Understanding and Finding Healing from Intergenerational Trauma

Can we ever truly escape the past? Sometimes it can feel as though the past repeats itself, and its chains have us in an iron grip we cannot release ourselves from.

It can be daunting to look at your own past and see the ways it reaches into your present. Wounds from the past, such as intergenerational trauma, can influence your day-to-day patterns and behavior. The good news is that the future is an open vista, and lasting healing is a real possibility.

Intergenerational Trauma: What Is It?

When we think about trauma, we often think about painful or distressing experiences that happen directly to us. Intergenerational trauma, however, refers to the ways the effects of trauma can continue beyond the generation that originally experienced it. Unresolved emotional wounds, learned beliefs, unhealthy coping strategies, relationship patterns, and responses to fear or stress can influence children and later generations, even when they did not experience the original traumatic event themselves.

Intergenerational trauma can occur within families or entire communities and may be passed down in subtle as well as more obvious ways. Over time, these patterns can affect a person’s emotional well-being, relationships, behaviors, and even how they understand themselves and the world around them.

People experiencing intergenerational trauma may struggle with forming healthy relationships, unexplained depression or anxiety, patterns of self-sabotage or fear, or a sense of carrying a burden they struggle to name. These effects can occur in the present even when the original painful or traumatic events happened decades or generations before.

Some Examples of Intergenerational Trauma in Scripture

While the term ‘intergenerational trauma’ is something that has gained currency in recent decades, that does not mean that the reality it names is new. Scripture is quite candid about how sin has consequences; our brokenness and the brokenness of others that we endure, and experience all have consequences, and these can ripple through generations.

Two examples of this can help us. One is to consider the family of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which we read about from Genesis 12 until the end of the book. In story after story, there are repeated patterns of deeply damaging favoritism, selfishness, and deception, which cause ongoing conflict and shape the dynamics in the family across generations. In Jacob’s story, in particular, the threat of violence looms as he interacts with his brother Esau and his uncle, Laban.

Another example is David, a great king, warrior, and a man with many moral failings. After committing adultery with Bathsheba and arranging to have her husband killed, the Lord warned David that his actions would have lasting consequences in his own family (2 Samuel 11-12). David’s own son sexually assaulted his half-sister, and David did nothing about it. As a result, his family experienced even more violence and betrayal through revenge and a violent civil war.

The cycles of violence, betrayal, deception, and more that affected these families are tied to longstanding patterns of behavior that are rooted even further in the past. While this is true, Scripture also tells us that there is hope in the Lord to break such cycles.

There is the possibility of redemption, restoration, and a brand-new story for those who seek Him and pursue the new life that is possible in Him (Romans 8; 2 Corinthians 5:17).

The Causes and Triggers of Intergenerational Trauma

From what is known, intergenerational trauma has its roots in a traumatic experience a person, family, or community has. A significant event, unresolved pain, or prolonged suffering can be at the root of what goes on to become intergenerational trauma. These events could include abuse, abandonment or loss, poverty, war, forced migration, and familial patterns of violence or addiction.

These various events and experiences operate on several levels. Some of them, like experiences of war, genocide, or forced migration and displacement, are collective events that scar entire communities. Facing systemic oppression and stress from poverty and discrimination can also affect a community that is the target of such measures. There are also family dysfunctions, such as abuse, addiction, neglect, or abandonment, that can become normalized over time in a family unit.

Future generations within a community or family may not experience the original traumatic event. Still, they may inherit emotional and behavioral patterns that were formed as a response to the pain. These patterns would include anxious attachment, aggression, or deep mistrust.

Intergenerational trauma and its effects may become more noticeable during times of stress or transition. These experiences can activate learned emotional and behavioral patterns, attachment wounds, and stress responses that have been shaped by family experiences across generations.

For example, getting married or becoming a parent can trigger unresolved attachment wounds from one’s childhood or resurface old family patterns.

Other situations that may trigger this trauma include conflict situations and situations of loss and injustice that mirror those of past generations. Such conflict situations may trigger inherited anger or fears. Witnessing violence in one’s community or going through financial hardship can also activate a heightened stress response that affects one’s physical and mental well-being.

Some Signs of Intergenerational Trauma to Look Out for

Intergenerational trauma can manifest in various ways. Often, it escapes detection because it can appear as normal, and just the way your family or community does things. To pick up on how certain patterns are rooted in trauma and anything but ‘normal’ requires close examination and the willingness to make changes toward a healthier outlook. Some signs to look out for include the following:

Hypervigilance This is when you are constantly on edge, and you feel unsafe even in safe spaces.

Unhealthy relationship patterns This includes patterns of shame, denial, secrecy, mistrust, and recurring patterns of codependency.

Relational breakdown Patterns of repeated relational breakdowns across generations within the family may also point to intergenerational trauma.

Emotional problems Issues with regulating moods and emotions, persistent anxiety, depression, or emotional numbness may suggest intergenerational trauma. Also, having emotional overreactions to seemingly unrelated events could be the result of reacting to past traumas.

Inherited beliefs Carrying certain unstated or unconscious beliefs that shape your self-understanding could be a sign of intergenerational trauma. These beliefs could include feeling you are not worthy or that the world is a dangerous place. Persistent feelings of guilt or worthlessness without a clear cause may suggest intergenerational trauma.

Physical symptoms These would include insomnia, chronic pain, or stress-related conditions like heart disease.

A list of possible symptoms is a first step to help you identify what you or a loved one may be experiencing. However, various physical, emotional, and mental health challenges carry similar symptoms, and that is why it’s important to see a health professional. They can help you eliminate possible causes so that you can identify the root cause and address it.

Finding Healing from Intergenerational Trauma

This article started by posing a question – can we ever truly escape the past? Your past is your past, and you cannot change it. However, there is always hope for your future to look different, and to lessen the hold of the past on the here and now. There is freedom in Christ (Galatians 5:1), and with help, you can confront the past to step into a new chapter for you and your loved ones.

“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:36 ESV

The path to hope and a new future may include the following:

Acknowledge the pain Healing comes when you identify that there is a problem, a set of patterns of behaviors that are undermining the fullness of life the Lord intends for you. Reflect on your family history, naming the patterns there and recognizing how they have shaped you.

Seek the Lord’s healing You can do this through prayer, reading Scripture, and allowing Him to bring light into the dark spaces in your life. Lament is a powerful way to express your pain to the Lord, and speaking unspoken grief to the Lord in the pattern of the lament Psalms can help you find release.

Forgive and let go Forgiveness does not excuse harm; it helps you break the cycle of resentment and harm as you release the grip of the past on who you are and will be.

Set new patterns Make intentional choices empowered by God’s Spirit and grace to create new family traditions, communicate in a different style, and so on.

Seek counseling A trained Christian counselor can help you identify and unpack the deep wounds and trauma, break harmful patterns of thinking and behavior, and begin building healthier responses to everyday life.

Through faith-based counseling alongside trauma-informed therapies such as internal family systems or cognitive behavioral therapy, your counselor can help you process these deep wounds in a safe environment.

Healing the wounds of the past can start with you today. Reach out to our office or contact our reception team to connect with a counselor who can walk with you on your journey toward healing and wholeness.