Episode 8: Lessons from Encanto on Intergenerational Family & Inner Child Healing
We're going to talk about Encanto! Yes, the Disney animated movie. We will look at the Madrigal family dynamics across generations to unpack their intergenerational family trauma and healing.
Episode Summary:
We’ll take a deep dive to understand the main characters and their superpowers and bring compassion to how their past affects how they love and relate to one another in the present. Together we will look at the Madrigals through the lenses of attachment theory, family systems theory, neurobiology of trauma, collective trauma, collective healing, and social justice.
We can explore how they name the unnameable and speak the unspeakable to heal wounds that have been passed down across generations. I hope that our discussion today inspires you to look at your own family systems across generations so that you can unpack your family's gift and you can see what's been unknowingly re-gifted across generations that you may be ready to unsubscribe from or leave behind.
We will be analyzing the movie plot together. So heads up, we have some spoilers!
What You’ll Learn From this Episode:
A summary of the Encanto plot and the collective and intergenerational trauma and healing the film portrays
How Abuela Alma's unresolved grief and loss become a resilient act of community service (but it's also a double-edged sword)
How Abuela Alma's unresolved grief and loss gets passed down from one generation to the next
Resmaa Menakem's take on intergenerational trauma
Classical Chinese Medicine's take on intergenerational trauma
How the Madrigals develop their "parenting playbook"
The parenting playbook is written by both Abuela's past pain and Colombian cultural norms
How children learn to play by the family's parenting playbook and develop their superpowers or attachment adaptations
The adaptive quality and cost of Luisa's gift—caregiving
The adaptive quality and cost of Isabela's gift—perfection/invisibility
The adaptive quality and cost of Camilo's gift—code-switching
The adaptive quality and cost of Bruno's gift—the exile
The adaptive quality and cost of Mirabel's (non)gift
How we're all of these characters depending on our intersecting identities
The healing work is knowing which part is in charge so that it doesn't hijack your parenting integrity
Intergenerational family trauma is healed in a relationship
Mirabel Contextualizes her grandmother to understand her as a person
Abuela Alma feels seen and heard by Mirabel. She begins to make sense of her past, metabolize her pain, and heal.
Collective care supports family healing
Three reflection questions
Sign up for the Care Collective Newsletter
Check us out on Instagram!
