by Diane Rogers, PhD
Lately, the world feels like it’s unraveling. We live in a state of constant bombardment from all-too-frequent news updates on war, environmental crisis, human rights violations, and political upheaval. Is it any wonder so many of us experience a deep, persistent anxiety? But anxiety is more than a reaction to news overload. It is a felt sense in the body—in the tightening of your chest, your racing mind, and the persistent state of hyper-vigilance that keeps you on edge. At its core, anxiety is an emotional response to not feeling safe.
But for those of us whose lives are not facing imminent danger, the relentless sense of foreboding doesn’t make sense. Anxiety is often hard to reconcile when the felt sense of danger has no tangible basis.
From a systemic perspective, what your body senses isn’t always about today’s frightening current events. The anxiety you feel may be the echo of unresolved trauma inherited from generations past.
In systemic and family constellation work, we see again and again that when past trauma remains unacknowledged, it doesn’t disappear. It travels forward and into the nervous systems of children or grandchildren. The experiences of anxiety, depression, chronic disconnection we see today are often less about personal dysfunction and more about the unresolved systemic trauma crying out for attention.
Chronic anxiety can be a sign you are carrying something from the past that doesn’t belong to you.
I once worked with a client consumed by fear. Although she lived a comfortable life, far from any potential threat, she was fixated on negative news reports. She lived in a state of near panic, constantly fearing and fretting for family members near and far. She compulsively shopped for food as though trying to ward off potential starvation. Her anxiety made no rational sense and yet it consumed her daily life. It barraged her mind with unhelpful thoughts and a set off range of dysfunctional beliefs and behaviours that sabotaged her relationships.
Through constellation work, it emerged that her grandfather’s village had been occupied by the Nazi’s during WWII. The terror and hardship he experienced in wartime remained unspoken. Although the grandfather was able to find his way to safety later in Australia, his trauma was still alive in the resonance of the family consciousness. Constellation work helped this client see how her compulsivity and anxiety impacted her current relationships in negative ways. The constellation brought to light that she was carrying anxiety that had roots in a previous generation. This new awareness began to shift her anxiety. Her body and breathing began to soften. Having seen and acknowledged her grandfather’s suffering, her family system could finally exhale.
It’s been said that connection is the antidote to anxiety.
Family Constellation Therapy connects us to the hidden dynamics and emotional patterns in our family systems that keep us stuck. It is deep inner work that returns the traumatic experiences buried deep within the collective family consciousness to their rightful place and restores balance and belonging. Connecting to and acknowledging what happened in our family system means the suffering of our ancestors has not been in vain and can now serve as a guide for future generations from a place of wisdom, not unresolved emotional patterning.
“Trauma is not just an event that took place sometime in the past; it is also the imprint left by that experience on mind, brain, and body.” —Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score
If you’re experiencing high levels of anxiety right now, it’s important to understand that your body’s deep intelligence may be attuned to something hidden—something ready to be seen and resolved.
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