HITT-Q provides specific indicators of the vulnerability and resilience of the family system and the individual, as well as of historical emotional trauma. The “Landscape-Boat-Person” model helps integrate the HITT-Q results with the individual’s historical context, family history, and current life circumstances
“Landscape-Boat-Person”: How to Interpret the HITT-Q Results
«Landscape»
The landscape encompasses the historical, cultural, social, and current conditions in which a family lives. It includes events and circumstances that may have affected several generations.
These may include:
- The Holodomor, political repression, the dispossession of the kulaks, and deportations;
- World War II and the Holocaust in Ukrainian territories;
- the Chernobyl disaster;
- the ATO and the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war;
- forced displacement, discrimination, and the loss of loved ones, homes, language, culture, or social status.
A separate “Landscape” score is not calculated. What matters is how closely the events affected families, what losses they caused, and how their impact is felt today.
«Boat»
The boat represents a family system in which the experiences of previous generations are preserved, processed, suppressed, or passed on. Its state is reflected in family communication, upbringing, relationships, and ways of responding to danger.
The boat is described by two dimensions:
- the vulnerability of the family system;
- the resilience of the family system.
Vulnerability encompasses trauma-related patterns of communication and upbringing, fear, and family distress. Resilience reflects support, emotional safety, the preservation of bonds, and the ability to pass on experiences of survival and recovery to future generations. Traumatic patterns and evident resources can coexist within the same family.
«Person»
A person embodies a descendant who lives in a specific Landscape and is part of a family Boat. At the same time, each person has their own life story, current life circumstances, ways of adapting, and the ability to make choices.
A person is described by two coordinates:
- the descendant’s vulnerability;
- the descendant’s resilience.
Vulnerability encompasses avoidance, heightened responsibility, and traumatic distress. Resilience is linked to the ability to cope, a sense of belonging, and values. The combination of these coordinates shows where a person needs support and what resources they can already rely on. Distress and the ability to act can coexist.
Historical Moral Injury
Historical moral trauma is a distinct cross-cutting indicator of the HITT-Q. It helps us see how historical injustice and a family’s interpretation of it can be linked to a person’s moral experiences today.
It may include:
- feelings of injustice or betrayal;
- shame and guilt; a loss of trust; a moral obligation to the deceased or previous generations;
- a need for recognition and the restoration of justice.
Its significance is considered throughout the model: historical events belong to the Landscape, can be passed on or suppressed in the Boat, and are experienced by the Person.
The landscape influences the Boat and the Person, but does not mechanically determine them. A family can change the ways in which experience is passed down, and a person can reinterpret family history, create different relationships, and shape their own path in life
How to Work with a Model: 6 Steps
1. Start with “Landscape”
Find out which events the person marked, who they affected, what losses they caused, and how their impact is felt today. A separate score for “Landscape” is not calculated. A large number of identified events does not automatically mean a “more severe” experience. What matters is the event’s proximity to the family, the losses incurred, the duration of the impact, the family’s processing of the event, and current reactivation.
2. Read “The Boat”
Compare family vulnerability with family resilience. High scores on both axes indicate that the family may simultaneously harbor traumatic patterns and significant resources. Low vulnerability combined with low resilience may indicate few overt traumatic manifestations coupled with limited access to family support.
3. Read “The Individual”
Compare the individual’s vulnerability with their resilience. A person may experience distress while still remaining capable of acting, supporting others, and drawing on their values. High functionality does not, however, prove the absence of exhaustion or avoidance.
4. Compare the family and individual levels
Analyze how the family’s burden relates to the descendant’s vulnerability. To what extent have family resources become available to the individual? The family’s vulnerability and the descendant’s resilience draw attention to personal resources developed in the context of family vulnerability. Family resilience and the offspring’s vulnerability help identify individual stress that persists despite family support.
5. Consider historical moral trauma
The same combination of the four coordinates can have different meanings depending on experiences of historical injustice, shame, guilt, betrayal, or moral obligation.
6. Clarify the meaning together with the person
The quantitative result suggests topics for further questions but does not provide a complete story about the person and their family. The person has the right to confirm the proposed explanation, clarify it, offer a different interpretation, or reject a particular interpretation.
The basis for interpretation remains the individual configuration of the four coordinates within a specific Landscape. The HITT-Q results serve as a roadmap for exploration, not a verdict on the past.
Take the basic version of the HITT-Q and receive your results
The basic version helps explore how family history is linked to family relationships, vulnerabilities, and resources in subsequent generations. It is designed to be completed individually, with the results then discussed with a psychologist or psychotherapist trained in the HITT-Q.
The survey includes:
- 10 questions — demographic information;
- 65 questions — HITT-Q.
Once you have completed the questionnaire, the key metrics will be calculated automatically. A PDF report containing the results and brief explanations will be sent to the specified email address—either yours or your psychotherapist’s.
An interpretive model developed by Tetiana Stanislavska.
Copyright registration certificates: No. 148014 and No. 148015