Escaping the present – trauma’s frozen fight-or-flight legacy 13 May 2026 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Generational trauma , No Comments Whenever I used to call my father, he always began the conversation with the same question: “What’s new?” It’s twenty years since he passed away, yet only now do I see the pain […]
Fear, shame, and irresponsibility – trauma’s three barriers 11 May 2026 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Emotional principles , Generational trauma , No Comments When we recognise trauma in our own lives and choose to engage with healing, we’re immediately confronted by a seemingly unsurmountable obstacle: how do I do it? The trauma—if we […]
Are you and your family running on empty? 11 May 2026 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Generational trauma , No Comments When I was growing up in the 1970s, the songwriter who spoke most powerfully to my sense of abandonment, depersonalisation and disaffection was Jackson Browne. His 1977 live album Running on Empty, recorded […]
You can’t heal a trauma until you learn its lesson 8 May 2026 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Generational trauma , No Comments In my coaching work I encounter clients who want to ‘get rid’ of trauma. The assumption is that it’s much like going to the doctor to ‘get rid’ of an infection: […]
12-Step framework for trauma release 7 May 2026 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Cornerstones , Generational trauma , No Comments Trauma is mechanical. It forms under mechanical conditions and releases under mechanical conditions. The purpose of this 12-step framework is to understand the overarching mechanics of trauma so you can know and work with […]
Trauma-Informed Genitality: healing the sacral centre 6 May 2026 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Cornerstones , Generational trauma , Sexuality , No Comments Human sexuality, in its natural state, is not inherently conflicted, shameful, or fragmented. It is life energy—playful, relational, embodied. Yet if we look honestly at our lived experience, both individually and […]
Trauma-Informed Genealogy: where history and healing meet 29 April 2026 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Generational trauma , No Comments There is a quiet convergence happening that is, as yet, largely unrecognised. On one side are therapists, working with the symptoms of trauma as they appear in the present: anxiety, depression, addiction; stumped by […]
Untold family stories: deliberate silence or dissociation? 28 April 2026 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Generational trauma , No Comments There is a strange silence that runs through many family histories. It appears, at first glance, deliberate: names omitted, events blurred, whole chapters missing. We tend to assume that someone, somewhere, chose not to […]
All trauma is survival trauma 26 April 2026 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Ancestral trauma , Generational trauma , No Comments We tend to think of trauma as something exceptional—something that happens in extreme situations, to other people, at other times. This is a naïve and comforting illusion. Trauma is not the exception. It’s […]
The importance of context in genealogy research 24 April 2026 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Generational trauma , No Comments Context, context, context. When researching our family’s genealogy, we encounter events that are familiar to us today—like births, marriages, and deaths—and other events that are different from the past yet whose context we understand. […]