What is generational trauma?
Generational trauma, also known as intergenerational or transgenerational trauma, refers to the effects that are passed down through generations within a family or a community that has experienced significant and traumatic stressors.
This concept is rooted in the understanding that trauma can have a profound and lasting impact not only on those who directly experience it, but also on their descendants.
TRACING THE ORIGINS OF GENERATIONAL TRAUMA.
“Origin” trauma typically originates from a significant and distressing event or series of events that a previous generation has experienced. The most key component of these events is that they threaten the survival of the family at large.
Generational trauma is also often tied to the cultural, social, and historical context of the affected group. It reflects not only individual family experiences but also the historical and collective experiences of a community or ethnic group including countries, race, and religion.
“Origin” events that commonly result in transmission to subsequent generations include:
- War, especially active combat
- Genocide
- Slavery
- Other violence or significant crime
- Murder or blame for someone’s death (more personal than in war/genocide)
- Immigration or displacement
- Natural disasters and epidemics
- Early death of children or of parents of young children
- Suicides and fatal or disabling accidents
- Adoption
These “origin” traumas often are 3-4 or more generations back and either not talked about or minimized.
For example, if you look at US census data for 1900 or 1910 there is a place for listing children born vs. children living. It is not uncommon to see 1 or more children who died young. However, we minimize the impact of these losses saying it was “more common” and they were used to it, but there is a whole story of grief, loss, guilt, and even blame that can live in those two data points.
That is not to say that these events must lead to consequences in subsequent generations. But if you were interested in working with topics relating to the archetype of mother or nurturing, care, abundance, fertility, and sustainability in your life or work, then these kinds of events can be relevant
RIPPLES THROUGH TIME: HOW TRAUMA SHAPES US ACROSS GENERATIONS
Descendants of those who experienced “origin” trauma might exhibit signs of emotional, physical, behavioral, relational, and spiritual entanglement with one or more aspect of the original events; even if they did not experience the traumatic event themselves.
Consequences or trickle-down effects in subsequent generations that are also traumatic in their own right are not limited to but can include:
- Violence or assault
- Physical or sexual abuse
- Severe mental illness (e.g., bipolar, schizophrenia)
- Serious addiction that goes beyond a coping mechanism (not generally tobacco or marijuana)
- Suicide
- Significant or frequent accidents
- Chronic health issues
- Miscarriages, infertility
- Anxiety, depression, and ADHD
- Affairs and divorce
- Difficult parent-child relationships
- Sibling rivalry
- Failure to thrive in life, relationships, business, or health
These effects can be spread over several generations either staying consistent across generations (more obvious and when people tend to say “it runs in the family”) or morphing, sometimes lessening, with each generation.
AN EXAMPLE OF LOSS, DEPRESSION, & ANXIETY
In fact, unyielding behavioral, emotional, or cognitive patterns like people pleasing, feeling like you are too much, perfectionism, overwhelm, sense of too much responsibility or wanting to control the uncontrollable, self-doubt, procrastination, lack of motivation. You get the picture.
For example, the early death of a mother, leaving behind a young daughter leaves that daughter with unprocessable grief. When she becomes a mother herself, she may find it difficult to connect and provide maternal care because it necessarily runs into whatever wall of coping had to be erected in order to live with that grief of losing her own mother that could not be looked at.
Her daughter (next generation after direct trauma) may develop depression or postpartum depression, again interfering with her ability to transmit maternal care and tapping into to helping the lineage hold this tragic loss.
The third generation from the direct or origin trauma, say another daughter, may then be far enough away to tap into some of the grief but not know where it comes from and have it manifest as panic and anxiety, likely to be amplified if or when she has her own child.
This example comes loosely from my own family history and yet it is common for dynamics involving early death to result in subsequent generations of depression and anxiety.
FROM DNA TO SOUL: THE MANY PATHWAYS OF GENERATIONAL TRAUMA TRANSMISSION
Generational trauma is transmitted from one generation to the next in a variety of ways, including behavioral, emotional, or cognitive patterns. Genetic alterations, such as epigenetic activation or suppression of genes, are also documented, reflecting the impact of our ancestors’ experiences on our own biological makeup.
In one example, Rachel Yehuda’s pivotal research demonstrates how descendants of Holocaust survivors inherit such epigenetic changes that directly impact the neuroendocrine system responsible for managing stress. Yehuda’s research, revealing the tangible imprints of trauma on our DNA, underscores the profound depth of generational trauma and its biological basis.
UNSEEN EMOTIONAL AND SPIRITUAL LEGACIES
In addition to the science, there’s also the idea that our families are connected by something deeper, something that stretches through generations like metaphorical invisible threads. This deep connection, woven into our genetics and shared stories, taps into something much more profound—a kind of ancestral blueprint that shapes us.
Bert Hellinger, a pioneer in exploring these invisible threads through Family Constellations, introduced the idea of the family conscience. While thinkers like Rupert Sheldrake and Carl Jung have delved into similar territories with their ideas of morphogenetic fields and the collective unconscious, Hellinger’s concept brings it home to our personal story.
He suggests that our family legacy is more than DNA; it’s also an emotional and spiritual inheritance that influences who we are and who we become, primarily in unconscious ways. He and hundreds of other of practitioners, including myself, have observed over the last few decades how the ripples of generational trauma, rooted in unconscious loyalties, move within the family conscience and also how it can be resolved.
This understanding of ancestral influence is an informative and much broader perspective, offering a lens through which to intervene at the emotional, mental, relational, and spirtual level.
REWEAVING THE PAST: APPROACHES TO HEALING & SELF-RECLAMATION
The decision to work with generational trauma starts with a deeper reflection on our family’s past and its impacts on our present.
The first step in working with generational trauma is looking beyond the personal and even family of origin. Recognizing and acknowledging what has happened in a factual way, while setting potentitally untrue family narratives aside.
The next step is identifying where you are entangled in the unsettled past. We aren’t actively engaged in all of the past tragedies, but there are generally a couple of dynamics that we carry that influence all areas of our life, namely health, relationships, children, and profession.
Once you roughly identify what you are connected to, you have the opportunity to differentiate from it and re-relate to the events in a way that allows the emotions and energy that was not fully processed in the original event to be acknowledged and move.
Part of this more conscious relating means staying connected to the past but in a way that is more supportive of you and your current life. Healthy relating to ancestors and generational or historical trauma strengthens a sense of belonging, life energy, presence, and meaning or purpose in your current life.
Ready to untangle your past and reclaim your future?
Begin with our Ancestral Boundaries and Clearing meditation to differentiate what’s truly yours. Or get started with an Out of The Fog Assessment and Consultation, to identify and navigate the patterns you are tangled up in so you can pave the way for your success in life and work.
