What Is Intergenerational Trauma and How Does It Affect Your Health?
The Inheritance We Don’t Talk About
When we hear the word inheritance, many of us think of jewellery, heirlooms, or perhaps property passed down from our family line. But there is another form of inheritance that often goes unspoken: the emotional and psychological patterns we carry from our parents, grandparents, and ancestors.
This is called intergenerational trauma. It’s the invisible thread that weaves through families, passing down unresolved pain, fears, and survival patterns. What’s striking is that this doesn’t just affect our emotions — it can also shape our physical health in ways that may not seem obvious at first glance.
What Exactly Is Intergenerational Trauma?
Intergenerational trauma refers to the transmission of unresolved emotional pain, stress responses, and survival patterns from one generation to the next
It’s not just about the stories we’re told (or not told) about our family history. It’s also about the way trauma gets stored in our subconscious and, as research into epigenetics shows, even in our biology.
Early experiences and ancestral events can leave imprints in our nervous system that make us more sensitive to stress. For instance, if your grandparents lived through war or famine, their survival responses may have been passed down, influencing how your body and mind react today — even if you’ve never experienced the same hardship yourself.
The Science: Epigenetics and Emotional Imprints
For a long time, people believed our DNA determined everything about us. But the field of epigenetics has shown that while our genes provide the blueprint, our environment determines which parts of that blueprint are “switched on or off”.
This means there is no single “gene” for anxiety, depression, or trauma. Instead, our experiences — and even the unhealed experiences of those who came before us — can influence how our genes express themselves.
In one study, researchers exposed rats to the smell of cherry blossom while delivering small electric shocks. Later, the rats reacted with fear to the smell alone — even without the shocks. What’s more surprising is that their offspring, who had never experienced the shocks, also reacted with fear when exposed to the same scent.
This experiment illustrates how trauma can be encoded into the nervous system and passed through generations, creating subconscious responses that seem to appear out of nowhere.
How Trauma Is Learned in Families
Even without genetic transmission, trauma is passed down through family environments. In early childhood — especially before the age of seven — the brain is in a highly receptive state. During this period, children absorb not just what is said to them, but also what is unspoken: the tensions, fears, and survival strategies of their caregivers.
If a parent struggles with anxiety, rage, or scarcity, a child’s subconscious often interprets these signals as instructions for survival. They learn:
“I must be quiet to stay safe.”
“I need to work hard to be loved.”
“There’s never enough, so I have to cling to what I get.”
These early imprints don’t stay in childhood. They become the subconscious programmes that influence how we handle relationships, money, health, and even our own emotions as adults. What looks like a fixed personality trait — being “anxious,” “angry,” or “overly sensitive” — may actually be the echo of family trauma.
The Impact on Mental and Physical Health
Unprocessed trauma doesn’t simply stay in the past. It leaves emotional and physiological imprints that can resurface in the present. The body remembers, even when the mind does not.
This can show up in many ways:
Heightened anxiety, panic, or a constant sense of dread.
Depression or emotional heaviness that seems to run in the family.
Chronic stress and a nervous system stuck in fight, flight, or freeze
Physical issues such as digestive discomfort, migraines, fatigue, or inflammation.
Patterns with money, relationships, or self-worth that feel unshakable, even if your current life circumstances don’t justify them.
One powerful example comes from people whose grandparents lived through war or famine. Even generations later, descendants may feel intense panic when food runs low or when finances feel uncertain, despite being materially safe
It’s not irrationality — it’s a subconscious survival imprint resurfacing.
Healing Intergenerational Trauma: A Pathway Forward
The good news is that these patterns are not permanent. Trauma may be passed down, but it can also be healed. Awareness is the first step — recognising that what you’re experiencing may not be entirely your own story. From there, true transformation happens when both the conscious mind and the subconscious mind are engaged in the healing process.
Family Constellations
Family Constellations is a therapeutic approach that explores the hidden dynamics within family systems. It helps to reveal unspoken stories, unprocessed grief, and ancestral experiences that continue to shape the present. By bringing these patterns into awareness, women often find themselves feeling lighter, more connected, and free from burdens that never truly belonged to them.
Rapid Core Healing (RCH)
Rapid Core Healing combines hypnotherapy, NLP, Gestalt Therapy, cognitive behavioural techniques, and systemic constellation work . It works directly with the subconscious, allowing people to safely revisit and reprocess the emotional imprints of past trauma. For many, this is the key to shifting the nervous system out of survival states and into balance, freeing both mind and body.
Together, these approaches create a compassionate, supportive space for deep healing. They go beyond symptom management and open the door to true resolution — not only for the individual, but also for future generations.
Healing for You, Healing for Generations
Intergenerational trauma shows us that the struggles we face are rarely ours alone. We may be carrying echoes of events that happened long before we were born. These imprints can shape how we feel, think, and even how our bodies function.
The journey of healing isn’t about erasing the past — it’s about gently releasing what has been carried for too long. Through Family Constellations and Rapid Core Healing, Camilla Clare Brinkworth supports women to heal both the conscious and subconscious layers of trauma, restoring balance to their emotional and physical wellbeing.
As one ancient teaching reminds us, “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.” The same can be said of trauma — when we heal what we’ve inherited, we also change what we pass on, creating a future of greater freedom and wholeness.
About Camilla Brinkworth
Camilla Brinkworth is a naturopath, clinical nutritionist, and trauma-informed practitioner specialising in PMDD, women’s health, and plant-based nutrition. She combines evidence-based dietary strategies with herbal medicine and emotional healing to help women achieve hormonal balance and lasting relief from PMDD.
Learn more about Camilla’s PMDD Transformation Programme and personalised consultations at www.camillaclare.com and www.PMDDnaturopath.com