It Didn’t Start With You by Mark Wolynn brings to light a newly researched domain and way of thinking when it comes to trauma, which is what is known as heritable or intergenerational trauma. Intergenerational trauma refers to the fact that trauma can be passed down from our grandparents to our parents to us. Wolynn explains this phenomenon through the notion of epigenetics, an emerging field which studies how the environment surrounding us impacts the way our genes are expressed. For specificity reasons, this article will begin with a basic elaboration of how epigenetics influences intergenerational trauma and will then delve into the notion of “core language”, and how Wolynn uses it within his therapies. However, Wolynn not only expanded on these notions, but he also focused primarily on how we identify core language, and how gaining awareness of an unconscious unresolved family trauma is the first step to healing, before taking actions to make peace with this.
Bruce Lipton
Wolynn begins the second chapter of his book with radical words, “the history you share with your family begins before you are even conceived.” By this, he refers to the womb. When your mother was pregnant with you, she was not only transmitting nutrients to nourish you, but was also transmitting her fears, worries, joys, and anger – among other emotions – to you. A fetus interacts with its environment, inside the womb, and is impacted by it. To elaborate on this notion, Wolynn discusses the contribution to our genetics developed by Bruce Lipton. He brings to light the fact that our “DNA can be affected by negative and positive thoughts, beliefs, and emotions.” Accordingly, Lipton showcases, based on his dedication to studying cellular processing, that “signals being received from the environment could operate through the cell membranes, controlling the behavioral and physiology of the cell, which in turn could activate or silence a gene.” This process explains how “cellular memory” can be transmitted from mother to unborn child.
We, as individuals, are made up of our genes and experiences, and these two characteristics do interact with one another. This is where the phenomenon of epigenetics stems from. It stipulates that the way a gene is expressed in our physiology is impacted by the environment. It is important to note that our DNA sequence does not change, rather it is only the way that a gene functions that is altered.
Rachel Yehuda
Wolynn brings contributions by Dr. Rachel Yehuda, who is a professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and a specialist in PTSD, to the forefront of the conversation. He explains a study that Yehuda has done on participants who developed PTSD, whereby she studies the cortisol levels in these parents and the children they had.
The cortisol levels in people who have PTSD are generally lower than those without PTSD, due to the irregular fight-or-flight response that they exhibit and the increased emotional response to negative events. The lower-than-usual cortisol levels, however, do not cause PTSD, and PTSD does not “cause” lower cortisol levels – there is only an association between them.
Results in both of the studies conducted show that children of parents with PTSD have the same low cortisol levels of their parents, placing them at higher risk of having PTSD. As such, PTSD is heritable and, according to Yehuda, makes an individual “3 times more likely to experience symptoms of PTSD.” These studies show us, as Wolynn explains, that trauma can be passed down from generation to generation. Wolynn shows how intergenerational trauma is explained by epigenetics and goes further to elaborate on historical examples, where intergenerational trauma was felt. An example he gives is that of the Native Americans, who experience years of genocide and massacres.
As a language specialist, Wolynn delves into the notion of the “core approach” and how he utilizes it in therapy sessions. He believes that the language that we use is very telling of our trauma, and it is this language that he calls the “core language”. Wolynn explains that when we experiencetrauma, this traumatic information gets stored in our nondeclarative memory and basically lets us “retrieve what we have learnt without having to relearn it.” For example, riding a bike or driving a car all are processes we do without actively thinking of them. As such, we are unable to express our language to elaborate what has happened, and so the traumatic memory stays in our nondeclarative memory and becomes an unconscious memory – something that we are not aware of but is there. Wolynn elaborates on this phenomenon to explain that our core language is expressed via our unconscious memory and experiences, and we can read them through certain cues he uses in his therapies. Core language, he goes on to say, is central to expressing these unexpressed and hidden memories.
As a conclusion, the book provides some insight into unconscious traumatic experiences that we may have inherited from our ancestors and explains this phenomenon of heritable trauma through studies from accredited researchers who have looked into epigenetics. His logic and way of thinking may not be a cup of tea, but he does provide some interesting insight into how we are connected to our families in more ways than one and how we can play a role in fixing our relationships with them.