IT DIDN’T START WITH YOU:
How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle (Viking/Penguin)

Winner of the 2016 Silver Nautilus Book Award
in Psychology

Learn how the traumas of our parents, grandparents, and even great grandparents can live in our unexplained depression, anxiety, fears, phobias, obsessive thoughts and physical symptoms—what scientists are now calling “secondary PTSD.” Documenting the latest epigenetic research—how traumatic memories are transmitted through chemical changes in DNA—and the latest advances in neuroscience and the science of language, It Didn’t Start With You is an accessible and pragmatic guide to breaking inherited family patterns. Read more

Unconsciously, we relive our mother’s anxiety. We repeat our father’s disappointments. We replicate the failed relationships of our parents or grandparents.

Just as we inherit our eye color and blood type, we also inherit the residue from traumatic events that have taken place in our family. While our physical traits are easily discernible, this emotional legacy is often hidden from us. Anxiety, fear, financial worries, depression, illness and unhappy relationships can all be forms of our unconscious inheritance. Unresolved traumas, some going back two or three generations, can ensnare us in feelings and situations that don’t even belong to us. They can forge a blueprint for our life, and can even pass onto our children. It doesn’t have to continue. It can end here. Start by answering these questions.

What People Say:

“Thank you so much for sharing such a powerful, transformative workshop with our students. Two of our staff members who participated said it was the best workshop they’ve ever taken here. They also deeply appreciated the time you took after the workshop to continue to answer their questions.”

~Sandy Levine, Program Director of The New York Open Center

“His unique approach has enhanced my own exponentially beyond any other method I previously employed. Mark’s uncanny ability to uncover the essential dynamics operating beneath physical complaints is nothing short of miraculous. His technique enables a radical shift in perspective for both patients as well as for practitioners.”

~Dr. Bruce Hoffman – Hoffman Centre for Integrative Medicine

“I heard absolutely excellent things about your workshop. I am chagrined, once again, that I had to miss it, but was gratified to hear that others found it to be not only useful but deeply transformative. It sounds like you bring a very unique, valuable, and grounded voice to this work. I feel like we are really fortunate to be able to provide a platform for bringing your work to our community!”

~Clara Lindstrom, Programs Associate, California Institute of Integral Studies

“As medical doctors, we often treat the symptom. I’ve witnessed Mark identify the pattern and treat the cause.”

~Dr. Russ Kennedy – The Anxiety MD

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