Why We Must Work with Intergenerational Trauma
“Epigenetic biomarkers … demonstrate the intergenerational and transgenerational impact of the previous generation’s context on an individual’s traits and the putative role of epigenetics in diagnosis and treatment.” Yehuda et al. (2013), Frontiers in Psychiatry
Some of the most powerful healing work I have experienced myself, has been the acknowledgment and releasing of intergenerational pain and patterns of coping. Despite therapy addressing my own direct experiences, a part of me still felt stuck; I still carried a ‘darkness’ or ‘heaviness’ inside and a sense that I couldn’t quite be free, something I also witnessed in many my clients.
When a client walks into therapy, they don’t arrive alone. They bring with them the echoes of their family history—the unresolved grief, fear, or shame that has been carried forward across generations. Of course, as fellow humans, we are also likely to be carrying the silent burdens of history. This is intergenerational trauma: a quiet inheritance that shapes nervous systems, attachment patterns, and even the way bodies hold emotion.
How Trauma Travels
Epigenetic research shows that trauma can alter gene expression, predisposing future generations to stress, anxiety, or disconnection. Even when people attempt not to repeat patterns from their own family of origin with their own children, what came before and has not yet been faced, can trickle down and find a home in the bodies, minds and hearts of the next generation. Families also exist within fields of memory, where unspoken pain reverberates until it is acknowledged. Children unconsciously take on what was never theirs—out of loyalty, they carry burdens meant to stay in the past.
The Body Holds the Story
Much of this legacy is not spoken—it is embodied. A parent’s dissociation or hypervigilance becomes the child’s felt experience, written into their posture, nervous system, and sense of self. These unconscious contracts shape adult relationships and choices, often without awareness.
Healing Across Generations
When we address intergenerational trauma in therapy, we:
Help clients name what was inherited rather than chosen.
Create space to grieve what was never spoken.
Support the nervous system in releasing what does not belong.
Reclaim vitality, belonging, and self-led ways of living.
Somatic practices—relational mapping, embodied awareness, ritual—offer pathways to bring form to what has been held in silence. As traditional cultures knew, healing is not just personal, it is collective. By tending to these patterns, we open the possibility that the cycle of suffering can end, and something new can begin. The sense of freedom I now have and witness my clients experiencing is a beautiful reminder that while pain can be inherited, so can healing, and when we lean in to this, we, those around us and those to come in our lineage, benefit greatly.