Unwanted legacy: The impact of transgenerational trauma

We know from our training that the roots of our adult selves go right back to our first experiences, as well as being influenced by our genetic inheritance from our parents. But what if both of these ‘nature and nurture’ influences were even more nuanced?

Scientists in the emerging field of epigenetics have discovered the mechanism that allows lived experience and acquired knowledge to be passed down the generations. This means that an individual’s life experience doesn’t die with them but endures in genetic form.

What this means for therapy is that although how our parents treated us – and whether our needs were met is important – that the source of our client’s feelings of pain may also lie within the stories of their parents and grandparents rather than in their own. Fragments of life experience, memories and body sensations can live on as if reaching out from the past to try and find resolution in the present.

About the workshop

In this workshop, we will weave together the groundbreaking research with therapeutic exercises, and clinical examples to give you a different way of approaching trauma work.

Specifically, we will:

• Explore recent developments in the fields of biology, neuroscience, epigenetics and developmental psychology – all of which now suggest that we need to look back at least three generations to understand the mechanism behind patterns of trauma and suffering that repeat.
• Look at why this understanding may be so profound for our clients, particularly if their feelings don’t seem to make sense. For some it may be the influence of a very personal family trauma that played out for their grandmothers, for others it may be the pervasive influence of a more global tragedy that impacted their mother before they were born.
• Look at how a ‘family consciousness’ or ‘unconscious loyalties’ may be influencing our clients now.
• Learn how to identify unique patterns of inherited family trauma using questions, genograms and family trees
• Take a more nuanced look at the impact of attachment in the light of this new knowledge and identify ways of reparenting the inner child
• Discuss other practical ways of working with clients to bring new insight and relief, and in particular to try and help clients break the cycle of transgenerational trauma.

Book your place

Visit Inspire CPT For Therapists for more information and to book your place.