Table Of ContentRe-Circuiting Trauma Pathways
in Adults, Parents, and Children
Re-Circuiting Trauma Pathways in Adults, Parents, and Children presents the evidence-informed and
substantiated Intergenerational Trauma Treatment Model (ITTM), with an emphasis on up-to-date
trauma theory, the development of specialized clinical skills, and the replicability of methods. Grounded
in original research, experiential practice, and mathematical principles of logic, the ITTM targets and
treats both the child’s and the caregiver’s complex trauma, providing the content and the process for
supplying an effective and brief caregiver-fi rst treatment option. It delivers an innovative, multigenerational
approach to complex trauma treatment that strengthens the caregiver-child relationship by motivating
and teaching caregivers to help their children cope with the effects of trauma.
Valerie Copping, PsyD, is the developer, lead trainer, and clinical consultant for the Intergenerational
Trauma Treatment Model (ITTM). She currently provides training, courses, and consultation to students,
professionals, and mental health organizations.
Re-Circuiting Trauma Pathways
in Adults, Parents, and Children
A Brain-Based, Intergenerational
Trauma Treatment Method
Valerie Copping
First published 2018
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 Valerie Copping
The right of Valerie Copping to be identifi ed as the author of this work
has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
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without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Copping, Valerie, author.
Title: Re-circuiting trauma pathways in adults, parents, and children :
a brain-based, intergenerational trauma treatment method /
Valerie Copping.
Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2018. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifi ers: LCCN 2017041978 | ISBN 9781138223134 (hardcover :
alk. paper) | ISBN 9781138223127 (pbk. : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781315392066 (e-book)
Subjects: MESH: Stress Disorders, Traumatic—therapy | Parent-Child
Relations | Professional-Family Relations | Psychotherapy—methods
Classifi cation: LCC RC552.T7 | NLM WM 172.5 |
DDC 616.85/210651—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017041978
ISBN: 978-1-138-22313-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-22312-7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-39206-6 (ebk)
Typeset in ACaslon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: The Intergenerational Trauma Treatment Model 1
PART 1
Theory 11
Chapter 1 Hope and Motivation: Working With Adult and Child Victims
of Childhood Complex Trauma 13
Chapter 2 Starting With the Brain: Childhood Complex Trauma, Neuroscience,
and the ITTM 25
Chapter 3 Reconstructing Negative Self-Beliefs: The ITTM’s Early Childhood
Deductive Reasoning Theory 43
PART 2
Practice 59
Chapter 4 Phase A: How the Model Works—Caregivers and Children 61
Appendix 4.1: Phase A: Trauma Information Sessions Checklist 73
Appendix 4.2: Phase A, B, and C Diagram Examples 76
Appendix 4.3: The Caregiver’s Unresolved Childhood Trauma Impact:
Group Discussion 80
Appendix 4.4: Testimonial From a Parent 96
Appendix 4.5: Our Trauma Treatment 106
Appendix 4.6: ITTM Implementation 109
vi Contents
Appendix 4.7: Refl ections on the Intergenerational Trauma Treatment
Model (ITTM) 111
Appendix 4.8: Endorsement for the Intergenerational Trauma Treatment
Model (ITTM) 117
Chapter 5 Phase B: The Caregiver Sessions 118
Chapter 6 Phase C: Bringing the Child Back In 149
Appendix 6.1: Adult Therapeutic Letter 190
Conclusion: Re-Circuiting Trauma Pathways 193
Index 199
Acknowledgments
I dedicate this book with love to my mother, Mary-Lorraine Buchan; to my father, Philip D. Rosengarten;
and to my sisters, Darlene B. Donovan and Sunny Savage; each of whom nurtured and expanded my
understanding, sensitivity, and compassion to the negative impact of complex trauma and implanted my
hope in every person’s potential for healing.
I am especially indebted to my editor, Dr. Cynthia Comacchio, whose generosity, expertise, and
uncanny ability to read my mind now enables the model, in its description and organization, to fi nally be
shared with a wider audience. Words cannot express my gratitude for your guidance, genius, encourage-
ment, and tireless determination.
Children, caregivers, clinicians, and mentors have meaningfully assisted in the ongoing development
of the ITTM in research, practice, and implementation across Canada, the United States, New Zea-
land, Poland, and the United Kingdom. The mentors are: Gordon Greenway, Dr. Donald Woodside,
Dr. Katreena Scott, Dr. Bill Bergquist, Dr. Linda Paige, Dr. Ian Manion, Heather Cook, and Kirk Donald.
Best friends—Chantal Hollander, Arden Ryshpan, Kae Dee, Christine Von Maydell, Brigid Porter,
Dr. Kimberly Blyden-Taylor, Ana Maria Mendez Dardon, Julie Brown, Dr. Stephanie Von Dehn, Wendy
Maynard, Valerie Van Wassenaer, Alison Miles, and Beverley Barnes—offered their expertise and encour-
agement each step of the way.
Every one of you has played a vital role in helping me to advance and actualize my life’s work, and for
this I am extremely grateful and infi nitely gratifi ed.
Introduction: The Intergenerational
Trauma Treatment Model
Experience has taught us that we have only one enduring weapon in our struggle against mental illness: the emotional
discovery and emotional acceptance of the truth in the individual and unique history of our childhood.
( Miller, 1997 )
Renowned psychologist Alice Miller succinctly describes what is axiomatic for child practitioners of all
types and ranks: that certain “truths” of childhood—truths that can just as readily be called “traumas”—
are the core of both mental illness and recovery, in children and in adults. The corollary is that an effective
method to uncover those truths and treat the resultant trauma is equally essential. What follows is an
overview of the model that I have pioneered, practiced, taught to others, observed in its implementation,
studied for outcomes, and continued to refi ne over the course of several decades since the completion of
the doctoral research that was its foundation.
This book is intended to introduce, theorize, and contextualize the Intergenerational Trauma Treat-
ment Model as an effective three-phase, brain-based, psychodynamic, metacognitive method that
addresses the root causes and behavioral symptoms of childhood trauma in adults (usually parents/
caregivers), children and adolescents. 1 In its theoretical basis, the ITTM is a refi nement of research con-
ducted in my therapeutic practice of the past 20 years or so. My fi ndings were further tested, adapted,
and revised in response to what I learned while teaching students and training psychologists and mental
health clinicians (of varied professional designations) in child and family mental health clinics, in spe-
cial workshops, and also in private practice. The model is dynamic: the operationalization of each phase
provides opportunity for rigorous evaluation of the methods employed in each phase. These years of
practical application and re-examination of the ITTM as a primary treatment for complex trauma have
provided substantial evidence to validate it as an effective and sustainable adult/caregiver and caregiver/
child therapy ( Scott & Copping, 2008 , Copping, 2001). Drawing carefully from other disciplines, the
ITTM builds upon and advances extant therapeutic models, is applicable in diverse situations, requires
a relatively brief learning period for students and clinicians, and can be quickly implemented with adults
and children in need. Most important, the ITTM identifi es initial childhood trauma impact at its roots
to enable sustained resolution.
Complex trauma in childhood is defi ned as “the experience of multiple, chronic and prolonged, devel-
opmentally adverse traumatic events, most often of an interpersonal nature, often within the child’s
caregiving system” (V an der Kolk, 2005, p. 295). In most cases, such trauma involves repeated exposure
