Unnameable losses: The unmetabolized ambiguous grief of adult…

"A man without history is a tree without roots." ~ Confucius

Unnameable losses: The unmetabolized ambiguous grief of adult children of refugees

This lecture was part of the Collective Grief and Trauma Conference held in March 2021, co-sponsored by Cathy Malchiodi and Collectively Rooted.

Leaving Vietnam at age two with my parents, as Vietnamese Boat People, has left a legacy on myself and my family that has taken my entire lifetime to make sense of.

This presentation draws upon research literature as well as narrative reconstruction of lived experiences to expand the conversation about intergenerational trauma to encompass the impact of forced migration, combined with acculturation and enculturation pressures upon the subsequent generation.

This larger landscape of traumatic grief, traumatic loss, traumatic homesickness and the ambiguity of these unnameable, unmetabolized experiences has transgenerational impact that needs to be named in order to be healed. Unnameable losses cannot be grieved, and can manifest as clinical expressions of mental illness. Ambiguous grief – once named – will allow Generation 2.0 to forge a collective path of healing and reclamation.

Objectives

Differentiate between refugees and immigrants
Identify the main stages of a refugee journey
Explain intergenerational trauma to encompass the impact of forced migration combined with acculturation and enculturation pressures upon the next generation
Discuss expressions of ambiguous grief, traumatic grief and traumatic homesickness associated with generation 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 refugees
Differentiate strategies to utilize in clinical and community settings to facilitate individual and collective well-being and resiliency for refugees
Identify how the decontextualization of historical trauma can result in the pathologizing and stereotyping of cultures, families and individuals
Engage in somatic techniques to expand nervous system capacity for distress tolerance

1. Unnameable losses: The unmetabolized ambiguous grief of adult children of refugees (No CE)

$35.00 USD

Online Course

Included features:

No CE Credit
Access to Recording for 60 days

2. Unnameable losses: The unmetabolized ambiguous grief of adult children of refugees

$45.00 USD

Online Course

Included features:

NBCC CE Credits Included with Registration
Access to Recording for 60 days

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Expressive and somatic approaches