Understanding Intergenerational Trauma: Healing the Stories We Inherit
Our personal stories often begin before we were born. Patterns of stress, silence, survival—and trauma—can flow across generations and shape how we feel, behave, and relate to ourselves and others. In this blog, we’ll explore how intergenerational trauma shows up, why it matters, and how a holistic, integrative approach can support healing on the mind, body, and spirit level.
What is Intergenerational Trauma?
Intergenerational (or “transgenerational”) trauma refers to the psychological, emotional, and sometimes biological transmission of trauma from one generation to the next—even when the person experiencing the trauma did not themselves live the original traumatic event.
For example, families that survived forced migration, slavery, or systemic oppression may pass down coping patterns that impact the descendants’ nervous systems, emotional responses, and sense of identity. Embark Behavioral Health+1
More than just inherited stories, trauma can embed itself in the body and relationships. One researcher notes:
“Sustained stress and trauma deeply affect the building blocks of the brain … so much so that it can change your genes.” Henry Ford Health
How It Shows Up—Beyond the Obvious
Even when the original trauma is decades old or occurred in a distant context, its influence persists. Here are common ways intergenerational trauma can manifest:
Emotional patterns: chronic shame, guilt, perfectionism, people-pleasing, or hypervigilance.
Relationship dynamics: difficulty trusting, avoidant/overprotective parenting, unspoken family rules.
Somatic responses: persistent anxiety, unexplained body pain, dysregulated stress responses.
Identity and cultural dissonance: feeling “not quite belonging,” negotiating bicultural or immigrant identity, carrying both survival pride and hidden sorrow.
Research shows that many individuals from communities affected by systemic trauma (e.g., forced migration, racism, collective violence) may present with mental or physical health challenges even if they did not live the original event. Verywell Mind
Why It Matters for Healing and Psychiatry
For many Black, Caribbean, immigrant, and other BIPOC adults, understanding intergenerational trauma is vital—it offers a deeper context for symptoms beyond “what happened to me.” When trauma is layered into ancestry, culture, family, and identity, healing demands more than surface-level interventions.
At Combahee River Integrative Psychiatry, we don’t just aim to treat symptoms—we look at the whole person: mind, body, culture, history. This kind of approach helps us:
Recognize how generational patterns affect present functioning.
Encourage awareness of inherited coping strategies and how they may serve or hinder.
Use therapies that address both the nervous system (somatics) and the narrative (psychodynamic/Gestalt) to support true integration.
Collaborate on lifestyle strategies (nutrition, movement, mindfulness) that regulate the body and ground the mind, offering a stable foundation for deeper work.
Healing the Inheritance—Three Key Pathways
Awareness + Naming
Begin with exploring your family history, cultural context, and key patterns: What did your ancestors endure? What beliefs or behaviors were passed down? What feelings keep showing up in your life that don’t feel originally yours?
Research shows that when we acknowledge and name intergenerational trauma, we reduce shame and open space for change. Mental Health Treatment | MA+1Therapeutic Integration
Narrative/Psychodynamic Therapy: Helps you explore the story behind the story—what’s inherited, what’s invented, what needs revision.
Gestalt & Somatic Therapy: Builds present-moment awareness in the body, inviting recognition of how generational trauma lives in sensations, posture, breath.
Holistic Psychiatry & Medication Consultation: Sometimes inherited trauma intersects with mood/anxiety/trauma disorders that benefit from integrative care including mindful use of medications when appropriate.
Lifestyle & Nervous System Regulation
True healing reaches the nervous system. Practices such as mindful movement, breathwork, culturally grounded rituals, and community support help release inherited patterns of survival and shift into patterns of thriving.
When we restore equilibrium to the body and mind, we create a new legacy—not just surviving, but living.
Moving Toward Freedom
Breaking the cycle doesn’t mean becoming perfect. It means choosing differently. It means converting legacy into belonging, survival into growth, shame into wisdom.
As Toni Morrison reminds us:
“Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another.”
At Combahee River Integrative Psychiatry, we invite you into a space where your whole self—ancestry, culture, pain, strength—can be held, understood, and integrated. Let’s heal not just for ourselves, but for the future we are helping to create.
