Once Upon a Time...! The Story of the Emotional Pandemic!

Abstract

The article that we will present tries to give an overview of how the pandemic affected society, accentuated certain fears, worries and brought to the surface all the hidden emotional problems. If we take a look in history, we see that similar events in the past - the Spanish flu, the Holocaust - caused trans-generational traumas whose effects can still be felt today. Likewise, the article will highlight how major traumatic events that happened even three generations before birth can influence the way we live our lives. That is possible because unprocessed traumas leave their mark on each new generation until they find their solution. As individuals, we love our families very much and have unconscious loyalties to some of its members, copying their mistakes, dramas, and thus reliving their stories. In the case study that we will present, we started from the idea that to discover these legacies it actually means listening to the wider story of the client, which starts from the previous generation. The symptom is often just the tip of the iceberg, while underneath lays a whole story. At the start of the therapeutic process, we approached a complete intervention on the case, which involved the approach in the socio-familial system and emotional integration. We took into account the life history of the client and his family, gathering information about boundaries, rules, rituals and family loyalties, messages received in the family environment, significant life events, defense and survival strategies. All these factors helped us decipher the symptom behind the story.