Trauma is the experience or the experiences that an individual goes through in their life that put them at risk of serious harm (e.g. mental, emotional, and/or physical). Some common sources of trauma are:

● Childhood abandonment/neglect/abuse
● Domestic violence
● Living with a parent who misuses alcohol and/or drugs.
● Natural disasters
● Rape
● Severe illness or injury
● The death of a loved one
● Witnessing an act of violence

Generational trauma, is an ideology that views the psychological effects of trauma being transferred from one generation to the next generation and so on. Multi-generational trauma is a traumatic event that began decades prior to the current generation and has impacted the ways in which individuals within a family understand, cope with, and heal from trauma.

Trauma is often left out of the conversation. This is because many times we don’t recognize it as such. We struggle with the effects, and former generations did as well. The events may be so devastating that we end up pushing them down out of awareness and we want to avoid the subject at all cost. Other times we invalidate our experience by telling ourselves things like “Maybe I’m exaggerating”. “I should get past this, after all I am the only one to blame for the partner I chose”. “This happened to other family members and they seem fine.” These cycles or patterns of thinking leave us with unhealed deep emotional wounds. These thoughts are one of the most tragic things we can do to ourselves, we question our own story and invalidate our own hurts and wounds.

Together we can help you live your story with hope and courage. By fully embracing our stories and our pasts, we can chose to end cycles of grief and trauma.