttraumatic growth can directly interrupt and/or permanently impact these trauma-shaped patterns.
• Bring It Home: Apply key topics to addressing transgenerational trauma as interprofessionals within organizations, schools, agencies, and communities.

The Lincoln Center for Family and Youth: Healing Family Legacies

The Lincoln Center for Family and Youth (TLC), a social enterprise company that provides innovative education, coaching and counseling services to individuals and families in the Greater Philadelphia Area, has long recognized the need to help children heal and grow within the context of their families.

Since trauma re-shapes the family’s understanding of reality, to break cycles of violence and promote long-term growth and healing for children and adolescents growing up in trauma-impacted families, TLC recognizes the need to partner with families to address the unique socioemotional challenges of children shaped by transgenerational traumatization.

TLC’s mission is to promote positive choices and cultivate meaningful connections through education, counseling, coaching, and consulting. Its vision is to transform lives and communities – one moment, one choice, one connection at a time.

To learn more, visit TheLincolnCenter.com

About TLC

The Lincoln Center for Family and Youth (TLC) is a social enterprise company serving the Greater Philadelphia Area. Founded in 1970 by a behavioral health hospital, TLC is an entrepreneurial nonprofit providing innovative education, coaching, and counseling services to individuals and families, as well as grant writing and management services for school districts and universities.

Find out more about The Lincoln Center for Family and Youth.

About the Author

MaryJo Burchard (Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership) is co-founder and principal of Concord Solutions, a Virginia-based consultancy firm focused on helping leaders and organizations thrive while facing major disruption.

Concord Solutions offers consulting, coaching, training, research, and keynote speaking surrounding trauma-informed leadership, and assessing and building change readiness, trust, and belonging.