EFTA CONVERSATION: Understanding Intergenerational Transmission of Collective Trauma in the setting of Couple Therapy

with Judith Kellner

Chairperson: Martine Nisse

One of the goals of working with couples or Individuals (using the EFT model) is to help each partner get in touch with their vulnerable emotions. Achieving this goal is particularly difficult when partners have past trauma. If the trauma is from a previous generation, it is even harder for the patient to connect to self and is harder to explore its impact on the person in treatment. I will demonstrate how this past trauma emerges in the life of future generations, how it plays out in intimate relationships, and how to help them stay with their emotions once the vulnerability is touched. My goal as a therapist is to liberate these individuals and allow them to pursue their own voices in their intimate relationships.

Judith Kellner, LCSW,  is in Private Practice in New York City.
She graduated from NYU Social Work School where she also trained at the International Trauma Study Program.  She is a graduate of the Ackerman Institute For The Family.
Her experience in cultural transition and trauma spans Israel, Europe, Asia and North America.
What launched Judith on this path of exploring human experiences in light of trauma, immigration and resilience is her personal history.
Judith is a daughter to holocaust survivors.  She and her parents became refugees after escaping the Hungarian revolution in 1957.  She ended up in Israel where she grew up surrounded by a community of survivors. Following her marriage she lived in Canada, England, Hong Kong and New York.

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