What is Intergenerational Trauma? How does it effect me?

What is Intergenerational Trauma - Could It Be Affecting You Without You Knowing It? 

Have you ever felt like you’re carrying a weight that isn’t entirely yours? Like the fear, anxiety, or anger you’re experiencing is bigger than your own life experiences? If so, you’re not alone and this might be a sign that you are experiencing the effects of intergenerational trauma. 

So, What is Intergenerational Trauma and How Can It Be Inherited?

Intergenerational trauma is the passing down of the emotional, psychological, and physical effects of trauma from one generation to the next. It comes in various forms. It starts when a parent, grandparent, or when a whole community has gone through significant traumatic experiences. The unhealed effects of that trauma influences the future generations such as their children and grandchildren. Trauma isn’t only shared through stories and memories, it can also be passed down to generations in various ways.

• Learned Behaviors and Coping Mechanisms - for example, a parent who experienced severe loss might become emotionally distant, overprotective, or quick to anger, which shapes their child’s development. 

• Family dynamics and attachment styles - trauma can disrupt trust, safety, and communication in relationships especially, in BIPOC families that come from collectivist cultures. There are higher conflicts that occur since those families are more connected and enmeshed. 

• Cultural and systemic factors - ongoing discrimination, loss of culture, or poverty can compound the effects. Whether that’s from violence against your culture or religion within your country of origin or after immigrating to another country where you are discriminated against or oppressed. 

• Biological factors - research suggests trauma can also affect stress hormones and even gene expression (epigenetics), influencing how future generations respond to stress.

Where Does Intergenerational Trauma Come From?

War/Political Conflict 

Families fleeing war or persecution often lose their homes, land, culture, and social networks. Parents who survived these events may still carry unresolved emotional trauma - feelings of fear, grief, or hypervigilance - that shape how they respond to stress and danger. Children often learn how to handle stressful or unsafe situations by watching their parents. If a parent is struggling with anxiety, distrust, emotional numbness, or other effects of trauma, their children may internalize these patterns. Over time, this can make it harder for the next generation to feel safe, regulate emotions or cope with challenges, even in situations where there is no immediate danger.

Healing from intergenerational trauma caused by war and political conflict begins with recognizing that the fear, hypervigilance, silence, or emotional numbness we may carry often started long before us. Many families who have lived through war, displacement, or political violence survived by suppressing emotions, staying quiet, and focusing on safety—and those survival strategies are often passed down to children and grandchildren.

Healing involves both personal and collective work: learning your family's history, understanding how it shaped your identity, and making space for the grief and resilience that come with it. Therapy—especially trauma-informed or culturally-sensitive approaches—can help unpack inherited beliefs and emotional patterns. Community healing spaces, storytelling, and connecting with others from similar backgrounds can offer comfort and validation.

Genocide/Colonization

Genocide and colonization often involve erasing languages, traditions, and spiritual practices. Later generations may feel disconnected from their roots or identity, leading to shame, confusion, or grief about “not belonging”. These traumas often leave communities economically disadvantaged or politically marginalized. Later generations still face racism, discrimination, or poverty, which reinforces the original wounds and keeps the cycle of trauma alive. 

For example, in the past, Indigenous communities in Canada continued to experience intergenerational trauma due to colonization and residential schools. The goal of these schools was to forcefully assimilate Indigenous peoples into Western culture in hopes of erasing Indigenous identity and traditions. Many Indigenous children faced physical and psychological abuse in those schools and were taken away from their families. According to Statistics Canada (2022), Indigenous adults are twice more likely to face mental health challenges, substance abuse problems, and higher risk of suicide, homelessness, and economic instability compared to non-Indigenous peoples (Iman Dar et al., 2025). 

To begin healing, many turn to reclaiming cultural practices, languages, and ancestral knowledge that were once taken or suppressed. Therapy—especially with practitioners who understand cultural trauma—can help unpack internalized shame, grief, and disconnection. Community spaces that center cultural pride and collective healing are also vital; they remind us that we are not alone and that resilience lives in our bloodlines too. 

Source: Socioeconomic and health outcomes among Indigenous people aged 15 years and older who were under the legal responsibility of the government as children. Statcan.gc.ca. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/41-20-0002/412000022025001-eng.htm?utm

Immigration and Migration

Although Immigration and Migration are seen as an opportunity to progress for a better life, it is also difficult to manage the emotional cost that comes with it. For many families, especially refugees and forced migrants, they don’t have a choice but to flee their home countries due to economic or political instability. When we think of immigration or migration, it’s imagined as people moving from one country to another, but it’s much more complex than that. Many people are separated from their loved ones, land, language, culture, community, and even identity. 

The process of adjusting to a new country often comes with immense stress, fear, financial hardship, language barriers, and the painful experience of racism or exclusion. For immigrant parents, survival often meant sacrificing their own well-being, working multiple jobs, suppressing emotions, and clinging tightly to cultural values out of fear of losing their identity. These pressures can shape parenting styles that prioritize discipline, resilience, or silence over emotional expression or softness. While these responses are often rooted in love and protection, they can also unintentionally pass down fear, anxiety, or emotional distance to children. Kids growing up in these households may internalize the pressure to succeed, avoid vulnerability, or struggle with a sense of belonging in both cultures. Without space to process this inherited stress, the cycle continues across generations

Recognizing this context is a key step toward compassion and healing—understanding that these patterns come from survival, but breaking them is how we begin to truly thrive.

Family Conflict

Children may absorb the tension, fear, or instability in their environment and internalize these experiences, shaping how they relate to themselves and others. In many BIPOC families, especially those rooted in collectivist cultures, family conflict can carry unique weight and complexity. These cultures often prioritize family unity, loyalty, and respect for elders—values that can sometimes make it difficult to openly address conflict or emotional pain. Instead of expressing their emotions and issues that come up, family members may feel pressure to remain silent to "keep the peace" or avoid shame. This leads to a lack of boundaries, being disrespected, used, and insulted, and we still go back and act like nothing happened. This can be very frustrating, confusing, and makes it hard for children in those families to learn how to set boundaries in relationships as they grow older.

Sometimes we are speaking to certain aunts/uncles/cousins and sometimes we are cutting them off. The conflict rises and it becomes awkward and tense seeing each other in public or family gatherings. Rather than talking about the issues, our families may have a strong ego and decide just not to speak to each other for years and then start speaking like nothing happened. Usually these are common cycles that have happened for generations.

Over time, this can lead to repeated cycles of mistrust, emotional distance, lack of boundaries, or even silence around painful events. The emotional burden of past generations continues to influence future ones, often showing up as anxiety, depression, or difficulties in relationships and speaking up about your emotions.

Healing in this context often requires balancing cultural values with new ways of understanding and expressing pain, allowing space for truth-telling, boundaries, and compassion without abandoning the collective.