Staff Council Safe Space Speaker Series

Have you ever wondered to yourself, “Why am I like this?” or “Why does my family have the same problems?” A growing body of research suggests that trauma has the potential to be passed from one generation to the next through epigenetic inheritance. Epigenetics is the study of the biological control mechanisms of DNA, or essentially how or why genes are turned on or off. In addition to the role of epigenetic inheritance, cultural trauma and putative epigenetic mechanisms for the transmission of trauma effects through social mechanisms, intrauterine and gametic pathways also present increased potential for intergenerational trauma.