Generational or Ancestral Trauma
Trauma can come to be perpetuated through generations if not acknowledged and healed. It is typically passed down from mother to daughter and father to son. This idea of perpetuation reminds us of the saying “You can’t clean the house if you don’t see the dirt”. Trauma colors an individual’s life and affects every aspect of who they are, on both the inner and outer landscape. It could cause greater resilience or more issues depending on how the situation is addressed. Denial of trauma is healing flipped on its head. By ignoring the problem, it does not get solved.
One way that generational trauma can be understood is through Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) studies. ACEs include physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, physical or emotional neglect, parental mental illness, parental substance dependence, parental incarceration, parental separation or divorce, or witnessing domestic violence in childhood. The more yes answers, the higher your predisposition for health issues is later on in life. In other words, the more yes answers the more likely it is that disembodiment has become, or is, a familiar friend.
In Nadine Burke Harris’s TED Talk, How Childhood Trauma Affects Health Across a Lifetime, she says that the experience of ACEs affects the way DNA is read and transcribed. These threats to sense of safety through trauma are so severe and pervasive that they “get under our skin and change our physiology” (0:58). Understanding the impact of ACEs could change the way Western society perceives trauma, and could create a wider understanding of the science behind how pathways are disrupted by ACEs in brains and bodies that are just developing.
She quotes Robert Block, Former President of the American Academy of Pediatrics, in saying, "Adverse childhood experiences are the single greatest unaddressed public health threat facing our nation today" (11:09). 67% of our population has experienced at least one ACE (4:15), and she feels that with more studies done this number will be much greater. It will take courage to look this problem in the face, but it can be done together because ACEs applies to everyone. The generational healing, as well as movement towards individual and collective embodiment, that can come from the recognition of these studies is tremendous.
With generational trauma, it is as if this way of being has been so engrained in the ancestral lineage that the abused and abuser doesn’t know any better. The inheritance of these behaviors is disembodiment in that there is no recognition of what is actually being done. The continuous disconnection from the truth, and that distortion, is imparted on others. In this way, traumatic experiences create an imprint. These imprints become like zip files that shrink and become stored away within the body, waiting to be accessed. When these imprints are left unaddressed it can lead to harmful, “quick-fix” habits or behaviors, along with disembodiment.
These imprints create neural patterns that can be changed through the brain’s neuroplasticity. The brain has the ability to make new connections, to grow, to heal, and to move towards embodiment. It is important to encourage and assist generations in recognizing and sensitively addressing trauma so that they may be freed from a cycle of suffering and disembodiment. When an individual in a generation does come along with the necessary resources, it is imperative to decide to break the cycle. These behaviors do not have to be inherited. This is how the move from disembodiment to embodiment is made from the individual, to generations, and to the collective.
Photo Courtesy of https://drmichaelharris.com/generational-healing/
