NOTE. This information contains heavy material that you should read with care and if needed, the support of a professional.

As an employee well-being researcher, I have dedicated a great deal of energy towards exploring my own mental health, patterns, and maladaptive coping techniques. Learning about how my own intergenerational trauma creeps into my life has enabled me to revise outdated beliefs and relate to myself and others differently. If your family or ancestors, like my own, lived through war, occupation, genocide, famine, sexual violence, enslavement, or forced migration, you may be carrying forward patterns that emerged out of those traumatic events. You do not need to have experienced the events to feel the burden of them. Our histories show up in how we take rest, what we devote ourselves to, what we deny within ourselves, and how we relate to ourselves and others.

The map and slides below are very, very simplistic tools created to encourage you to better understand how the past influences your present. These tools aim to acknowledge a tiny bit of what your ancestors may have carried — and what may still live in your family today. I hope it tugs on your curiosity and enriches your healing journey.

With humility, this page lacks precision and specificity and it was made with the best intentions based on what I am learning about transformational growth and the barriers that prevent healing.