Intergenerational Trauma Therapy

Some of what brings a person to therapy began generations before them. The anxiety, the hyper-independence, the sense that rest has to be earned, the feelings that went without words: for many people, and often for children of immigrants, these are inherited as much as lived. Intergenerational trauma therapy locates the patterns that were passed down and works to change the ones that have outlived their purpose. I see clients in person in Northeast Los Angeles, serving Altadena, Pasadena, Highland Park, and Downtown LA, and online throughout California.

What intergenerational trauma describes

Intergenerational trauma, also called generational trauma, is the way the effects of hardship travel from one generation to the next. War, displacement, poverty, migration, discrimination: each shapes how a generation parents, what it fears, what it leaves unsaid. The next generation takes it in, usually before anyone has a name for it. The original wound can shape a family long after the story of it is lost; the pattern outlives the telling. What once kept people alive becomes the quiet rule everyone lives by.

How it presents

Inherited patterns tend to show up as ordinary difficulty:

• Anxiety, or a baseline sense of threat that stays switched on
• Perfectionism tied to safety or worth
• Hyper-independence and trouble asking for help
• Cultural guilt, and the "strong one" role
• Restricted feeling, in families where feeling went unexpressed

Approach

This is the material a psychodynamic, depth-oriented approach was built for. Our work traces a present pattern back through your own history and the family's, and makes the unspoken explicit; naming it is often the moment it stops running on its own. It's body-centered and somatic too, because inherited stress is held in the body long before it's understood.

What to expect

We start with a brief phone consultation. Early sessions map the family across generations: who carried what, what got named, what stayed silent, alongside your own history. It's a way to see clearly which patterns were absorbed and which can be revised now. Sessions are usually weekly. The work asks you to see what you inherited clearly enough to choose what to keep.

Frequently asked questions

Can intergenerational trauma reach me if I don't remember a specific traumatic event? Yes. It travels through parenting, through family norms, through the stress responses we watch and absorb. A pattern can shape a family long after the memory of where it began has faded.

Is this about blaming my parents? No. Most inherited patterns started as survival. Seeing where they came from trades blame for clarity, and clarity for choice.

How long does this work take? Usually longer-term; the patterns are old and well-practiced. The length follows the goals, and we review it together.

Fees and insurance? I charge $200 per 50-minute session for individuals. A limited number of sliding scale spots are available.

I do not take insurance but I can provide superbills for you to submit for reimbursement.

Free 15-minute consultation: 818-925-8623 or yasmin@yasminsauditherapy.com.

Yasmin Saudi, MSW, LCSW, Licensed Clinical Social Worker #141050