Inherited Trauma

"If we carry intergenerational trauma (and we do), then we also carry intergenerational wisdom. It is in our genes and our DNA." Kazu Haga

 

I grew up feeling timid and anxious. I thought there was something wrong with me and didn't understand why I was so sensitive and insecure. It wasn't until I studied the psychology of trauma that I understood that as the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, I was experiencing inherited trauma, and I wasn't alone.

Like me, other children of survivors of trauma often exhibit symptoms that include difficulty regulating our emotions, maintaining healthy relationships, coping with stress, guilt, shame, and low self-esteem. If you experience these symptoms, you may blame yourself, especially if you're not aware that you're carrying the lingering effects of the suffering of your parents and grandparents. But it's not your fault, and it's not their fault either.

Trauma can get passed through the generations in a few ways: when it impacts our parent's ability to meet our childhood needs, by creating family narratives that shape how we see the world and react to the world, and even by altering our DNA, as the emerging field of epigenetics has shown.

When I understood the nature of my inherited trauma, I was flooded with a slew of emotions, ranging from sorrow to anger to compassion, and more. I knew that as much as the source of my trauma was complex, my path to healing would also be complex. And I was lucky to have been a trained psychologist, with an arsenal of tools available to me.

Now I want to share those tools with you. I want to bear witness to your story and help you heal the wounds that were not originally yours.

Using an integrative process I call "Rootwork", we'll work together to get to the root of your inherited trauma and release your ancestral burdens, while building your resilience, and honoring the history and even the suffering that shaped who you are, so you can heal, grow, and yes, flourish!