This Week On WebMD Health Discovered Podcast: Trauma

 This week on WebMD Health Discovered Podcast, Dr. Neha Pathak hosted Dr. Thema Bryant, Ph.D., president of the American Psychological Association and professor of psychology at the Graduate School of Education and Psychology at Pepperdine University. 

 In this episode, Dr. Pathak and Bryant discuss definitions and experiences of trauma, specifically intergenerational trauma, and coping mechanisms that can help reclaim one’s authentic self.  

Check out the full episode: Surviving to Thriving: Dr. Thema Bryant Unpacks Intergenerational Trauma

 

The episode addresses such issues as:  What is trauma? How does it manifest in our lives? How is trauma passed down through generations or within communities? And most importantly, what can we do about it? Most of us have some experience with trauma, but rarely, if ever, are we encouraged to discuss it. Instead, we are encouraged to muscle through it or transcend it.

In this episode, the WebMD Health Discovered podcast explores the impact of trauma in our lives and the often-overlooked topic of intergenerational trauma.

In this episode, Dr. Pathak, the host, spoke with Thema Bryant, PhD, host of the Homecoming podcast, author of Homecoming: Overcome Fear and Trauma to Reclaim Your Whole, Authentic Self, and 2023 president of the American Psychological Association.

Dr. Bryant unpacks how traumatic stress disrupts the nervous system and is passed down through generations and within communities. She highlights the importance of honoring the survival skills of people who came before us, how we can adopt and model healthy coping methods, and how we can appropriately talk with future generations about our lived experiences of trauma to help them go from just surviving to thriving.

 

Available to stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and iHeart, some highlights in the episode include: 

• 08:01  - Defining trauma:
• “...traumatic stress is when those events occur that overwhelm our usual capacity to cope. They disrupt our nervous system; they can create a sense of hopelessness or helplessness or powerlessness. When people have ongoing trauma, it can disrupt their sense of who they are or their ability to regulate their emotions.”
• 09:30 - Unpacking intergenerational trauma:
• “So, trauma can be passed down through the generations — it can be passed down in terms of our neurobiology. Trauma shifts the brain. And then there have been some interesting studies done, for example, with descendants of the Holocaust, where they’re able to see those changes in the next generation. And in the generation after that, not only do we have those physiological changes, but we also have what we observe. So as children, you pay attention to how your caregivers navigate life and if they’re in a perpetual state of vigilance or distrust. And so we learn from them from observation. And then we also learn from the direct messaging.”
• “So you may see, during the era of Stop Asian Hate or Black Lives Matter, that even if you were not directly targeted, knowing that members of your community were targeted just because they are of your same identity can create a lot of anxiety and grief.” 
• 20:38 - Introducing difficult topics and deeper wounds to your child:
• “..in an age-appropriate way, it's helpful to talk about it. Throughout childhood, it's just the level of detail or the graphic nature of it may change. But sometimes, we think we're protecting children by never letting them know these things exist. And what that often looks like is the child is not prepared for when these encounters happen.”