Historical/ Intergenerational Trauma

My primary research expertise is examining the impact of historical and intergenerational trauma. I have examined this phenomenon in individuals who identify as Jewish, Indigenous, and who are descendants of Holocaust survivors. This research specialty has translated into my clinical work and impacts the lens in which I approach treating trauma with my clients.

I work somatically and believe that our bodies can hold our feelings, memories, and even our ancestors' experiences. I also believe there is deep wisdom in our bodies to heal us and return us to ourselves. I enjoy working with folks who are wanting to address and heal historical and intergenerational trauma and do so at the pace of your safety.

I have personal experience and understand how generational trauma impacts communities, bodies, and daily lives.

Working with clients on understanding the current adverse stressors in their life has so often led to exploring the context of their historical or generational trauma I have made it a significant focus on how I practice.

I have prioritized serving communities that have faced systemic barriers to care, which often results in the passing down of traumas across generations. I have specialized expertise working with people who experience community violence, religious violence, immigration trauma, and family violence, and believe restorative justice principles can help remedy longstanding hurts in the family continuum. My work as a healer is to honor of my own elders and ancestors who could not get help.

Early life experiences shape how we relate to ourselves, others, and the world. I specialize in working with survivors of developmental trauma and relational wounds, helping clients understand and shift the survival patterns that once kept them safe. Through EMDR, psychodynamic therapy, and somatic approaches, I guide clients toward healing, emotional regulation, and deeper self-trust.

I have extensive training and experience in working with historic, intergenerational, and complex trauma through my time providing mental health services for NARA, NW and Wolf Pack Consulting and Therapeutic Services. As a relationship therapist, I understand how impactful historical/intergenterational trauma can be on a relationship system and focus much of the work on helping the couple/family identify this trauma and create strategies to minimize it's impact.

I help clients understand how generational cycles of trauma can impact thought processes and their ability to navigate stressors in a healthy way. I work with clients to explore coping skills to manage life stressors in a healthy way.

As a Filipino therapist from Los Angeles who holds a variety of marginalized identities, I understand how trauma can cause overwhelming emotions and fractures in our sense of self. As a clinician formally trained in Western models of care, I seek to integrate various modalities to provide mental health services as a legitimate and meaningful path towards healing trauma and impacts of structural violence.

Intergenerational trauma can be a difficult subject to talk about, because it involves naming how our family and community members have reenacted their traumas. There doesn’t need to be blame associated with naming the presence of intergenerational trauma. It will continue to be present in every generation until someone is ready to interrupt the cycle. This can involve healing together and/or naming boundaries. In some cases it means going no contact with our family or community members.

Whether you've experienced a single traumatic event or ongoing trauma, I am here to offer a safe and supportive environment where you can explore your feelings, process memories, and develop coping strategies at your own pace. Using techniques such as CRM (Community Resiliency Model) and CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), I work collaboratively with you to address symptoms of trauma such as anxiety, depression, and intrusive thoughts.

Transforming the Experience-Based Brain (TEB) is a regulation focused model integrating learnings from somatic, attachment, & neurophysiological models. Through hands-on or intentional presence in healing you are able to access pre-verbal & early childhood developmental trauma stored in the body. As a non-pathologizing method of care, this embodied approach is a different way of healing as it targets the nervous system rather than specific symptoms & supports integration of primitive reflexes.

My practice reflects an active commitment to social justice and intergenerational healing on an individual, community, institutional and global scale. I have been a lifelong learner, driven by my innate curiosity and passion for exploration of self and others. With an anti-oppressive framework, I hold a vision for providing modern mental health services that reflect the values of ethical and sustainable wellness.

I have experience working with Indigenous folks processing their experiences of historical and intergenerational trauma that continue to impact their every day lives and well-being.

I am an EMDR therapist and have extensive training in treating complex trauma. I worked for several years with children in the foster care system navigating the challenges that trauma presents in daily life.

I work with individuals in navigating the effects of present, historical and intergenerational trauma resulting from systems of oppression as well as individual/ family experiences. Focusing upon the macro experience of family systems, I support my clients in understanding the effects of trauma as they resonate through the self via society. My therapy practice centers on the tenets of advocacy and empowerment as roads to healing, understanding and growth as change agents.

All staff are people of color that participate and have completed training in this area as well.

Most of my clients are doing the emotional and psychological work of their parents, grandparents and beyond. In other words, our healing what the healing our lineage has needed. Families pass down the good and the bad. I compare this to physical belongings, like heirlooms or unopened boxes. When the "boxes" contain habits, patterns or traits that have caused harm to or are no longer serving my clients, I support them to sort that stuff out in exchange for what heals, helps and brings happiness

I completed my clinical internship at the Rape Crisis Center, where many of the clients I saw came from backgrounds of intergenerational abuse and trauma. Though the grips of intergenerational abuse and trauma can be strong, I have seen that it is a cycle that can be broken, and it is one of the great privileges of a therapist to be able to be part of a client's journey to break this.