Trauma and Healing (University of Minnesota)

Genocide. Slavery. Forced relocation. Destruction of cultural practices.

These experiences, shared by communities, can result in cumulative emotional and psychological wounds that are carried across generations. Researchers and practitioners call this concept historical trauma.

The effects of the traumas inflicted on groups of people because of their race, creed, and ethnicity linger on the souls of their descendants. As a result, many people in these same communities experience higher rates of mental and physical illness, substance abuse, and erosion in families and community structures. The persistent cycle of trauma destroys family and communities and threatens the vibrancy of entire cultures.

Historical trauma is not just about what happened in the past. It's about what's still happening.

Video discussion questions

These questions are meant as discussion starters following viewing of the video above. These are not meant as a comprehensive list; rather, they provide a variety of starter questions that facilitators may choose from and, as appropriate, add in additional questions specific to the field in which they work.

In this brief three-part video series, you can learn about:

1. What is historical trauma? 

   • Historical trauma is “a constellation of characteristics associated with massive cumulative group trauma across generations” (Brave Heart, 1999).

   • Video
   • Discussion Questions
2. How historical trauma is perpetuated today
   • Microaggressions are everyday experiences of discrimination, racism, and daily hassles that are targeted at individuals from diverse racial and ethnic groups (Evans-Campbell, 2008). Health disparities, substance abuse, and mental illness are all commonly linked to experiences of historical trauma (Michaels, Rousseau, and Yang, 2010).
   • Video
   • Discussion Questions
3. How connection to culture and community can heal the wounds
   • Reconnecting people to the vibrant strengths of their ancestry and culture, helping people process the grief of past traumas, and creating new historical narratives can have healing effects for those experiencing historical trauma.
   • Video
   • Discussion Questions

Learn more about historical trauma

Historical Trauma Book List (PDF) — See our book list of relevant texts that explore the complexities of historical trauma from a variety of diverse perspectives.

Historical Trauma Research Article List (PDF) — Research articles that examine historical trauma and cultural healing.

Presentations from researchers and professionals on historical trauma and cultural healing (PDF).

Microaggressions (PDF) — List of books and articles covering the research on microaggressions.

Historical Trauma eReview (PDF) — For more on historical trauma and cultural healing, read CYFC’s children’s mental health eReview and a summary of this issue (PDF). 

Workplaces have the ability to create a "culture of health" for employees through a wide range of supports, risk reduction activities, policies that promote health, and other activities that support physical and mental well-being. Check out the resources below for more information on the research along with tips for healthy workplaces.

1. Find workplace resilience research

   • Children, Youth & Family Consortium (CYFC) shares a  list of articles Stress & Resilience in the Workplace & Beyond  about resilience in workplace settings. Articles are mostly from academic journals and intended for professionals. 

   • Find recent books about secondary trauma, resilience in the workplace and self-care for all types of professionals.

2. Secondary trauma in the workplace
   • Children, Youth & Family Consortium shares a list of articles about secondary traumatic stress, vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue and burnout.  Find out what researchers across the globe has revealed about how experiencing the traumas of others while on the job can negatively impact workers. Articles are mostly from academic journals and intended for professionals. 
3. Lead engaging meetings
   • Find tips for leading online or in-person meetings that are engaging and productive. 

By Kyra Paitrick

"Sam" is an American Indian youth in one of the 4-H clubs that I help lead. He doesn't participate in every meeting, but has stayed involved for two years. Sam is a natural leader. He has great ideas and has helped the club plan and carry out a meaningful service project.

Sometimes, Sam comes in agitated and rambunctious, talking over others and derailing the meeting. Sam lives with his grandmother and younger sister. He has occasionally blurted out that his mother is in treatment and his dad died a couple years ago. Clearly, Sam is dealing with trauma. He is trying to cope with the loss of his father and separation from his mother.

As I develop programming for American Indian youth in and around the tribal community, I know many of the youth experience Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). ACEs can affect young people even into adulthood. Examples of ACES are abuse, neglect, exposure to violence, separation or divorce and drug or alcohol use.

To help youth to learn and grow into positive leaders, we need to become trauma-informed. We need to help these youth learn and practice skills to cope with their trauma.

Trauma-informed practices for youth workers

Teach youth healthy ways of working through the effects of their trauma. When youth are triggered, don't ignore it or assume they will learn coping skills elsewhere. Help them to find a healthy sense of control by expressing their ideas and helping to plan activities.

Respect youth and family readiness and willingness to deal with trauma. Begin by planning activities that teach all youth skills for coping with trauma -- rather than targeting one individual.

Activities should go beyond communication and cognition. Purely cognitive behavioral interventions can be limiting and in some cases more traumatizing because traumatized children are driven by the sensory memories of their experiences, not just reason and logic. Plan activities that allow them to physically release tension. Engaging youth in service to others is another activity that will help them gain perspective of their own trauma and potentially heal by helping others.

Understand each young person’s emotional triggers and that everyone reacts to trauma in their own way based on their unique perspectives, concerns and culture. Our approach to helping each young person should be considerate of their unique experiences, culture, personality and abilities.

Minimize stress on youth with trauma by ensuring a physically and emotionally safe environment. Consistent routines in your program help create a stable, predictable space.

Ask youth "What has happened to you?" rather than "What is wrong with you?" when they seem triggered or reactive. Replace the perception of judgement with the perception of someone trying to seek understanding.

I've changed my practices in the 4-H club to help Sam. I am careful about doing activities specifically for parents as that may be a trigger for him. I discern whether his disruption is a behavior or a reaction to a trigger. When Sam is triggered, I give him some space to process what he is feeling.

Young people like Sam make learning about trauma a priority. I have engaged colleagues in discussion about addressing trauma and requested it become part of our program plan and professional development. Do you work to become trauma-informed? What information could you share about trauma-informed programming?

By Mina Blyly-Strauss, Research assistant - Children, Youth & Family Consortium, Extension Center for Family Development

This post first appeared in Family Matters, the newsletter of the Extension Center for Family Development.

Image: Mina Blyly-Strauss

I came to my CYFC graduate assistant position as an educational professional whose early work was with Native American teenagers. This is a demographic group often noted for some of the largest educational and health disparities in the state of Minnesota. More recently, I have focused on early childhood as a critical time to interrupt cycles of recurring disparities and to start healthy developmental trajectories.

What We Know

Historical trauma has been defined as a "cumulative emotional and psychological wounding, over the lifespan and across generations, emanating from massive group trauma experiences" (Brave Heart, 2007, p. 177). For Native American populations, examples of such massive group trauma experiences have included being pushed off homelands, massacred, and forcibly confined to reservations. Often in collusion with law enforcement and child welfare agencies, children as young as three years old were forced to attend government-sponsored boarding schools where they were separated from familial caregivers for extended periods of time. The goal of these schools was, as Richard Henry Pratt of Carlisle School is often quoted, to "kill the Indian, save the man."

Although today’s Native American children are not directly facing these specific traumatic experiences, researchers are finding that the adverse effects of prior generations’ experiences continue to impact them. For example, higher-than-average infant mortality rates for Native populations are seen as connected to historical trauma through factors such as ongoing distrust of providers, the impact of extreme poverty, and elevated levels of substance abuse (Martin, Rogers & Evans, 2015).

While research that explicitly focuses on the effects of U.S. boarding schools has not yet emerged, Canadian researchers have studied a similar government-sponsored residential school system for First Nations children in that country. Those researchers have found that children of the survivors of residential schools experience increased incidence of learning difficulties, are more likely to repeat a grade in school, and have lower school success overall than First Nations children whose parents did not attend such schools (Bombay, Matheson, & Anisman, 2014).

Where We Can Go

Image: Mina Blyly-Strauss

As historical trauma reverberates across generations, I believe it is incumbent on professionals like myself and many of our readers who work with Native American children and their families to acknowledge this and seek to develop practices that do not continue cycles of traumatization within the institutions in which we work. Authors such as Romero-Little (2011) have pointed out that "...for American Indian/Alaska Native parents and leaders, if schools are to be viewed as beneficial for American Indian/Alaska Native children, they must not be in conflict with a community’s or family’s cultural and linguistic goals and aspirations for their children" (p. 91). This approach to education runs in stark contrast to the philosophy of the boarding schools and differs as well from the way many schools function as places where licensed professionals' values shape what students are exposed to in school and what behaviors are considered signs of deviance or deficit.

In recent years, many Native communities have worked to create Native language revitalization efforts to bring back language that was often beaten out of children in government schools. A return to traditional foods has been advocated for helping to reduce the rate of diabetes. Looking back to cultural wisdom and practices — sometimes referred to as "original instructions" — has also been advocated for helping parents to heal so they may parent in healthier ways. For example, the Wakanheja (meaning "children" in Lakota) program promotes traditional values on the sacredness of children (Brave Heart, 1999). As Native communities regenerate their cultural traditions, I believe it is important that schools and other institutions support these efforts to return to traditional values and practices.

What does all this mean for practice? I suggest that it means reflecting on one’s own values and their origins rather than assuming that they are commonly shared among all people. It means fostering warm and open lines of communication with families and the larger Native community while acknowledging that distrust of systems and those that represent them is well-based in historical experiences — many of them traumatic. It is also important to revisit curriculum, making sure that depictions of Native peoples accurately represent them both historically and contemporarily. As caregivers and/or other community members express concern or offer suggestions, take them seriously regardless of their formal credentials — there are many valued ways of knowing in the world.

Check out CYFC’s  short video series and related resources on the Historical Trauma and Cultural Healing website.