Episode Three: Exploring Ancestral Grief
America! The land of opportunity! And also, for so many Mash-Ups, the ambiguous loss of immigration and uprooting a life and a history comes with a complex web of emotions. Today we’re talking to the trauma therapist and educator Linda Thai about ancestral grief, and how unmetabolized grief, particularly in Mash-Up families, is passed down through generations. We dive into how important understanding historical context is for grief and healing. There are many Mash-Up revelations in this episode!!!! We’re asking: what happens to a family structure if we don’t grieve?
GUEST:
Linda Thai
Linda Thai is a trauma therapist and educator who specializes in brain and body based modalities for addressing complex developmental trauma. She is highly sought after for her trainings in trauma-informed care, compassion fatigue resilience, and vicarious trauma recovery skills for human services professionals. As an adjunct faculty member in the Social Work Department at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Linda's decolonized approach to education and engaging teaching style makes her well-loved with students. She assists internationally renowned psychiatrist and trauma expert, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, with his private small group psychotherapy workshops aimed at healing attachment trauma. She has a Master of Social Work with an emphasis on the neurobiology of attachment and trauma.
More about Linda Thai and her work here.
KEY QUESTIONS:
Why separate when it causes so much grief?
What are the different sorts of losses and types of grieving that come with a family separation?
How does this sort of grief relate to the grief that comes with a death?
How do we survive it? How do we grow with it?
What happens to a family structure if we don’t grieve?
What happens to a family if we get stuck in the grief?
RESOURCES:
Missing the Home You Needed to Leave • The NY Times
When You No Longer Recognize Your Home Country • The Atlantic
When the Grief You’re Carrying is Not Your Own • Integrative Psychotherapy
Historical Trauma and Unresolved Grief • Clinical Research by Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart
Navigating Loss Without Closure • On Being
The Legacy of Trauma • American Psychological Association
Disney's 'Encanto' and the Exploration of Generational Trauma • Collider
Author explores how lingering sorrow is baked into Asian American experience • NBC News
WHITE PAPER:
Download the white paper here.
CREDITS:
Grief, Collected is a production of The Mash-Up Americans. Executive produced by Amy S. Choi and Rebecca Lehrer. Senior editor and producer is Sara Pellegrini. Development Producer is Dupe Oyebolu. Production manager Shelby Sandlin. Original music composed by The Brothers Tang. Sound design support by Pedro Rafael Rosado. Website design by Rebecca Fernandez. Grief, Collected was supported in part by a grant from The Pop Culture Collaborative.