Intergenerational Trauma

Have you heard of it?

Intergenerational trauma (aka “trans- or “multigenerational trauma”) occurs when a particular individual, family, community, group, or population directly experiences trauma, and that trauma is transmitted to subsequent generations.

Intergenerational trauma can be passed down through genetics, epigenetics (how your environment changes your genes), familial patterns, and collective patterns, like culture.

And what’s sometimes surprising and always troubling is that there might be “normal” traditions or behaviors in your life that are the legacy of this kind of trauma.

And that trauma can impact every aspect of your life.

It can even affect how your brain functions – how you think!

Often, “black-and-white” or “either-or” thinking comes from a traumatic past. This is an example of thinking that things or people are only good or bad. Or the idea of categorizing behaviors or ideas as all right or all wrong is another.

With trauma, gray areas don’t exist. This type of thinking develops to keep us safe in life-or-death circumstances, doesn’t allow for many nuances, and can also be the source of many conflicts.

Trauma can also affect our ability to plan long-term or learn new concepts. Our limbic system (the feeling center of our brain) becomes inflamed from long-term exposure to trauma, and our cognitive function (the thinking center of our brain) goes offline.

Trauma is stored in the body so that it can affect you physically, too.

Stomachaches, headaches, autoimmune diseases, and chronic illnesses often have trauma roots.

For the past 20 years, research has consistently shown that exposure to trauma increases your risk for physical illness.

Our mental and physical well-being are not separate. They are deeply linked. Ignoring the emotional impact of trauma can cause chronic illness that spans generations.

It can also make it hard to manage intense emotions.

You might be easily triggered or feel like expressing vulnerability is impossible, leading you to resort to unhealthy communication patterns and coping styles.

Aggression, opposition, using substances, or overeating can often be connected to past trauma.

Disconnecting from the world around you…

Trauma can cause us to go through the motions of life. We learn to check out from our feelings or sensations in our bodies.

We have difficulty identifying our needs because it is never safe to do so. We get messages to go along with those with authority and to avoid conflict or disagreement with those we love. This is a perfect strategy to maintain the status quo, but it leaves us internally in shambles.

We don’t develop the skills to address abuse, use substances or develop other behaviors to numb our uncomfortable feelings or find it difficult to have deep intimacy in our relationships.

A holistic, integrated plan to heal your mind, body, and spirit…

It is possible to heal. Our brains and bodies are always sending signals to help us regain balance. It just takes the right guide to interpret the messages.

We will explore your family history to establish what patterns have been repeated over generations. We will examine collective historical patterns and assess their impact on your lineage.

Using all my experience, we will develop a new understanding and integrate the change into your body and spirit by addressing what symptoms have shown up in your physical world and using the power of energetic connection to make shifts across time and space.

We are impacted by and can impact seven generations before and after us. Epigenetics shows that what trauma has impacted our grandmother influences our lives today. But neuroscience and energy healers know that our brains can heal, and our bodies can release the stored energy.

We will retell your life story and your family to rewire your brain with a new message. We will support your body with rituals and routines to integrate and embody the new energy.

You will develop a sense of interconnectedness with the world around you to source more internal power and direction.

You will feel empowered to impact healing for generations.

Being a good ancestor will change your life

We are at a unique point in history where we can shape the patterns of generations to come after us.

We have enough resources to understand that our parents, grandparents, and other known and unknown ancestors were in survival mode. We are beginning to see that their strategies got us to this point but no longer work for us individually or collectively.

New ways of being need to be developed. This stage of change and transformation is no easy task. It is challenging to walk the road less traveled and do what has not been done yet.

The old ways of being inside us and out in the world do not die easily. There can be backlash, and the road can get lonely. Reshaping these survival strategies into patterns that will serve you now will also benefit generations of those to come after you.

You can do this. I know because I have also walked this path and would be honored to walk it with you.

Don’t leave it up to your children to change what you can address now.

Let’s talk more about it during your free consultation: (862) 505-1717.