About the Author

Dr Gail Zuckerbraun

Dr. Gail Zuckerbraun is a clinical psychologist whose work focuses on intergenerational family dynamics, particularly in the context of addiction. Her professional experience includes clinical practice, consultation, and work within the criminal justice system.

Her work examines how family belief systems, relational patterns, and tolerance for uncertainty shape how children and adolescents experience distress — and how early clarity can reduce the need for extreme coping strategies later on.

THE CYCLE STOPS WITH YOU

Understanding how distress moves through families — and how clarity can interrupt cycles preventatively, before they escalate into addiction or other extreme coping strategies.

This work is centered on how families unintentionally pass distress from one generation to the next — not because they don’t care, but because they are often trying to manage uncertainty, fear, and urgency without clear frameworks.

When families struggle to tolerate uncertainty, distress often gets “outsourced” into extreme coping strategies: addiction, eating disorders, rigid identity positions, emotional withdrawal, or compulsive productivity. These behaviors are rarely the root problem — they are signals that the system itself is overwhelmed.

These ideas are explored in her book, The Cycle Stops With You, which is used in libraries and community-based educational settings as a framework for discussion and reflection.