The Science of Intergenerational Trauma

with Dr Deba Choudhury

Deba defines trauma, from “big T” to “little t”, and how it differs from stress, then sets out the symptoms of PTSD and complex PTSD and the signs to look for when trauma runs in a family. She walks through the research — from Holocaust survivor studies and Rachel Yehuda’s work on cortisol to the Dutch famine — alongside the neuroscience of the vagus nerve and the developing brain, and the epigenetics of how trauma can leave its mark across three generations. A case study and a mindful breathing exercise bring it home.

• What trauma is, and how it differs from stress
• The symptoms of PTSD, complex PTSD and intergenerational trauma
• The research showing how trauma passes between generations
• How epigenetics and the nervous system carry the past

with Dr Deba Choudhury

Before any deeper work comes stabilisation. Deba guides you through reflective questions about your own story and your family’s, and explains what triggers are, what happens in the brain when we’re triggered, and why they’re part of healing. She then teaches the skills that keep you steady — self-care through diet, movement, sleep and routine; grounding in the here and now, with a guided exercise; and self-soothing through breathing, connection and play.

• Reflective questions to make sense of your family’s story
• What triggers are, and why they matter for healing
• Self-care foundations: gut health, sleep, movement and routine
• Grounding and self-soothing techniques, with guided practice

with Dr Deba Choudhury

Deba explains where our behaviours come from, using the polyvagal ladder and Dan Siegel’s window of tolerance, then shows how to map problems and triggers with a CBT diary and a “hot cross bun” formulation. From there it’s practical: behavioural activation, challenging avoidance and other unhelpful patterns, the cycle of change, problem-solving and behavioural experiments — ending with healthy boundaries and ways to connect with family, living and past.

• How the nervous system shapes what we do
• Formulating your problems with CBT tools
• Behavioural activation, problem-solving and behavioural experiments
• Drawing healthy boundaries without building walls

with Dr Deba Choudhury

This module turns to thinking: the neuroscience of cognition, common unhelpful thinking styles such as catastrophising and “shoulds and musts”, and the family messages and beliefs we may be carrying without realising they aren’t ours. Deba teaches CBT thought challenging, the responsibility pie, a Leaves on the Stream imagery exercise and more, and closes with a new case study showing how schema therapy flashcards work.

• Spotting unhelpful thinking styles in yourself
• Telling apart your beliefs and your family’s
• CBT thought challenging and imagery techniques
• How schema flashcards help update an old stress response

with Dr Deba Choudhury

The final module explores emotions — why anxiety, anger and sadness exist, how an old, inherited wound can be reactivated, and what keeps difficult feelings going. Deba teaches distress tolerance (“you’ve got to feel it to heal it”), draws on Ed Tronick’s still face experiment, and gives a step-by-step approach to emotional distress, with guided exercises in mindfulness and compassion, including a “perfect nurturer” visualisation.

• Why difficult emotions are useful, and never permanent
• How inherited wounds get triggered again
• Distress tolerance: staying with feelings rather than fighting them
• Compassion-focused exercises for emotional healing