#496: Healing Inherited Trauma: Mark Wolynn

The Mark Groves Podcast

Mark Groves

Relationships, Society & Culture

4.9 • 5K Ratings

🗓️ 26 January 2026

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode Mark sits down with acclaimed therapist and author of It Didn’t Start With You, Mark Wolynn, to unpack the shocking science and lived reality of inherited trauma. They dive into research showing how war and partner violence can leave epigenetic “fingerprints” across generations, and why so many high-functioning people still wake up with panic, loneliness, or a sense of not being safe, often without knowing why. Learn the powerful “worst fear” question that helps pinpoint whether you’re dealing with attachment trauma or inherited family trauma. This conversation offers a radically clear map for where the pain actually starts and how to finally resolve it. Mark Wolynn (accent on second syllable) is the director of the Family Constellation Institute in San Francisco. He is a leading expert in the field of inherited family trauma. His book It Didn’t Start With You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle is the winner of the 2016 Nautilus Book Award in psychology, and has been translated into 17 languages. His articles have appeared in Psychology Today, Mind Body Green, MariaShriver.com, Elephant Journal and Psych Central, and his poetry has been published in The New Yorker. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/markwolynn Website: https://markwolynn.com/ Workbook: https://amzn.to/468KGZJ —Have a question For Mark to answer on the podcast?https://www.speakpipe.com/TheMarkGrovesPodcast —Have a question for Mark and want an immediate answer? Mark's Dexa page: https://ask.markgroves.com —How are your Nervous System + Attachment Style connected? https://markgroves.com/connectthedots - Subscribe to Mark’s Substack to receive his weekly reflections and insights straight from his heart to your inbox. https://markgroves.substack.com/ —Contact us at podcast@markgroves.com for sponsor product support, questions, comments, or just to say hello! —This episode is sponsored by: Institute for Integrative Nutrition: Certified Health Coach Training: Use code MARKGROVES20 for 20% off ALL courses from IIN & Chopra at http://bit.ly/MARKIIN Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to another episode of the Mark Groves podcast. So today I have a really special guest,
0:07.1	someone that I had on the podcast in August of 2019. And he was someone I was very much excited to
0:16.4	finally get a conversation with because I read his book, it didn't start with you, which is a world-renowned
0:22.3	book on inherited family trauma. And I was really excited to find out that he was releasing an
0:29.2	updated version of it with new data, new information, and new insights. But one thing that I actually
0:35.4	always wanted, Mark, which I feel like you were listening to me in another dimension, is I was like, why doesn't this thing have a workbook?
0:43.9	Like there's so many things I want to explore and go deeper.
0:47.9	And having had the incredible opportunity to become your friend, I've been able to explore the questions that you bring into this
0:56.7	workbook that have provided so much insight for me. You tremendously contributed to the
1:02.1	healing of Kylie and I in our relationship. And yeah, your reputation precedes you. I'm so
1:08.5	honored to be the first of your podcast tours of you coming out
1:14.7	of retirement. So thank you for coming and thanks for being here. And I'm excited to have a
1:19.9	conversation with you. Yeah. Thank you for having me. We were talking in the pre-talk,
1:26.4	pre-interview about how I've been writing and organizing information for years.
1:31.1	And, you know, it goes back to why the new book came out.
1:33.6	There was just so much information that needed to be at it.
1:37.9	You know, when I wrote the first book, which came out in 2016, so it's 10 years now.
1:44.8	Yeah. When I wrote that first book, most of the research had been done with mice, and very little
1:51.5	had been done with humans.
1:53.0	But in the past 10 years, I've been amassing all this new research with humans, and I had
1:58.3	to tell people about it.
1:59.5	So I contacted my editor and said,
	...

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