Abigail Makepeace, LMFT

Abigail Makepeace is the founder of Makepeace Therapy and a licensed therapist in California and Texas. She is a writer, speaker, and thought leader on the impact of trauma on relationships and life development. Her TEDx presentation on Parental PTSD highlighted how childhood trauma can influence parenting. Abigail is a recurring contributor to HuffPost, has been featured on BuzzFeed, and has been featured as a guest on radio shows including Channel Q and Dash Radio. She integrates clinical expertise with cultural insight to equip clinicians with practical, trauma-informed strategies. 

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Emotional Blueprints: How Childhood Trauma and Culture Shape our Adult Selves 

Friday | May 1, 2026
8:00 am - 9:30 am
(1.5 CEs)

Description:

This session explores how childhood experiences and cultural environments interact to shape the emotional blueprints we carry into adulthood. Drawing on clinical insight, developmental research, and cross-cultural perspectives, participants will learn how early trauma, family systems, and societal norms influence relational patterns, character styles, and even the development of personality traits or disorders. 

Cross-cultural examples show that the same behaviors, such as intense emotional expression, prioritizing the needs of others, or acting independently, can be celebrated in some cultures and pathologized in others. 

Participants will explore the integration of trauma and culture, learning to recognize how childhood wounds are reinforced or softened depending on cultural context. Through reflective exercises, discussion, and case examples, clinicians will gain practical tools for culturally informed assessment and intervention. This includes differentiating between culturally shaped character styles (adaptive survival strategies) and personality traits or disorders and understanding how these may manifest differently across cultures. 

By the end of this workshop, participants will be equipped to help clients recognize the emotional blueprints shaping their relationships, self-perception, and coping strategies, and to guide them in revising these patterns within a culturally sensitive framework. Clinicians will also reflect on their own cultural assumptions and biases, enhancing their ability to provide attuned, equitable, and effective care. 

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of this presentation, participants will be able to:

• Identify the one of the ways childhood trauma manifests in adult functioning, including physiological, relational, and parental patterns, and explain the concept of parental PTSD.  
• Describe how cultural, generational, and societal norms influence the development of survival strategies and character styles, including how cultural norms can normalize or perpetuate trauma.  
• Apply a culturally informed lens to interpret client behaviors, distinguishing between culturally shaped character styles (adaptive survival strategies) and personality traits or disorders, including how these may manifest differently across cultures.  
• Demonstrate therapeutic strategies and reflective exercises that help clients understand and revise their emotional blueprints within their cultural context.