Research findings from a team at Emory University Medical School provide evidence of “transgenerational epigenetic inheritance” – that environment can affect an individual’s genetics and then be passed on.

As a family therapist I have intuited this often in my consulting room. There are times when a young adult with severe sadness sits with me, and I can sense that the sorrow is somehow lager that she is; it is too big a sorrow for someone that age.  When together we craft a genogram, we can find the relative, sometimes generations back, that bore the original wound.  History, culture, and family intersect to create a transgenerational  pattern – for dealing with fear, or loss,  and even what one dares to hope.  These patterns are born of the narratives that pass from one generation to the next.

For the full BBC article: http://www.bbc.com/news/health-25156510?SThisFB