You love the fact that you’re an “open book.” In other words, vulnerability is your strong suit. You know what it’s like to grow up in a family where important matters are pushed under a rug, and you were forced to pretend that everything was fine when things were not. Between then and now, you’re doing the important work of processing your feelings and even going to therapy! Now as you’re coming to terms with the trauma you’ve experienced, you want to make it a point to end that generational pattern of avoiding your hurt. Better yet, you want to be a beacon of light to others and share what you’ve gone through with others.  

Generational trauma has become a buzzword of sorts in the last decade, but what does it look like? How does something your grandparents experienced 50 years ago shape your mental health today? Let’s walk through a scenario:

The term moral injury was coined in the 1990s by psychiatrist Jonathon Shay who observed the presence of it in Vietnam military veterans. It refers to the trauma of behaving or witnessing experiences that go against a person’s values/moral beliefs.