How Trauma Passes Through Generations
Trauma does not always end with the person who experiences it.
In many families, the emotional impact of painful events can ripple outward across decades, shaping relationships, expectations, and patterns of behaviour long after the original event. has passed.
Psychologists refer to this as intergenerational trauma: the process by which the psychological effects of trauma are transmitted from one generation to the next.
You may notice it in families where certain patterns seem to repeat:
emotional distance between parents and children
difficulty expressing feelings
cycles of conflict or control
pressure to be perfect or “hold the family together”
silence around painful experiences
Understanding how trauma travels through generations can help explain these patterns and, importantly, how they can begin to change.
What Is Intergenerational Trauma?
Intergenerational trauma occurs when the emotional and psychological consequences of trauma influence the behaviour, relationships, and coping strategies of future generations.
The original trauma might involve:
war or displacement
abuse or neglect
loss or grief
systemic oppression
family violence
Even when the events themselves are no longer occurring, their emotional impact can continue to shape family life.
Children often grow up responding not only to their parents’ behaviour, but also to the unspoken emotional atmosphere created by past experiences.
For example, a parent who lived through instability may become highly controlling in an attempt to create safety. A parent who experienced emotional neglect may struggle to express affection because it was never modelled for them.
These responses are not intentional attempts to pass trauma forward. They are often attempts to cope with unresolved pain.
How Families Carry Trauma Forward
One helpful way to understand these dynamics comes from family systems theory, developed by psychiatrist Murray Bowen.
Family systems theory suggests that families operate as emotional systems where each person’s behaviour influences the others. When trauma enters the system, the entire family often adapts around it.
Over time, certain roles can emerge in response to that trauma:
the responsible one who keeps everything stable
the peacemaker who avoids conflict
the rebel who expresses the emotions others suppress
the invisible one who learns not to need much
These roles can become deeply embedded, shaping how family members see themselves and interact with each other.
Sometimes these patterns continue for generations, even when the original trauma is no longer consciously discussed.
Learning to recognise and challenge inherited roles often involves developing healthier relationional boundaries. Our article on The Science of Boundaries explores how boundaries protect emotional wellbeing.
When Trauma Becomes Part of the Family Story
Popular culture sometimes captures these dynamics surprisingly well.
In Disney’s Encanto, the Madrigal family lives under the pressure of maintaining magical gifts that symbolise their value within the family. Each member has a role that helps keep the family functioning, but beneath the surface lies an unresolved trauma experienced by the grandmother decades earlier.
The family’s rigid expectations are not simply about tradition. They are an attempt to preserve stability after a devastating loss.
The story illustrates a key insight from family psychology: trauma that remains unspoken often becomes embedded in family roles and expectations.
Healing in the film begins when the family finally acknowledges the original pain that shaped their lives.
The Biology of Intergenerational Trauma
Psychological patterns are one way trauma travels through generations. Research suggests there may also be biological influences.
Studies in epigenetic (the study of how experiences affect gene expression) have found that severe stress can alter how certain genes related to stress regulation are expressed.
Research led by psychiatrist Rachel Yehuda has examined the descendants of Holocaust survivors and found measurable differences in how stress hormones are regulated in their bodies.
This does not mean trauma is genetically predetermined or inevitable. Instead, it suggests that traumatic experiences can influence how the body’s stress systems function, sometimes across generations.
Equally important, epigenetic research shows that supportive environments and healing experiences can also reshape these biological patterns.
In other words, resilience can be transmitted across generations too.
Why Trauma Cycles Continue
Several psychological processes help explain why trauma patterns can persist.
Learned Coping Strategies
Children often absorb the ways their parents deal with stress, conflict, and emotion. If a parent copes by suppressing feelings or avoiding difficult conversations, those strategies may become the child’s default response as well.
Emotional Modelling
Children learn about relationships by observing them. Patterns of communication, attachment, and emotional expression often carry forward because they are familiar.
Unspoken Family Narratives
Many families carry stories that are never openly discussed but are implicitly understood. These narratives shape expectations about loyalty, conflict, and identity.
Breaking the Cycle
The encouraging truth about intergenerational trauma is that patterns can change.
Cycles often begin to shift when someone in the family becomes curious about the dynamics they inherited.
This might involve:
recognising patterns or communication or conflict
questioning long-standing family roles
learning new ways of responding to emotion
seeking support to process unresolved experiences
In Encanto, change begins when Mirabel stops trying to maintain the system and instead invites the family to look at what has been hidden.
In real life, the process can look similar. Healing often begins when painful histories are acknowledged rather than avoided.
The Role of Therapy in Intergenerational Healing
Therapy can provide a space to explore the patterns that shaped your family experience.
Rather than placing blame, the goal is often to understand the context in which those patterns developed.
With support, people can begin to:
recognise inherited coping strategies
process trauma that has remained unresolved
develop healthier ways of relating to themselves and others
create new emotional patterns for future generations
When someone begins this work, the effects can extend beyond the individual.
Breaking cycles of trauma can change the emotional environment for children, partners, and families in ways that ripple forward for years to come.
A Different Kind of Inheritance
It’s easy to feel discouraged when learning about intergenerational trauma. But the same processes that transmit pain can also transmit resilience.
When families begin to acknowledge difficult histories, develop emotional awareness, and support one another more openly, they create new patterns that future generations can inherit.
Many people first begin noticing family patterns when they step out of automatic ways of coping. We explored this in How to Stop Living on Autopilot.
The legacy of trauma does not have to define the future.
Awareness is often the first step toward something different.
Looking for Support?
If you’re beginning to recognise patterns in your family history that feel difficult or confusing, speaking with a therapist can help you explore them with care and perspective.
At Smart Therapy, our therapists offer a supportive space to reflect on family dynamics, understand how past experiences may still influence the present, and develop healthier ways of relating to yourself and others.
