[Content Warning]: discussions of childhood sexual abuse, addiction and substance use, and generational family trauma.
What if the trauma you're carrying didn't start with you? In this episode of Trauma Interrupted, host Jan Broberg sits down with Lisa Arrigo, a licensed clinical social worker with 30 years in private practice, to unpack the science and lived experience of intergenerational trauma.
Lisa explains how trauma can leave measurable marks on our biology, pointing to Dr. Rachel Yehuda's research on Holocaust survivors and their descendants, and why understanding epigenetics offers real hope, not just theory, for breaking painful family cycles. She and Jan talk about why talk therapy alone often isn't enough, how the body holds what the mind can't always name, and why modalities like EMDR, somatic experiencing, and Internal Family Systems (IFS) exist alongside traditional talk therapy.
Drawing on her own family history and decades treating trauma and addiction, Lisa walks through the window of tolerance, why addiction is almost always a trauma response rather than a character flaw, and how complex PTSD can fragment a person into different “parts.” She and Jan also talk candidly about shame, vulnerability, and why curiosity, not perfection, is the real doorway to healing.
This conversation is equal parts science lesson and permission slip: permission to feel what's in your body, to ask for help, and to believe that whatever was passed down to you doesn't have to be passed any further.
If you or someone you know is experiencing emotional distress or suicidal ideation, please access the resources below:
National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Call/Text 988 National Sexual Assault Hotline (RAINN) : 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) National Alliance for Mental Illness: 1-800-950-6264
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