Healing Transgenerational Trauma
Transgenerational Trauma and Family Constellations
“Leave the past in the past”. Great advice except when it refuses to stay there. Our past experiences often inform how we cope with life and how we respond to challenges. What is becoming clear our ancestors’ experiences also inform our behaviours.
Transgenerational trauma is a thing. Neuroscience is revealing how unresolved trauma changes how the body manages cortisol release, (stress response) and even the structure and activity of the brain. The study of Epigenetics is telling that trauma response can be passed through the generations. There is also a learned behaviour aspect to trans-generational patterns. For example, if a grandmother tragically loses her child, there may be a pattern of overprotecting children in her decendants. On the other hand, this same trauma may present as subconscious blocks towards having children.
Often, we have unexplained fears, sadness or guilt that can often be traced back events that our parents, grandparents, or communities experienced.
We can’t change history, but we can change how we relate to it!
Family constellations is a method that allows us to observe and correct the impact of events in our lineage that may still be at play today. Often, we don’t even know what happened in our family history, but we feel it as unexplained anger, grief, or guilt. Or just a feeling of “something is wrong”. Although we can’t change what happened there is always potential to change our perception of it and our relationship to it. This may sound like an insubstantial change, but it can be hugely freeing to let go of burdens that were never ours in the first place.
The process of Family Constellations is not easy to describe. Originally formulated by Bert Hellinger, a German Psychotherapist who observed Zulu Ancestral healing ceremonies. He brought these rituals to the western world in the form of Family Constellations. Typically, in a group setting, participants are asked to represent ancestors or elements of a theme to gain insight into the issue. The representative attunes to their own body movements, sensations and emotions that occur spontaneously, bringing life to the situation. Often representatives embody traits or postures that are instantly recognisable to the seeker. Grandad’s stoop, mother’s back pain or uncle’s soldier’s stance. These representations often point to a block or an incident that is the source of the trauma. Constellation facilitators call these “movements of the soul”
Simply observing a pattern or a block in this way can be enough to evoke change. The facilitator may suggest statements or further movements that can bring release or balance to the situation. At the very least this gives a new visual to the observer, allowing a new narrative to form. It also gives a feeling of agency in their relationship to the issue.
But often something more ethereal and profound occurs. Stepping into a constellation suspends ordinary reality for a while, allowing us to move within the ancestral realm. To witness the source of the issue and release old traumas and patterns. It allows us to hand back loyalties and burdens that no longer serve us and to create new relationships with our ancestors. Often our ancestors have gifts or insights for us that we can collect and take in. Many experience a feeling of belonging and connection during a constellation. Often there are physical and emotional releases of burdens long held. Some describe it as a form of soul retrieval. This is deep work.
I attended my first family constellations workshop without having any idea what it was or even why I was going. What I found was a transformational approach to healing that was somewhere between therapy and ritual, that invited me into the mystical realm of ancestral and universal consciousnesses. Constellations has allowed me to release long held family burdens and to feel my ancestors embrace.
Ancestral healing not only allows us to release the legacy of inherited trauma but also to reconnect with the strength’s wisdom and resources that our family’s hold in their history. When we recognise the positive aspects of our line, there is a realignment, a remembering of our true inheritance. Just as traumatic experiences can cause lasting changes so can positive experiences. Releasing the wounds in our family’s history and stopping harmful patterns past can positively affect our future and future generations.