You may have grown up feeling sadness, fear, anxiety, or shame with no clear reason for it. Sometimes those feelings didn't even begin with you. You might have been carrying your mother's fear, which she picked up from her own mother. That is intergenerational trauma, also called generational trauma.
These emotional processes pass quietly from one generation to the next, not because anyone intends to pass them on, but because they were never healed. You might feel it as anxiety that never fully goes away, a pattern in your relationships you keep trying to break, or a weight you've carried so long you've stopped noticing it's there.
If something in your life feels "off" but you can't explain why, the answer might reach further back than your own life.
What Is Intergenerational Trauma?
It's the way unresolved pain travels through families over time. When someone experiences something hard and never gets support, that experience shapes how they see the world, how they parent, what they fear, and what they teach their children without meaning to.
This is especially true for many Indigenous families in Alberta, where generations were forcibly separated through the residential school system. The grief and loss from that era didn't end with those who lived it. It rippled forward through families and communities.
But intergenerational trauma happens in all kinds of families. It can come from immigration, poverty, addiction, war, violence, or simply from parents who were doing their best while carrying wounds of their own.
The pain gets handed down until someone decides it stops here. (Psychology Today)
A Personal Connection to This Work
I come to this work with both professional training and personal understanding. I am of Indigenous ancestry and have been touched by the lasting effects of residential schools in my own family. That experience shapes how I approach this work and why I take intergenerational healing seriously.
Red Deer and Intergenerational Trauma
Red Deer sits at the boundary between Treaty 6 and Treaty 7 territories and has long been a historic Métis gathering site. The city is home to a growing Indigenous population as well as newcomers from many backgrounds.
Intergenerational trauma work here calls for cultural competence and an honest understanding of the specific histories that shape central Alberta families, including the lasting effects of residential schools, the Sixties Scoop, and the experiences of immigrant and refugee families.
How It Might Be Showing Up for You
People often don't connect what they're feeling to family history. It just feels like them. Like the way they are. But some of these experiences run deeper than that. Research shows these responses are often rooted in inherited stress patterns, not personal weakness. (PMC / National Institutes of Health)
Anxiety that's hard to explain
Nervous system responses passed down from people who lived in real danger
Feeling like you're never enough
Shame that wasn't created by you, but got left with you
Trouble trusting safe people
A protective response that made total sense in your family system
Relationships that keep going wrong
Patterns you learned before you were old enough to question them
A quiet disconnection from who you are
Lost cultural identity, or belonging that was taken before you arrived
Always waiting for something bad to happen
Hypervigilance inherited from people who had real reasons to be afraid
These aren't personality flaws. They're responses that made sense at some point, even if they're making your life harder now.
What Changes in Therapy
One of the most powerful shifts that happens when people begin to understand intergenerational trauma is this: the shame lifts. Not all at once. But when you start to see that some of what you've been carrying belonged to someone else first, it stops feeling like proof that something is wrong with you.
Therapy isn't about blaming your parents or grandparents. It's about understanding what got passed to you, so you can decide what to pass on next.
Depending on what you're working through, sessions might focus on:
- Making sense of patterns you've been living with your whole life
- Processing the grief of what wasn't given to you
- Learning to feel safe in your own body
- Separating your trauma from someone else's
- Building a different relationship with yourself
- Reconnecting to identity and culture that was lost or buried
- Parenting differently than you were parented
That last one matters deeply to many clients here. The desire to stop the cycle. To give their kids something different.
Intergenerational Trauma Therapy Cost in Red Deer
The cost of intergenerational trauma therapy depends on session frequency and duration. We discuss fees upfront before your first appointment so you know exactly what to expect.
Most employer benefits plans cover sessions with a Registered Psychologist. We accept Alberta Blue Cross, Non-Insured Health Benefits (NIHB) through Indigenous Services Canada, Manulife, Sun Life, and other major providers. We're happy to help you check your coverage before you book.
Frequently Asked Questions About Intergenerational Trauma Therapy
Do I need to know my family history to do this work?
No. Share what you know. A lot of people come in knowing almost nothing about what their parents or grandparents went through. The patterns you're living in right now are enough to start with. Those patterns give us a window into how earlier generations may have lived, because patterns repeat across generations.
Is this only for Indigenous people?
Not at all. Intergenerational trauma shows up in families from every background, including those shaped by immigration, war, poverty, addiction, or simply by a family culture where pain was never talked about. If the patterns fit, the door is open.
How is this different from regular therapy?
Most therapy focuses on your experiences and your life. This work zooms out. It looks at what came before you and how that shaped the family system you grew up in. Sometimes that context explains things that years of individual therapy couldn't.
How long does intergenerational trauma therapy take?
It depends on what you're working through. Some people feel meaningful shifts within a month. For others it takes longer. Cheryl will give you an honest picture of what to expect once she understands your situation.
Is online therapy an option?
Yes. Online sessions are available across Alberta. Most people find them just as useful as coming in person. And for anyone who doesn't want to be seen walking into a therapy office, it removes that barrier entirely.