Generations Deep Quotes

“The path to healing is rarely linear, but it is always worth the trip.”
― Gina Birkemeier, Generations Deep

“No matter how much our parents’ choices aren’t about us, we deeply internalize them. While our head may mature beyond those beliefs, it can be very difficult to get our inner child to catch up and believe the same thing.”
― Gina Birkemeier, Generations Deep: Unmasking Inherited Dysfunction and Trauma to Rewrite Our Stories Through Faith and Therapy

“Her grief over the death of the future she had dreamt of went unexpressed, but never unfelt.”
― Gina Birkemeier, Generations Deep: Unmasking Inherited Dysfunction and Trauma to Rewrite Our Stories Through Faith and Therapy

“When a person feels unseen or unheard for a long time, it’s inevitable that the one who finally helps them feel known becomes important. It is the truest act of intimacy to help someone feel fully known and fully loved.”
― Gina Birkemeier, Generations Deep: Unmasking Inherited Dysfunction and Trauma to Rewrite Our Stories Through Faith and Therapy

“We either pass on our healing, or we pass on our hurting.”
― Gina Birkemeier, Generations Deep: Unmasking Inherited Dysfunction and Trauma to Rewrite Our Stories Through Faith and Therapy

“in families, what is left unrepaired tends to be repeated.”
― Gina Birkemeier, Generations Deep: Unmasking Inherited Dysfunction and Trauma to Rewrite Our Stories Through Faith and Therapy

“Could it be that what we perceive as a threat in this verse is actually a reminder that we are integrated beings; the spiritual impacts the emotional impacts the physical impacts the mental impacts the spiritual, beginning long before we took our first breath? Perhaps this message is the ultimate expression of loving guidance. An Omniscient warning to pay attention to more than just the present. Because the reality is that what came before us will play out in the here-and-now. Maybe this warning is telling us to take caution with how we live and whether we choose to heal, because the One giving the warning knows it will impact not only us, but also those who come after us, and those who come after them… to the third and fourth generations.”
― Gina Birkemeier, Generations Deep: Unmasking Inherited Dysfunction and Trauma to Rewrite Our Stories Through Faith and Therapy

“The sins of the father are visited upon future generations…”
EXODUS 34:7 Oh, how I used to hate this verse. I once had a client tell me that she hated it, too. It made her think of an-impossible-to-please, vengeful god. A god she wanted no part of. I completely understood, because for a big part of my life, I agreed with her. But then one day, a different perspective on this controversial verse presented itself to me. One that I shared with my client. It’s one I would like to share with you, too. What if this verse is not some warning of wrath from a vengeful, punitive deity? What if this verse is not talking about something God does to us, but rather something we do to ourselves—and to each other? What if this verse is actually a compassionate, albeit cryptic, warning? Perhaps it is a rallying cry to get us to show up and own our crap; to heal and to grow, and to set future generations up to do the same. What if this verse is a plea from on High to recognize our choices can set off ripple effects that are far beyond our understanding and that our choices influence the future beyond what we are able to recognize in the tangible, relational realms. And what if this ominous, poetic warning is really pointing us toward something much more scientific and even holistic? What if it’s a proof-text that we are incapable of living compartmentalized lives—that every part of us is inextricably connected to the other, not only within our own lives, but in all the lives that lead up to our existence? What if the ripples set in motion by those who have gone before us cast destructive waves upon the present and have potential to reach into future generations, unless there is some intervention?”
― Gina Birkemeier, Generations Deep: Unmasking Inherited Dysfunction and Trauma to Rewrite Our Stories Through Faith and Therapy