The Trauma Effect by Zetta Thomelin BLOG TOUR #TheTraumaEffect @ZettaThomelin @RandomTTours #BookExtract

 

The Trauma Effect is a deeply moving and disturbing book that reveals in the most dramatic terms a family secret, a trauma, a tragedy that destroyed a family. This compelling and deeply poignant book exposes uncomfortable truths and traces a journey of recovery.

Trauma can leave an entire family with an inheritance of guilt, blame and shame, which can be absorbed unconsciously by descendants down the ages. This book shows how such learned trauma can be extinguished, so the next generation does not have to carry the burden of it too. The Trauma Effect highlights the urgent need to act, to grasp the skeleton, take it out of the closet and bury it once and for all.

This expanded second edition contains new approaches to understanding the response to trauma, a more detailed self-help section at the end of the book and more revelations around the family secret.

The Trauma Effect (Second Edition): Exploring and Resolving Inherited Trauma by Zetta Thomelin was published by Grosvenor House Publishing on 30 October 2025. I am delighted to share an extract from the book with you today as part of this #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour 

Extract from The Trauma Effect by Zetta Thomelin 

 

I wonder if there is a trauma tucked away in your family?

It could be your own experience, or something that has affected someone else, even from long ago.

Trauma will often ripple out into a family and affect far more than those directly involved, creating a problem that can last generations.

There is a trauma in my family, a hidden trauma.

I wanted to know more about it. I wanted to shine a light on what had remained concealed beneath a shroud of shame and consider the ways it may have affected me. This book reflects that journey from its first tentative steps to ultimately, a deep sense of resolution and understanding.

I am telling you my story both to understand it better and to help you to understand yours.

Much has been written about the impact of trauma, but when I began to investigate the idea of generational trauma - the trauma within families that, in effect, gets handed down from one generation to another, and so on - I realised at once that there was much less written about that. The old skeleton in the family cupboard which nobody can talk about can have a huge impact on the health of a family both physical and psychological. This is trauma that is subconsciously gifted to you, so you

are not necessarily aware that it is impacting on you, especially if the trauma happened before you were born.

At first, I began writing about generational trauma so I could understand it better for myself. But I soon realised that I wanted to create something readable and relatable to help other people, too, understand this concept of trauma passing down through generations, to help them to halt it and encourage them to address their family issues. I felt well placed to turn my work into something to help others.

As a therapist, having worked with trauma across a range of areas with my clients, telling my own story is somewhat exposing, and many therapists would shy away from such public scrutiny. But if this book helps someone else out there, even if it is just one person, then it has all been worthwhile.

Storytelling is a highly effective way to communicate ideas and to affect healing. I wanted to integrate this within a therapeutic journey. It is like one giant case study which can provide insight upon the subject for anyone who has experienced trauma or wishes to understand it more.

This book falls naturally into parts. I begin with the myth of the story in my family as I thought it to be and my perception of the impact it had on the different members of my family.

I then look for the real facts of the story for the first time, to show how stories can get altered and twisted, it can be very hard to step over a boundary of secrecy that has been there for a long time. To prevent the story I tell at the start of the book being influenced by the new information, I wrote the first part of the book before investigating the true story, so the truth really was a surprise to me, a real awakening and you experience that awakening with me.

I go on to examine the idea of generational trauma, epigenetics and the mind body connection to see how trauma may affect people, then I look at some therapeutic ideas to help, so you share my journey. The ideas presented can, I believe, be adapted to cover all kinds, and depths, of family trauma.

Zetta Thomelin - June 2023

Zetta Thomelin is a therapist in private practice, involved in the governance of
complementary medicine as Chair of BAThH, as Vice-Chair of UKCHO and as a Trustee of Research Council for Complementary Medicine

Prior to her career in therapy, she worked in the media at News International and Chronos Group Publishing and later in the Third Sector as CEO of Children with AIDS Charity and Vice Chair of Mama Biashara.

She is the author of two other books, The Healing Metaphor and Self-Help? Self-Hypnosis! 

For further information go to www.zettathomelin.com