Healing Generational Trauma: A Beginner’s Guide

For good or ill, every family has stories that have been passed down from parent to child. These can be literal stories recited from living memory, or even figurative stories that have been acted out by parent and child, sometimes for hundreds or even thousands of years. But it goes deeper than just the behavioral and historical pieces, parental trauma can leave genetic markers that are passed on to their children. Generational trauma is a complicated issue of mind, body, and spirit. To disentangle its symptoms, you need to understand how it works, how to cope with it, and how to break the cycles that your ancestors couldn’t and didn’t.  

“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern.”

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

What Is The Root Of Generational Trauma? 

Generational trauma refers to the transmission of traumatic experiences and their psychological effects across generations within families or communities. The roots of these psychological effects can be as varied and multifaceted as the humans who cope with them. Several factors contribute to the emergence and perpetuation of generational trauma, including:

• Family Dynamics. The individual dynamic of your own family can have seismic effects on our lives and mental health. Dysfunctional family patterns like abuse, neglect, and addiction can create environments where trauma is perpetuated and transmitted from parents to children. The events in your own childhood will loom the largest in your conscious thoughts and most directly impact the people you raise. 
• Historical Events. Human history is an uncomfortable litany of grievous injuries to and from one another. The most impactful of these injustices (discrimination, marginalization, and inequality, such as racism, sexism, and economic exploitation) can and do present themselves symptomatically even when you’re only registering the after-effects. 
• Displacement and Dislocation. Evidence points to human beings first appearing near modern-day Morocco, so unless you live in Morocco, at some point, your family has been displaced. Look back as far as you can into your family story, and you may be able to discover and recollect a first-or-second-hand account of the moment when your family chose or had to leave their homeland. Forced migration, refugee experiences, and displacement due to conflict or environmental disasters can disrupt familial and cultural ties, exacerbating feelings of loss, alienation, and trauma across generations. 
• Cultural Assimilation. Especially in the United States, the structures of cultural assimilation have weaved their way into the tapestry of our families. In the pursuit of acceptance in their communities, your ancestors were forced to repress anger, sensuality, pride, joy, and expression in the name of fitting in. Cultural practices and beliefs that silence or stigmatize discussions of trauma, mental health, and emotions can hinder the healing process and perpetuate intergenerational trauma.

Can Generational Trauma Be Fixed? 

Addressing your own intergenerational trauma requires an interdisciplinary approach. A question as titanic as generational trauma requires the attention of multiple solutions that are incomplete without one another. Only by viewing and tending to the issue from multiple angles can the burden be partially lifted from upon your family’s shoulders. 

• Authentic Interactions With Family. Whether it’s with your chosen family of partners, children, and friends, or your unchosen family of parents, siblings, and beyond, being authentic in your interactions with family can help you to face the generational trauma that impacts your communication to this very day. With authenticity, patience, and the right audience, you can explore intergenerational patterns of behavior, communication, and coping mechanisms in a way that is healthy and constructive. 
• Improve Your Communication. Communication is ultimately how we transmit our family story from person-to-person, and compassionate communication is a skill worth studying and mastering. By working on your communication, you give yourself the possibility to move past your generational trauma and break through with those who do not yet understand. 
• Get In Touch With A Generational Ritual. No matter what culture or background you come from, all families have rituals that they pass down and share. Even if our experiences in the past with family and ritual carry uncomfortable memories of the way things used to be, getting in touch with ritual and tradition can help us move past what’s already happen and look to the future with renewed hope. Facilitating connections with support groups, community organizations, and peer networks where individuals can share their experiences, find validation, and receive ongoing support from others can rewrite your generations-old family story into one worth retelling.  

How Do You Release Generational Trauma From Your Body? 

Releasing generational trauma from the body involves cultivating a deeper sense of body awareness. By tuning into bodily sensations and observing patterns of tension, discomfort, or numbness, individuals can begin to understand how generational trauma is stored and expressed within their bodies. 

• Listen To Your Body. Our minds are complex creatures driven by impulses that operate deep within our unconscious, and have carried on for hundreds of millions of years without notice. But your intuitive body remembers knowledge and wisdom that science and reason have yet to discover. Being in touch with your own body can allow you to directly interface with your ancient animalistic lizard brain and hear what it has to say. 
• Recognize The Effects Of Your Trauma. Our trauma affects us in ways that are pervasive and difficult to identify. It can feel far easier to identify your response to a traumatic event or PTSD flashback as anxiety than to dig deeper and explore how your past is impacting your immediate situation. But by acknowledging and delving into the deeper roots of our trauma, we can begin to unravel its pervasive effects on our lives. Trauma isn’t just a singular event; it’s a complex web of experiences and emotions that can shape our thoughts, behaviors, and relationships in subtle and profound ways. One of the challenges in recognizing the impact of trauma is that its effects can be insidious, manifesting in ways that we might not immediately attribute to past experiences. For example, someone who experienced childhood neglect may struggle with feelings of unworthiness or difficulty forming healthy attachments in adulthood. These struggles may not always be recognized as stemming from past trauma, but rather be interpreted as personality traits or unrelated issues.
• Use Affirmations To Fight Despair. The words we say have a power all their own. Hearing the right affirmations in your own voice is one of the most effective and powerful ways to talk back against intrusive and traumatic thoughts. When we speak affirmations to ourselves, we are actively engaging in positive self-talk, reprogramming our subconscious mind with messages of empowerment, resilience, and self-worth. By hearing these affirmations in our own voice, we strengthen the connection between our conscious and subconscious minds, reinforcing the message at a deeper level. For individuals grappling with trauma, intrusive thoughts can be overwhelming and debilitating. These thoughts often stem from negative beliefs about oneself or the world, perpetuating a cycle of distress and despair. Affirmations offer a counterbalance to these destructive thoughts, challenging their validity and offering a new narrative of self-compassion and healing.

Generational trauma is complex and multifaceted, often intersecting with various social, cultural, and historical factors to shape individuals’ experiences and their impacts on subsequent generations. Addressing generational trauma requires recognizing its roots in these different causes and implementing comprehensive strategies for healing and resilience within affected communities. One of the best ways to devise a comprehensive strategy for healing your own generational trauma is to work with an expert. 

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Sunny Ebsary is an educator, multi-modal artist, and writer specializing in the intersection of myth and mental health. Sunny’s writing walks the line between poetic and logical, giving readers a chance to interface with the mind and imagination. Sunny’s been putting pen to paper since he was a child, writing everything from albums, novels, and plays, to essays, interactive games, and of course, many articles! While studying both psychology and writing, he realized his real passion in life was helping others unlock their creative spark. Whether he’s leading a D&D game, directing a production, or diving deep into the brain, you can be sure Sunny will be ushering you toward finding meaning in your life.