Breaking the Cycle of Inherited Trauma: Healing What Isn’t Yours to Carry
By Dr Euan McMillan | WellWellWell Sydney
Sometimes the pain we feel doesn’t belong entirely to us. It can live quietly in our posture, our breath, or the way we brace before connection. It may echo from the experiences of those who came before - generations who endured hardship, loss, or silence so that we could live differently.
This invisible inheritance is known as intergenerational trauma - patterns of stress, emotion, and physiology passed from one generation to the next. Modern science, from epigenetics to nervous-system research, is helping us understand what many cultures have always known: that trauma can ripple through families not only in stories, but in the body itself.
How trauma is passed down
When a parent’s nervous system learns to survive through hypervigilance or shutdown, those patterns can be mirrored by their children — not through words, but through energy and example.
Sometimes the legacy is emotional: a family that “doesn’t talk about feelings,” or that normalises chaos and reactivity.
Sometimes it’s physical: tension patterns in the spine and body that keep us ready for threat even when there isn’t one.
And sometimes it’s biochemical: stress-related changes that influence how genes express or how cortisol flows.
None of this means we are broken or destined to repeat the past. The nervous system is plastic — designed to evolve, reorganise, and heal when given safety, awareness, and care.
How it shows up in the body and life
Inherited trauma can look like:
Feeling chronically on edge even in safe situations
Emotional triggers that feel “bigger than me”
Repeating relationship patterns despite our best efforts
A sense of guilt or responsibility that doesn’t seem to have a clear origin
Physical symptoms that arrive with emotional stress: back tension, shallow breathing, gut discomfort
These are not failings — they’re signals. They point toward the places in your body and lineage asking for resolution.
Breaking the Cycle
Healing inherited trauma begins when we listen to the body instead of overriding it.
At WellWellWell Sydney, much of our work focuses on helping the spine and nervous system move from defence into safety — to stop bracing for what has already passed. Through gentle, precise spinal contacts (Network Spinal Care), the body learns to release old patterns and reorganise energy toward growth and coherence.
You can also begin this process at home:
Awareness – Notice when your body contracts or your breath shortens. Gently name the pattern without judgement.
Connection – Soften your breath and bring a hand to your heart or base of spine. Remind yourself: I am safe now.
Storytelling – If possible, learn your family history. Understanding context often dissolves self-blame.
Support – Healing is relational. Seek safe practitioners, community, and environments where you can be seen and met with compassion.
Integration – Allow joy, play, and creativity to re-enter the system. They are signs the nervous system is reorganising toward life.
Remember: You Are the Turning Point
You are not just inheriting a past, you are shaping a new future.
Every time you breathe more deeply, choose calm over chaos, or allow your spine to move freely, you’re changing what gets passed on.
Generational healing doesn’t happen in the mind alone. It happens when energy that’s been frozen in the body begins to flow again, when the nervous system learns that safety and aliveness can coexist.
If This Resonates
If you sense that old stress patterns or family dynamics live within your body, you’re not alone. Gentle chiropractic and Network Spinal care offer a way to transform tension into energy for growth, without force, without re-traumatising the body.
Book a session or learn more at www.wellwellwellsydney.com.au.
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