Understanding Intergenerational Trauma in Work with Children and Youth

Understanding a child’s struggles without understanding their family’s story is like reading a single page from a much longer book.

Behind every child we serve is a family system — a story shaped by generations of attachment, survival, adaptation, and loss.

If we want to truly support children in healing, we must widen our lens:
beyond the individual, into the generational echoes that shape behaviours, emotions, and relationships.

Understanding Intergenerational Trauma in Work with Children and Youth is a live, virtual, full-day training designed for therapists, social workers, parent coaches, and helping professionals who work with children and families.

What We'll Explore

In this collaborative, experiential day of learning, you’ll discover:

✅ A clear understanding of what intergenerational trauma is — including social, relational, and biological pathways of transmission.

✅ Insight into how trauma impacts parenting, behaviour, and attachment — and how legacy narratives live within caregiver responses.

✅ Practical tools for engaging parents not as barriers, but as partners in the healing process.

✅ Concrete strategies for assessing for intergenerational trauma respectfully and effectively.

✅ Relational approaches for supporting caregivers through parenting-focused interventions — trauma-informed, without stepping into trauma therapy.

What Makes This Training Different

This is not a passive, lecture-based webinar.

It’s a small-group, reflective learning experience — weaving together:

• Guided journaling

• Relational case discussions

• Mini-lectures grounded in attachment theory, polyvagal theory, and family systems

• Space for real dialogue, reflection, and unlearning

Together, we'll move beyond "trauma-informed" checklists into a deeper, more relational understanding of what children — and their families — truly need to heal.

Who This Is For

This training is designed for:

• Therapists and counsellors who work with children and families

• Social workers supporting children, youth, and caregivers

• Parent coaches and early intervention providers

• Helping professionals committed to breaking cycles of trauma

Whether you are just beginning to explore intergenerational trauma or looking to deepen an existing lens, this training will meet you where you are — offering both fresh insights and practical tools you can bring into your practice immediately.

Details at a Glance

🗓️ Date: May 26, 2025
🕘 Time: 9am-4pm EST
💻 Format: Live, virtual (via Zoom)
💲 Registration: $147 (special first-offering rate)

Reserve Your Spot

Seats are intentionally limited to create a space for reflection, connection, and deep learning.

If you're ready to bring a more relational, generational lens to your work with children and families —
If you believe healing can ripple across generations —
I would be honoured to have you join me.

Your Facilitator:

Meghan Maynard is a psychotherapist, educator, and parent advocate who has spent more than two decades working at the intersection of trauma, parenting, and relational healing.

With a Master’s degree in Counselling Psychology and advanced studies in trauma treatment, Meghan brings a rare blend of clinical expertise and real-world insight to her work. She is also pursuing doctoral research focused on intergenerational trauma and family systems, exploring how legacy patterns are passed down — and how they can be transformed.

Through years of supporting families, supervising clinicians, and training professionals, Meghan has come to believe that healing isn’t just about the child — it’s about understanding the entire family story. Her approach helps therapists move beyond behaviour management and symptom-focused models, and into deeper, more reflective work that honours both parent and child.

Meghan is the founder of The Elara Institute, a learning space for therapists and helping professionals who want to grow their capacity to hold complex family dynamics with compassion and clarity. Her trainings are known for being grounded, experiential, and deeply human — integrating science, story, and strategy to equip clinicians for meaningful, lasting change.

She’s passionate about supporting those who support others — and building a new standard of care that sees families not through the lens of dysfunction, but through the lens of survival, adaptation, and possibility.