Understanding Intergenerational and Trauma by Dr. Sanjyot Pethe

1. Understanding
intergenerational trauma
By Dr. Sanjyot Pethe
HELP Talks

2. Intent of the talk
• Exploring intergenerational trauma
• How will this understanding help us
• How are collective and intergenerational
trauma related
We become traumatized when our ability tor respond to perceived
threat becomes overwhelmed

3. What is trauma
• Trauma is loss of connection to ourselves, our
bodies, to others and to the world around.
• Trauma can occur by normal everyday events
• Trauma is in the body, not in the event
• Trauma is about the nervous system
• Symptoms can occur years later

4. How trauma affects body
• Fight
• Flight
• Freeze
• Submission
• The BODY plays dead

5. The symptoms of trauma
• Hyper vigilance
• Intrusive imagery or flashbacks
• Extreame sensitivity to light and sound
• Abrupt mood swings
• Shame and lack of self worth
• Reduced ability to deal with stress
• Difficulty sleeping
• Depression

6. The symptoms of trauma
• Avoidance behaviours
• Attraction to dangerous situation
• Addictive behaviour
• Amnesia
• Inability to bond
• Chronic fatigue
• Chronic pain
• Psychosomatic illnesses
• Reduced ability to plan
• Digestive problems
• Reduced sexual activity
•

7. Intergenerational trauma
• Recent developments in the fields of cellular
biology, neurobiology, epigenetics, and
developmental psychology underscore the
importance of exploring at least three
generations of family history in order to
understand the mechanism behind patterns
of trauma and suffering repeat.

8. Transmission of trauma
• Through families
• Through abusive systems and culture
• Through our genes
• Colonization, partition, war, famine, outbreak
of major illness, natural disaster, racism,
casteism, family traditions

9. Generational trauma
• We have merged with the parent
• We have rejected a parent
• We have experienced in a break in the early
bond with our mother
• We have identified with a member of family
system other than our parents

10. Generational trauma impact
• Core complaint
• Core descriptors
• Core sentence
• Core trauma
• Entanglements

11. Trauma and Memory
Explicit - Declarative Implicit- Non declarative
Process Conscious Unconscious
Information types Cognitive, facts, mind, verbal,
description of process
Emotional, conditioning,
body, sensory, automatic
skills,
Maturity From 3 years From Birth
Activity during
trauma/flashback
Suppressed Active
Language Constructs Narrative Speechless

12. Healing generational trauma
• Images and movements
• Working with core complaint
• Understanding the order of love and
belonging
• Affirmations

13. Some modes
• Family constellations
• Psychodrama
• Somatic experiencing
• Active listening

14. The Process of trauma and trauma
healing
You can be fully in charge of your life, if you can fully acknowledge the reality of
your body.
The greatest sources of suffering are the lies that we tell ourselves. People can
never get better without knowing what they know and feeling what they feel

15. Thank You
Mark Wolynn – It didn’t start with
you
Indra Torsten Preiss – Family
constellation revealed

16. Befriend your body