Therapy for Intergenerational Trauma

Neglect and abuse harm mental and physical health. However, people can be affected by trauma that they didn’t directly experience themselves. If your parents, caregivers, or other relatives went through trauma, or if your community has a history of trauma, this may be affecting your mental health and wellbeing.

A therapist from Toronto Psychotherapy Group can help if you’re curious or worried about how intergenerational trauma might be affecting your life. They can assist you in exploring the effects of family, community, or cultural trauma. Therapy can resource and support your effort to make sense of these transmitted effects and of your personal story.

What Is Intergenerational Trauma?

Intergenerational trauma means that traumatic experiences are passed down through families over time. It’s been documented in groups such as Holocaust survivors, First Nations families, refugees from war and hardship, and migrants, or in any family in which the aftereffects of abuse linger.

Trauma can have long-lasting effects on people, even after the violence, either emotional or physical, has ended. The effects of trauma echo through families after the end of wars and genocides. Some traumas accumulate: there may be racial trauma and other forms of social oppression that persist. Episodes of domestic and interpersonal violence can shadow later generations.

The aftereffects of harm can disrupt our ability to be present and attuned, to love, form relationships, invest in the future, and parent well. Children growing up in these circumstances may sense that something is wrong without fully understanding the reasons behind it.

Long-term effects of such experiences—the essence of intergenerational trauma— include developing symptoms such as:

• Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviours
• Self-harm
• Other adverse outcomes

How Do Psychotherapists Work with Intergenerational Trauma?

When a psychotherapist works with you to explore your experience of lingering trauma, the aim of the process for both of you will be to explore the mysteries of your personal history and context, spoken and unspoken. This is done with gentleness and curiosity. Therapy can offer you ways to understand and therefore contain and cope with any distress you may be feeling.

Seeing a therapist to address transgenerational trauma will involve some of the following:

• Exploring the psychological dimensions and origins of family trauma
• Developing insight and understanding about your emotional triggers
• Building a greater mastery of overwhelming memories and emotions
• Learning about self-esteem and self-care
• Creating a renewed sense of harmony, wholeness, and personal well-being

Resources on Intergenerational Trauma

Read more on understanding intergenerational trauma, including in racialized communities due to historical violence and the ongoing effects of white supremacy.

Read more about intergenerational trauma related to First Nations communities and residential schools.