We were really mindful of what we had because my grandma and my great grandparents didn’t have a lot. That history definitely impacted how my mom managed our finances and resources. My great grandparents made very little and raised what they ate so they did not have much. Things she’s taught us and my mother, affected how my mom raised me, and how my siblings and I interact. My grandma has passed, but we often think about how my grandma’s experience impacted us growing up. So the trauma my grandmother experienced and the behaviors and attitudes she learned to cope with that trauma have trickled down to my mom and down to my siblings and I.Ī: As a family we talk about this kind of stuff all the time. Once my great grandfather died they were asked to leave. So they lived on property owned by someone else and tended the fields, raised animals for food, and picked cotton and peanuts. Lacking capital and land of their own, former slaves were forced to work for large landowners. My great grandparents were sharecroppers. In Black culture, there are a multitude of traumas that would lead to intergenerational trauma. The behaviors of children of those that have experienced trauma are based on the parenting and attachment styles that were experienced many, many generations before. Some of these constructs have led to symptoms such as denial, agitation, anxiety, depression, mistrust, and guilt. These traumatic experiences continue to have a direct correlation to the mental health and well-being of their children. For indigenous people, for instance, the trauma of being enslaved and losing property and freedom and various other experiences has created a typical type of conscience for members of that population living today. Ezelle, who is African American herself, works with members at our Google site in Seattle.Ī: Intergenerational trauma refers to the ways in which trauma experienced in the past can impact the health and well-being of future generations, trickling down to family members. With July being Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, we sat down with Mental Health Specialist Sherese Ezelle, LMHC to discuss the impact of intergenerational trauma on people of color and their health. This theory that trauma can pass down from one generation to the next is known as intergenerational trauma. Likewise, several studies of Native American populations have found that decades of assimilation, violence, and loss have been associated with behavioral health challenges in later generations including increased risk of substance abuse, depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. One study, for instance, found that the grandchildren of Holocaust survivors were overrepresented by about 300% in referrals to psychiatric care. And while legislation has since been created to protect the rights and freedom of these populations, the impact of these traumas continues to be felt to this day. From colonization and mass genocide to land displacement and slavery, the list goes on and on. “I think the essence of healing has been the effort to rewrite that narrative to something more loving, forgiving and kind.Throughout history, minority groups have endured a multitude of severe traumas and discrimination. “My mother’s voice saying, ‘You’re worthless, you’re unlovable, you’re stupid,’ ” she said. Reframing: Foo said it was important to reframe the damaging stories she’d been fed as a child.Increasingly, expressive arts therapies employing movement, music or visual arts, are being used to help patients find more adaptive ways to cope, said Cécile Rêve, co-founder of ARTrelief, a center that provides these arts-based therapies. Mind-body therapy: Somatic, or body-based therapies such as yoga, have been found to be effective for trauma.A patient may have internalized the belief they’re not good enough, “but upon unpacking it, they can see how their parents’, and maybe even their parents’ parents’, constant criticisms and lack of warmth or praise is the source of this belief.” Awareness: Jason Wu, a Bay Area psychologist and child of refugee parents, said the first step is building awareness.
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