Family wounds are caused by unresolved trauma in the family lineage, inherited down the generations, creating patterns of behavior and disruption.
Examples of inherited family wounds are: great-great grandfather squanders all the family wealth leaving his wife and children with nothing and this pattern is repeated sporadically down the generations; great grandmother gives up her child through adoption and the issue is never talked about, thereby making that child ‘excluded’ from the family soul - this creates a pattern of one family member being excluded down the generations; grandfather is taught growing up that he is only lovable by what he can do for his parents - he is not loved for simply being their son - and this 'only accepted for what we can do' pattern is repeated two generations later in the granddaughter with her own father.