The Impact of Generational Trauma..
Generational trauma as described according to Talkspace-
“Generational trauma, also known as intergenerational or transgenerational trauma, refers to the psychological and emotional wounds that are passed down from one generation to the next. It occurs when the effects of trauma—such as violence, abuse, neglect, or profound loss—experienced by ancestors continue to impact the lives of their descendants, often manifesting in similar mental and physical health struggles.”
Generational trauma can be self-identified through reflection, we don’t always ‘play-out’ the same pattern but we play out a version that fits our own personal narrative and life journey. This version of our own personal narrative shapes our conscious and unconscious beliefs, our decisions, our thoughts, feelings and our actions.
When we consciously explore how we are playing this out, when we identify the patterns that are present we can begin a process of re-organising and re-evaluation of our learnt and inherited behaviours.
Our core belief systems run our lives and unless we question them we are on rote of continuing a belief that we picked up in our nature nurture. We are always evolving and learning so questioning a core belief is imperative to move us forward, it is in fact liberating to discover a core belief no longer lines up with how we currently feel about life.
It’s a bit like believing we don’t like a food because we had a bad experience with it as a child. If we take the time to unpack what actually happened, listen to the story we’ve been telling ourselves, and ask a few honest questions, we might realise it wasn’t the food at all — it was the experience around it. And when we separate the two, we may even be willing to try it again.
The same can be said for our emotional reactions. Is it truly the situation we can’t stand, or is it the memory of how an emotion once made us feel that keeps us stuck and unable to move forward?
In the same way, we can reflect on the impact of our ancestral lineage. What beliefs do we hold about ourselves that have been absorbed from those who came before us? What past experiences, carried through generations, may be shaping how we see ourselves and how we live in the world today? Is there an emotional blockage that we inherited in our genetic make-up that causes us to relive this over and over until we get the message and shift and change it?
Generational trauma can have an impact through nurture, where we learn and absorb behaviours and responses from the people around us and potentially though nurture, through aspects of our genetic make-up.
Some research suggest epigenetic markers are left by our ancestors in our gene expression, these usually include things such as famine and the impact of war. Traumas can also leave their mark, its not a gene as such like inheriting an eye colour, it’s a mechanism where environmental factors and extreme stress impact the biology of offspring. There is also a train of thought that this impact can be at the time of conception where parental stress may influence epigenetic processes at the time of conception.
As one generation leads to another these epigenetic markers shift and change however we can follow a succession of events in our family heritage where we see how patterns are repeated over and over.
“On the simplest level, the concept of intergenerational trauma acknowledges that exposure to extremely adverse events impacts individuals to such a great extent that their offspring find themselves grappling with their parents’ post‐traumatic state. A more recent and provocative claim is that the experience of trauma – or more accurately the effect of that experience – is “passed” somehow from one generation to the next through non‐genomic, possibly epigenetic mechanisms affecting DNA function or gene transcription”. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6127768/.
As we are now in the age of having greater freedom to make our own decisions and access knowledge about self-development (to a large extent) we have a unique opportunity to explore and address generational trauma.
Through healing and behavioral change we can influence our stress response, our unconscious reactions, potentially accessing a state of well-being that impacts future generations where we pass on a different, more aligned code of genetic make-up
In the past a great number our ancestors were by and large unable to have this freedom of self introspection and analysis, we have shifted into an age where we can question our thoughts, we can let go of the hate and rage we see around us. We can, if we choose to take this path become an empathetic loving and kind human race.
When the impact of generation trauma is reduced and resolved we feel more connected to our sense of self - the ‘I’ - allowing us to discover our own journey in this life and more easily overcome our ‘re-actions’ that hinder us from being the best version of ourselves.
Generational trauma can address through therapeutic approaches that explore our internal world over time, including working with parts of ourselves that remain connected to part experiences and protective responses, helping us shift toward a more adaptive, enabling way of functioning.
An existential question arises around how generational impact shapes the path laid before us, and whether this journey is, in some way, pre-designed — that our soul is here to learn something. Perhaps we are here to break the generational patterns of our ancestors, to walk a path that seeks to repair what has come before us and move toward becoming a more united species that exists in harmony.
Is our calling to rewrite history in our own way, bringing forward an energetic, forward-moving force that supports future generations to evolve — guiding humanity toward a place of greater harmony, growth, and peace?
Stress can leave biological “marks,” but healing experiences can rewrite them.
Even if stress or trauma changes the brain, behaviour, or even the cells involved in reproduction, those changes are not permanent or unavoidable. Supportive experiences, safe environments, connection, and stimulation can help the body and brain repair themselves.
Our past does influence us
But our future is not locked in by our past.
Healing environments can change biological patterns.
Negative patterns do not have to be passed down through families.
We can foster things such as (to help undo the stress effects in the body and present them from being carried forward) -
Safe relationships
Supportive caregiving
Enriched environments (learning, play, connection)
Therapy or regulation practices
Nurturing early life experiences
Yours in healing, hope and love….
Kerran