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Intergenerational Trauma



Intergenerational trauma is when the effects of trauma pass from generation to generation in one family through compromised beliefs about life, self, safety, love, and normal behavior. This can result in second- or third-generation family members carrying trauma responses for a trauma they did not actually suffer or witness. Intergenerational trauma can occur both from a family member’s single traumatic incident and from a communal trauma, in which many or all members of a local community experience a singular sustained trauma, such as a pandemic, war, or natural disaster.

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02:20

Intergenerational Trauma: Residential Schools

Learn how the effects of residential schools continue to manifest into the present day.

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Survivor Café: The Legacy of Trauma and the Labyrinth of Memory

As firsthand survivors of many of the twentieth century's most monumental events—the Holocaust, Hiroshima, the Killing Fields—begin to pass away, Survivor Café addresses urgent questions: How do we carry those stories forward? How do we collectively ensure that the horrors of the past are not...

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Exploring the Cycle of Inherited Family Trauma

Mark Wolynn, director of the Family Constellation Institute, describes how family trauma showed up in the lives of two of his patients, and offers questions for you to explore unconscious identification with a member of your family system.

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FindCenterOne of the best things each of us can do—not only for ourselves, but also for our children and grandchildren—is to metabolize our pain and heal our trauma.

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31:47

Mark Wolynn: It Didn’t Start with You

Unconsciously, we relive our mother’s anxiety. We repeat our father’s disappointments. We replicate the failed relationships of our parents and grandparents. Just as we inherit our eye color and blood type, we also inherit the residue from traumatic events that have taken place in our family.

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How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America

Beginning in his hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the reader on an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks—those that are honest about the past and those that are not—that offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping our nation’s collective history,...

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It Didn’t Start with You: The Mystery of Inherited Trauma

A revealing talk with Mark Wolynn of the Family Constellation Institute.

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04:19

What Is Generational Trauma? - Overcoming Traumatic Experiences - DeepDives

Lots of things get passed down from generations—stories, heirlooms, genetic traits—but a new field of study suggests that even trauma can be passed down through a lineage.

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From Generation to Generation: Healing Intergenerational Trauma Through Storytelling

Most children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors felt the omnipresence of the Holocaust throughout their childhood and for many, the spectre of the Holocaust continues to loom large through the phenomenon of “intergenerational” or “transgenerational” trauma.

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What Is Generational Trauma? Here’s How Experts Explain It

Experts are learning more about who is vulnerable to it, and how it manifests in families and communities.

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Trauma Healing