Breaking the Cycle—How Parents Can End Generational Trauma from Repressed Emotions

As Featured in the Los Angeles Tribune:

By Angela Legh

This week in my column on Unfiltered Parenting for the Los Angeles Tribune, I explore how unresolved emotional patterns echo across generations, and the generational trauma is handed down. I also explored what parents can do to interrupt that cycle. Here’s a glimpse:

The Cost of Repressed Emotions

Repressed feelings—anger, fear, sadness—don’t just vanish; they morph into stress, anxiety, and even chronic illness. As the American Psychological Association notes, suppressing emotions can cause serious long-term harm to both your mind and body. And yet, most of us only learned emotional coping mechanisms from our parents that are repressive, to numb, forget, or suppress.

How Trauma Travels Across Generations

When parents hold onto unprocessed emotions, children may feel the ripple through communication, behaviors, and unspoken silences. Studies show families with traumatic histories are more likely to pass emotional and behavioral challenges down to their children.

Four Ways to Break the Pattern

1. Model Emotional Awareness: Open conversations about feelings, what you feel and how you express it. Help your kids find their own words.
2. Seek Support: Therapy or counseling gives you tools to unpack emotional blocks safely.
3. Prioritize Self-Care: Breathwork, movement, hobbies, these aren’t luxuries, they’re lifelines. And when you model self-care, your children value its importance.
4. Educate and Advocate: Learn how repression affects families, and speak up about emotional wellness in your community

Looking Ahead

Breaking emotional cycles isn’t easy, but it’s profoundly worth it. When parents do the internal work, they not only heal themselves, they also give their children a new legacy of emotional freedom and connection.

👉 Read the full article here: [LA Tribune: Breaking the Cycle]

Your Invitation

Have you noticed emotional patterns that echo across generations in your family? What helped you confront or shift them? I’d love to hear your experiences. Please share in the comments below.