The crises we are confronting today are like the tip of the iceberg. Beneath the social injustices, ecological destruction and spiritual malaise of our time are huge storehouses of unresolved trauma passed on through our bodies and through our “cultural DNA”, creating ongoing and repetitive patterns of despair, oppression, and fragmentation. Similar to the ways that PTSD can wreak havoc on individuals, the trauma of mass events like genocide, slavery, and the brutalization of groups of people, carries with it disruptive impacts on both personal and cultural wholeness that get passed down for generations. Whether it is termed “collective PTSD” or “soul wounding” the need to address the shadows of historical trauma is an urgent one.
