What is Intergenerational Trauma? Signs, Examples, and How to Heal
In therapy, we often sit with people who carry pain they can’t fully explain. Sometimes it shows up as anxiety, deep shame, hypervigilance, or a sense of “something isn’t right,” even when life looks stable on the outside. If this resonates, you are not alone! You are not “broken!” Sometimes what we are feeling is connected not only to our lived experiences, but also to what our families and communities have survived before us.
This is where the concept of intergenerational trauma can help us make meaning of what we’re carrying. Trauma can still “live” in us, although it didn’t start with us.
WHAT IS INTERGENERATIONAL TRAUMA?:
Intergenerational (or transgenerational) trauma refers to the psychological, emotional, social, and sometimes biological effects of trauma that are passed from one generation to the next. This transmission can happen through family environments, learned behaviours, stress responses, and potentially biological pathways linked to stress regulation, also known as epigenetics.
Research suggests that trauma can influence how genes are expressed through epigenetic mechanisms, meaning trauma may affect how our bodies respond to stress without changing DNA itself. Yehuda and Lehrner (2018) describe how severe stress exposure may shape biological stress systems and potentially influence (predispose) future generations’ vulnerability or resilience to trauma.
This research does not mean trauma is destiny; it means environments, relationships, and healing experiences matter deeply and can interrupt cycles of trauma. It’s the age-old argument in Psychology 101: “Nature vs. Nurture.”
TYPES OF INTERGENRATIONAL TRAUMA: Intergenerational trauma can stem from many sources, including…
Colonization and cultural genocide
Slavery and systemic racism
War and displacement
Forced migration or refugee experiences
Family violence or chronic neglect
Poverty and systemic inequities
Community violence
Assimilation
Often, this trauma becomes part of collective memory through shaping identity, parenting patterns, emotional regulation, and worldviews across generations.
INTERGENERATIONAL TRAUMA IN CANADA AND COMMUNITY IMPACTS
Indigenous Communities
In Canada, the residential school system created profound and lasting trauma. Research shows that when previous generations attended residential schools, later generations showed increased risks of distress, poorer mental health, and suicidal behaviours. Research-based evidence also suggests cumulative effects, meaning the more generations affected, the higher the risk for mental health challenges.
This trauma is tied not only to individual experiences but to loss of culture, language, parenting disruption, and community fragmentation, division, and isolation.
Black Communities
Intergenerational trauma in Black communities is deeply linked to histories of slavery, colonialism, segregation, and ongoing systemic racism. These experiences create racial trauma, division, and colourism divide, which leads to the cumulative psychological and physiological impact of chronic discrimination and inequity.
Research in Canada shows:
Racism is strongly linked to mental health disparities and trauma exposure among Black populations.
Children may experience trauma through intergenerational racial stress, direct discrimination, and systemic inequities, which can affect lifelong health.
Other Racialized Communities: Many racialized communities experience intergenerational trauma through…
Immigration stress
War or displacement
Religious or ethnic persecution
Cultural erasure
Ongoing systemic discrimination
These experiences can shape emotional expression, attachment patterns, and help-seeking behaviours across generations.
SIGNS YOU MAY BE EXPERIENCING INTERGENTATIONAL TRAUMA:
Emotional
Chronic anxiety or fear without a clear cause
Shame or guilt that feels “bigger than you.”
Emotional numbness or shutdown
Relational
Fear of abandonment
Difficulty trusting others
Patterns repeating across generations
Behavioural
Hypervigilance or feeling constantly “on edge.”
Over-responsibility or perfectionism
Avoidance of emotions or conflict
Physical / Nervous System
Chronic stress response
Sleep disruption
Unexplained somatic symptoms
Note: These are not character flaws. Often, they are adaptive survival responses learned over generations.
COPING STRATEGIES:
Learn Your Story (At Your Own Pace): Understanding family and community history can create meaning and reduce shame.
Build Safe Relationships: Healing happens in connection. Safe, consistent relationships can reshape stress responses over time. Affirming spaces with cultural insiders can also support community healing.
Regulate the Nervous System: Examples of some grounding techniques include…
Grounding exercises
Breathwork
Movement
Cultural or spiritual practices (e.g., meditation, prayer, fasting, etc.)
Seek Trauma-Informed Therapy: Trauma-informed care acknowledges systemic, cultural, and historical contexts; not just individual symptoms.
Here at Nurish Psychotherapy, our trained and knowledgeable team is here to support clients. Our team consists of a racially and culturally diverse team of therapists, reflective of the diverse needs and communities within our communities.
Reclaim Culture and Identity: For many people, reconnecting with language, culture, community, and spirituality is profoundly healing.
GENTLE REMINDERS:
You are not “too sensitive.” Your nervous system learned what it needed to survive. You can honour your ancestors’ strength and resilience without carrying their pain on your own, because healing is not a betrayal of family or culture; it is a continuation of survival. Cycles truly can change within one generation, and you deserve safety, softness, and support as part of that change.
Remember, intergenerational trauma helps explain why pain can exist without a clear starting point in our own lifetime. The research reminds us that trauma can be transmitted, but so can resilience, healing, and safety. When one person heals, it often ripples forward and backward through generations. If you’re doing this work (even quietly), you are already part of that change.
You are not starting from brokenness. You are starting from survival! You got this!
Here at Nurish Psychotherapy, we celebrate the richness of diversity here in Canada and want to wish all those celebrating in the month of February a Happy Black History Month and a Happy Lunar New Year! Here at Nürish Psychotherapy, we celebrate the richness of diversity here in Canada and want to wish all those celebrating in the month of February a Happy Black History Month and a Happy Lunar New Year!