Emotional Inheritance is a beautiful, illuminating, and transformative book. While everyone is carrying generational trauma somehow, secrets that are passed down, and hidden histories, this book focuses on the big and the small. Dr. Galit Atlas takes you along with incredible stories of her patients, sharing the hard things they have been dealing with. She gives them space to process their families' trauma and gives them courage and permission to grieve. Through stories of the Holocaust, Israeli Veterans, loss, love, and forgotten memories, Dr. Atlas encouraged us to understand, feel, and grow.

Everyone can benefit from this book regardless of if you have known trauma, religious trauma, or dark family secrets.

Emotional Inheritance by Galit Atlas address the trauma that is talked about the least but possibly experienced the most. Atlas shares through her work with her clients, and the life that she has lived how family secrets and the trauma from our ancestors are passed along through generations. The book is beautifully written, with enough diverse case studies shared that you will begin to think of your own family secrets and what you have emotionally inherited. The author is a therapist, yet opens up about her own emotional trauma in her history and in her present life that shows her vulnerability, relatedness and how much she is invested in her clients.
A great addition to anyone’s collection when it comes to healing and personal growth.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Little, Brown Spark for this ARC.

I really enjoyed this book, particularly the emphasis on immigrants and the generational impacts that can have in trauma. I do wish this book included more about concepts and theories surrounding inter generational trauma. I was looking for stories that were more closely connected to the client stories. Dr. Galit Atlas includes stories with so much detail you truly feel connected to her clients. As a future therapist, I enjoyed the emphasis and expression of the therapeutic relationships in this book.

“This book was born on the couch, in the intimate dialogue between my patients and me. With their permission, it introduces their emotional inheritance, unthinkable trauma, and hidden truths, as well as my own, as we move beyond the legacy of trauma. I explore feelings that are forbidden, memories that our minds forget or trivialize, and pieces of our history that our loyalty to those we love doesn’t always allow us to truly know or remember. Each story presents its own unique way of examining the past while looking forward to the future. When we are ready to unpack out inheritance, we are able to confront the ghosts we carry within.”
This book is beautifully written, Dr. Atlas does a wonderful job bringing you into her office with her. Every story that she writes about I related to in some way. It makes you really see the complexity of trauma and the family dynamic. Every person on this Earth deals with something and this book really shows even if you think you have “dealt” with that something you probably haven’t and it is so much deeper. Loved it.

A fascinating look at the effect of inter generational trauma. There are often parodies or at least a scoffing at the idea of a therapist saying “tell me about your childhood”, as if every problem being dealt with today has an origin in our childhood. Dr Atlas helps her readers to understand why this is often the case. So much of the way we were raised and then subsequently raise our our children is based on how circumstances were addressed by our parents and even grandparents.
There were a lot of academic references which were probably deemed necessary to provide further authenticity but at times were distracting and stopped the flow of the narrative.

This book was extremely interesting which focuses on ourselves. Why is it difficult to connect? Why do you feel angry, abandoned and insecure? Why is it painful to talk about the past?

"Every family carries some history of trauma." Galit Atlas has spent years studying how our ancestors' trauma is passed down as an emotional inheritance - leaving those in the present to figure out why it is that some individuals might be having a bad day based on elements of trust, disappointment, a loud room, poverty and so much more. It's not a long book but it's a slow read as it takes time to digest the contents.

For the author, "Research is me-search....it is our quest to understand and heal ourselves and the people that raised us." That's why she has dedicated many years to help herself and others as a therapist to bring them back to life. She opens up with pieces of her personal life to emphasize the meaning. The book weaves in dialogues she has had with patients revealing parts that may be similar to each one of own lives. She adds however, that often it is the parents that need the most help. She notes as children we experience our parents fears and inherit them.

There are three parts to the book: grandparents inherited trauma, our parents hidden realities and the scars from our childhood emotional stress. This book may need to be read over and over again to grasp the deep elements presented within the pages. She presents the material in a way that keeps you interested with each chapter. It's not scientific and full of charts. It's based on real stories. Highly recommended.

My thanks to Galit Atlas, Little, Brown Spark and NetGalley for allowing me to read this advanced copy to be released on January 25, 2022.

Emotional Intelligence is fascinating to say the least. I've always had a keen interest in this idea that we carry the traumas of others deep within us — but my knowledge on the subject was surface level and very limited. Until I read this book, I had no idea just how much past trauma can affect future generations.

In her intro, Dr. Galit Atlas states that the book "is about silenced experiences that belong not only to us but also to our parents, grandparents and great grandparents." She also mentions the effects of intergenerational trauma when it comes to physical and mental health, mentioning that it highly affects these areas.

The book is nicely laid out, split into three parts, each one blending seamlessly together. I think the fact that it's sectioned so well makes this a good one to dip in and out of over time, allowing the reader to peak into each deeply thought provoking chapter and taking away the knowledge they desire at the times they want or need it most.

Each chapter and case study is deeply layered and completely filled with wisdom, with Dr. Atlas so clearly versed on trauma and its effects. Not every case study will resonate with you, but there's definitely something to learn and take away from each one.

Some chapters resonated with me more than others. I felt completely captivated by the chapter 'Sex, Suicide and the Riddle of Grief.' In this chapter, the author talks in depth about the effects of suicide on future generations. When I think of suicide, I've always seen it as something that might affect immediate family members but I never thought that the result of a previous generation's act of suicide might result in you yourself experiencing suicidal ideation.

Dr. Atlas states "some lives, some loves, some races, sexual orientations are seen as less valuable or not recognized as lives at all," and uses homosexuality as an example. As a gay male previously diagnosed with complex PTSD, I found this section particularly eye-opening.

Part three was probably the one that resonated with me the most. It's about "the secrets we keep from ourselves" and breaking the cycle.

The author revealed a much more human side of herself in this part of the book which makes her more relatable to readers. I think we often (me at least) see our therapists through only a professional lens but Galit is completely raw and vulnerable in this section which is admirable. A reminder that our therapists are also human.

To conclude, Emotional Inheritance made for an absolutely fascinating read, and I closed its pages with a wealth of knowledge but also with a lot of questions to ask myself. I found it challenging to sleep the night I read it as I mulled over the various case studies in the book, but also the trauma that I am carrying deep within myself that has held me back from experiencing life fully. Trauma that may have been passed to me from previous generations, and trauma that I do not want to pass along.

I highly recommend this book if your life has been personally affected by trauma, or if you have an interest in learning more about intergenerational trauma. It's well written and highly researched and makes for a great addition to any bookshelf.

Written by a prominent NY analyst, this exploration of trauma focuses on generational patterns in families that replicate through decades. It combines examples from her practice along with examples from her own life. She immigrated from the Middle East and the horrific history of Holocaust, war, religious persecution and danger throughout her life formed the person she has become.

She uses patients' generational histories and major traumas that affected families- death of a child, abandonment, secrets, addictions- bringing them to the problems they face currently. The message is that only when we deal with that which has been hidden from us, and bring it to consciousness, can we overcome the issues that plague us.