Breaking Intergenerational Trauma in ACOA
Understanding what shaped you. Choosing what comes next.
Supporting Adult Children of Addicts (ACOA) on the Path to Freedom
Addiction doesn’t just impact the person using—it echoes across generations, leaving children of addicts (COAs) to navigate adult life with invisible scars. The pain, unpredictability, and emotional instability experienced during formative years shape how they trust, love, and connect.
Many adult children of addicts (ACOA) don’t even realise their struggles today—be it perfectionism, fear of abandonment, or difficulty with intimacy—are legacies of a chaotic childhood.
At Listening Ear Counselling & Consultancy Pte. Ltd., we help ACOAs recognise these patterns, reclaim their personal narratives, and consciously break the cycle of intergenerational trauma—so the story ends with them.
How Childhood Addiction Environments Affect ACOAs
Nervous System Imprints
Living in a home marked by instability, anger, or neglect wires the nervous system to constantly anticipate danger. This leads to chronic stress responses, difficulty regulating emotions, and hypersensitivity to perceived threats or rejection.
Dysfunction Becomes Familiar
Behaviours that were once survival mechanisms—people-pleasing, over-responsibility, emotional withdrawal—become default adult patterns, often sabotaging romantic and interpersonal relationships.
Attachment Wounds
Having emotionally unavailable, erratic, or abusive caregivers leaves deep attachment wounds. Adult children may fear closeness, resist vulnerability, or chase affection from emotionally unavailable partners—repeating the cycle they grew up in.
Trauma Passed Down
Without intervention, these unresolved traumas and behaviours are often transmitted to the next generation—not through malice, but because they were never addressed.
What Common Patterns and Struggles Do Adult Children of Addicts Experience?
Many adult children of addicts share a set of emotional and relational patterns. Recognising these can be the first step toward change.
Difficulty trusting others
Fear of abandonment
Overdeveloped sense of responsibility
Difficulty with intimacy
Constantly seeking approval
Poor boundariesStrong need for control
Suppressed emotions or emotional numbness
Avoidance of conflict or passive-aggressiveness
Perfectionism rooted in fear of criticism
These are not flaws; they’re adaptations. But they no longer serve you. And they don’t have to define you.
How Can Therapy Help Adult Children of Addicts Break the Cycle?
We use trauma-informed, attachment-focused, and empowerment-based therapies to support adult children of addicts in rewiring patterns, reclaiming identity, and rebuilding healthy relationships.
Our Key Interventions Include:
Trauma-Informed Therapy
We recognise how early trauma affects the brain and behaviour, offering safe spaces for deep emotional work.Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)
Builds emotional intelligence and helps individuals become more responsive, secure, and open in relationships.Narrative Therapy
Helps clients understand that they are not their past. We guide them in rewriting their story—from survival to resilience.Dynamic Attachment Re-patterning Experience (DARE)
Targets attachment wounds and trauma stored in the body, helping ACOAs feel safe in relationships and within themselves.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Challenges negative self-beliefs (“I’m not good enough,” “I’ll be abandoned”) and builds healthier thought patterns.Family Therapy
Offers space for intergenerational dialogue, closure, or reconciliation when safe and appropriate.Non-Violent Communication (NVC)
Teaches emotional expression and conflict resolution, critical for ACOAs who grew up in homes where feelings weren’t safe.
How Can Adult Children of Addicts Protect the Next Generation from Inherited Trauma?
We don’t just support individuals—we help protect future generations from inheriting the same pain.
Through therapeutic parenting, boundary work, and emotional literacy, we help adult children of addicts:
Build emotional regulation and resilience
Create secure attachments with their children or partners
Break patterns of silence, guilt, or over-control
Develop emotional presence and vulnerability without fear
Awareness is the first step; action is the second.
Our Counselling Fees in Singapore
| Session Type | Investment | Additional Charges | Cancellation Policy |
|---|---|---|---|
| In-Person Sessions | SGD 250 | – SGD 50 after-hours surcharge -Transportation fees for out-of-office sessions or different venues – SGD 50 administrative fee may apply where additional insurance coordination or documentation is required | Reschedule or cancel with 36+ hours’ notice. Late changes or no-shows incur full session investment. |
| Virtual Sessions (Zoom) | SGD 250 (Advance PayNow Preferred Rate of SGD 200 may be offered on a case-by-case basis when payment is made using PayNow or direct Bank transfer at least 3 days in advance and no administrative work is required.) | – Same as above (where applicable) | Same as above. |
*For more information on session rates, cancellation policy, accepted payment methods, and other related details, please refer to our Fees and Payment Page*
What Clients say about our Counselling in Singapore
Professionally Trained, Trauma-Informed & Culturally Attuned
Evidence-Based & Grounded in Real Life
Culturally Sensitive & Globally Informed
Respectful of Complex, Delicate Issues
