The Family Assistance Education & Research Foundation (FAERF) has been at the forefront of the evolution of emergency management, combining the head-heart approach for a fully integrated response to survivors of traumatic loss. Practicing compassion consciousness in the workplace involves caring for people first, without exception.
Written by: Carolyn V. Coarsey, Ph.D.
October 2026
Research over the past few years has answered this important question that has plagued scientists and people in general. An article in the November issue of The Mind Health Report cited a recent study which determined that only about 5 to 10 percent of our genes determines our personality. Whereas nature shapes the personality we start with, it is nurture that influences how these tendencies develop.
This subject is of particular interest to those involved in supporting survivors of post-traumatic stress events, in that often people assume the harmful effects of the trauma will be passed on to children and future generations of the survivors’ relatives.
Transgenerational trauma, intergenerational trauma, or generational trauma is the psychological and physiological effects that the trauma experienced by people has on subsequent generations in that group. The primary mode of transmission is the shared family environment of the infant, causing psychological, behavioral and social changes in the individual.
While these definitions are based on research across time with survivors of tragedies, we now know that families directly influence the subject of transgenerational trauma.
A Case Study of our Own
In the upcoming program the Foundation is sponsoring in conjunction with our co-sponsor Carnival UK, we will hear many presentations featuring case studies that include themes applicable to all our members. One of the presentations includes an overview of Advanced Human Services Response™ Training, featuring case studies of survivors whose stories serve as models for transcending trauma.
Captain Cyrano Latiff’s story represents many examples of healthy survival for himself and his family. Cyrano was the co-pilot on Singapore Flight 6, which crashed on takeoff from Taipei, claiming the lives of 83 including four flight attendants. Cyrano, along with the captain and the flight engineer, were held in their rooms the night of the accident, interrogated by prosecutors the following morning and held on house arrest for the next eighteen months.
All three pilots were terminated after an extensive investigation and treated by most everyone as if they were guilty of willful misconduct. While the human factors psychologists eventually cleared Cyrano and the other pilots of any wrongdoing, the distress they and their families faced was beyond anything that most people could imagine. Over the years, Cyrano and his wife Cyrena have been very generous in helping us at the Foundation understand the challenges that crew members often face, while also sharing their own family’s experience of trauma.
In 2015, while conducting a video interview with Cyrano, I met his daughter Shereen who was twenty-three years old at the time. I offered Shereen an opportunity to share about her experiences as a young child whose father experienced such a difficult time. At the time of the accident, Shereen was eight years old, and I felt that she likely remembered some of the trauma her father and family went through. To my surprise, Shereen told me that she knew very little about what had happened to her father during that time.
As Shereen and I spoke more, I realized that Cyrano and her mother Cyrena had shielded her and her twin brothers from as much of the trauma following the crash as possible. In later discussions with Cyrano and Cyrena, I learned more about how they made a conscious decision to handle the challenges they faced privately so their children would not have unnecessary distress during these critical developmental years.
Now that Shereen was an adult she realized what her parents had done for their children. She told me that she admires her parents for how they chose to handle the situation which, had it been handled differently, could have scarred them for life. She went on to say that she wants to be like her parents someday when she has children—putting them and their needs first in every situation
Epigenetics is the study of changes in gene expression that occur without altering the DNA sequence. The Greek prefix epi- (ἐπι- “over, outside of, around”).
Epigenetics is another term used to describe the question as to nature vs. nurture when it comes to one’s personality. Research on epigenetics shows that trauma can affect gene expression, but it cannot affect one’s genetics. After having the privilege of getting to know Cyrano and Cyrena and their family over the past twenty years, it is easy to see that while the trauma from the crash of Singapore 6 had devastating effects on families of those who experienced losses from the accident, the children of its co‑pilot carry none of the harmful effects from his trauma
Living the Transcendental Life
Transcendence is a central concept spanning philosophy, religion, psychology, and ethics. Across traditions, it refers to the human capacity to move beyond immediate experience, ego and physicality, toward higher meaning, ultimate reality, and universal values.
–Louie V. Larimer
At FAERF’s December meeting, among the many case studies, we will see and learn about many situations which showcase the significant role employees play in helping survivors of traumatic loss in the workplace. As the research on the long-term effects of trauma continues to evolve, we see that our actions go further than the immediate and short-term, and reach into the future, affecting children and families we will never meet. Read more about FAERF’s December meeting in Southampton, England, and register here.