By Eric M. Brown, Photo: Keira Burton/Pexels, Psychology Today, March 16, 2022
One of the gifts of therapy is being able to understand one’s life within context. To begin to see the seemingly random occurrences of pain, poor personal choices, and disappointing relationships as a coherent narrative. Perhaps the most important task of therapy is to help a client see that their lives make sense. I have found that helping clients understand intergenerational trauma is key to helping them make sense of what may feel like fragmented pieces of their story.
Intergenerational trauma
Trauma occurs when a person suffers intense emotional pain or a threat to their life or sense of safety to such an extent that it overwhelms their ability to cope. We often think of trauma as occurring from catastrophic or violent events. But researchers have found that daily accumulations of stress, like repeated experiences of racism, can result in traumatic symptoms that are detrimental to one’s physical, mental, and emotional health.
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