Intergenerational Trauma: How to break the chain.
- Christina Barratt
- May 1
- 3 min read
Updated: May 3
Last week I attended a lecture with Dr Jeffrey DeMarco, a leading expert in intergenerational trauma. His work is both fascinating and unsettling — not because it’s dramatic, but because it explains so much of what so many of us quietly live with every day.
One of the studies he referenced is one I’ve spoken about before, but it hits differently every time.
Researchers exposed mice to the scent of cherry blossoms. Each time the scent was released, the mice received a small electric shock. Over time, the mice learned to fear the smell - their whole bodies reacted before their brains had time to think.
Here’s the extraordinary part:
Their offspring and then their offspring’s pups (who were never shocked) also showed fear when they smelt cherry blossoms.
No trauma.
No memory.
No story.
Just a nervous system reacting to something it had never personally experienced.
This is how survival systems work.
They pass down what kept the family line alive.
But here’s the problem…
We also inherit fears, stresses, and danger signals that don’t belong to us.
Your body can be triggered into anxiety, fight‑or‑flight, shutdown, or hypervigilance by things that make no logical sense - because the origin isn’t in your lifetime.
It’s in your lineage.
A great grandparent’s war.
A grandparent’s loss, fear, or instability.
A parent’s financial worries.
Your nervous system is simply doing what it was designed to do: keep you out of danger.
But when those inherited patterns fire in your world - where the “threat”/trigger is an email, a conversation, a bill, or a change in routine - your system becomes destabilised. You feel overwhelmed, anxious, exhausted, or “on edge” without knowing why.
And this is where so many people get stuck as counselling can’t reach this layer.
Counselling is powerful for lived experiences — the things you remember, the things you can talk about, the things that happened to you.
But intergenerational trauma isn’t a story.
It’s a pattern.
A reflex.
A survival imprint held in the body.
You can’t talk your way out of something you never consciously lived.
This is why so many people say:
• “I’ve done the therapy, but I still feel on edge.”
• “I understand my triggers, but my body still reacts.”
• “I know I’m safe, but I don’t feel safe.”
Because the issue isn’t cognitive.
It’s neurological.
It lives in the spine, the nervous system, the stored tension patterns, the protective bracing, the survival wiring.
And this is exactly where Spinal Flow works.
Spinal Flow doesn’t try to convince your mind.
It works directly with the body — the place where these patterns actually live.
Through gentle touch at points on the spine and cranium, we help the nervous system:
• unwind old survival patterns
• release inherited tension
• soften protective reflexes
• restore flow through the spinal gateways
• reconnect the body to safety, ease, and coherence
There’s no force.
No manipulation.
No reliving trauma.
No digging through the past.
Just the body remembering what it’s like to feel safe again.
When the nervous system shifts, everything shifts:
• anxiety reduces
• sleep improves
• digestion settles
• emotional resilience increases
• the body stops bracing for danger that isn’t there
This is the work that changes families, not just individuals.
Because when you heal your nervous system, you stop passing the pattern forward.
If this resonates, your body is asking for support
If you’ve been living with unexplained anxiety, chronic tension, emotional overwhelm, or a sense that your system is “always on,” it may not be your story - but it is your opportunity to heal.
A course of Spinal Flow sessions gives your body the time, repetition, and safety it needs to unwind these deeper layers.
If you’re ready to shift from inherited survival to embodied safety, you can book your sessions here:
Your lineage may have passed you the pattern -
but you get to choose how the story continues.
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