What Is Intergenerational Trauma?

Intergenerational trauma is the passing of the effects of trauma from the people who lived through it to their children and grandchildren, even when the younger generations never experienced the original event themselves. It travels through the things trauma changes — how a parent copes, how safe a home feels, what goes unspoken — rather than through anything a person is born with. For many First Nations families, its clearest source is the residential school system, whose harms the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada documented across generations.

This is a plain guide to what intergenerational trauma is, how it shows up, and how counselling helps — written from the perspective of an Indigenous-led practice that works with it every day.

Key takeaways

• Intergenerational trauma is the transmission of trauma’s effects, not a memory or a genetic inheritance of guilt.
• It passes through relationships, parenting, silence, and stress — the things trauma disrupts in a family.
• In Canada, the residential school system is a central, documented source for First Nations families.
• It is not a life sentence. Trauma-informed, culturally safe counselling can help interrupt the pattern.

What intergenerational trauma actually means

When a person survives something overwhelming — violence, forced separation from family, the loss of language and community — the effects rarely stay contained to that one person or that one lifetime. Trauma changes how someone trusts, how they parent, how they handle stress and closeness. Children grow up shaped by those changes, absorb them as normal, and can carry them into their own families in turn.

That is the key distinction: intergenerational trauma is not a recovered memory of an event you didn’t attend, and it is not inherited blame. It is the way the consequences of trauma — grief, hypervigilance, difficulty trusting, silence around certain subjects — move from one generation to the next through everyday relationships. Naming it is not about assigning fault. It is about understanding a pattern clearly enough to do something about it.

Why it runs deep for many First Nations families

For many First Nations people in British Columbia, the most direct source is the residential school system. For more than a century, children were taken from their families and communities, punished for speaking their languages, and cut off from the relationships and practices that carry identity and belonging. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada documented how that system’s harms did not end when a survivor left — they reached into the next generation and the one after, in the form of disrupted parenting, loss of language, and grief that families were never given space to heal.

This is what makes the trauma intergenerational rather than only personal. A grandparent’s experience in a residential school can shape a parent’s childhood, which shapes a young person’s sense of safety today — without that young person ever setting foot in such a place. Understanding this history is part of understanding the present, and it is why care that ignores it tends to miss the point.

How intergenerational trauma can show up

It looks different in every family, and none of the following is a diagnosis on its own. But people often recognise some of these patterns:

• Anxiety or a constant sense of being on guard, without an obvious present-day cause.
• Difficulty trusting, or trouble feeling safe in close relationships.
• Grief that seems larger than a single loss — a sadness connected to community, culture, or language.
• Silence around certain subjects — whole topics a family learned not to speak about.
• Disconnection from culture, identity, or a sense of belonging.

Recognising a pattern is not the same as being defined by it. Many people carry these experiences and still lead full, connected lives — and naming what’s underneath is often the first step toward it feeling lighter.

How counselling can help

Intergenerational trauma is not a life sentence, and it responds to care. Trauma-informed counselling works with the nervous system and the relationships trauma affects, at a pace the person sets, without requiring anyone to relive the worst of it to get better. Culturally safe care matters here specifically: a counsellor who understands the weight of residential-school and intergenerational trauma — rather than needing it explained first — can meet a person where they actually are.

At Ch’íyáqtel Wellness, this is core to what we do. You can read more about our trauma and intergenerational-trauma counselling, which is delivered by video or phone anywhere in BC, or in person on Stó:lō territory in Chilliwack. Our counsellors are FNHA-registered, so for eligible members the counselling itself may be covered — we’ll help you check your eligibility before you book anything.

If you need support right now

Healing work can bring difficult things to the surface. If you need to talk to someone today, these Indigenous-specific lines are available around the clock:

• KUU-US Crisis Line — First Nations and Aboriginal crisis support for all of BC, staffed by Indigenous responders, 24/7: 1-800-588-8717.
• Hope for Wellness Helpline — national, 24/7 phone and online chat support for Indigenous people across Canada, in English and French: 1-855-242-3310.
• 9-8-8 Suicide Crisis Helpline — call or text 988, anywhere in Canada, any time.

When you’re ready to talk about longer-term support, reach out to us — we’re always glad to talk it through and help you find your footing.