Stories of Our Ancestors: The impact of Culture, Race, Trauma on Addictions

Research dating back generations has explored the impact of the trauma of war, genocide, class struggles and race on families and offspring. People in the helping professions -psychologists, therapists and other health care providers have rarely been educated in treating trauma that is not solely individual and are particularly uneducated in treating trauma based on cultural identity or race. Statistics show that racism and intersectionality can be a form of adversity that can have an impact on brain development and that these effects can define and limit a person from childhood through adulthood - affecting their performance in school, work and having an impact on their mental and physical health. Cultural competence and cultural humility and an understanding of the social and local contexts of trauma can enrich a clinician's ability to improve outcomes for clients with addictions. This presentation will offer specific ways in which clinicians can ask hard questions from the standpoint of cultural humility to gain necessary competence in working with individual with historical and intergenerational trauma. This includes providing a basic understanding of why detecting this type of trauma is important and how this type of systemic cultural trauma presents in clinical practice in individuals with substance use disorders. The presentation will include case examples that demonstrate historical trauma / intergenerational and racial trauma and how that impacts the mental health especially of BIPOC communities. The presentation will offer strategies for clinicians to help clients with historical / intergenerational / racial trauma build resilience while understanding the impact of their trauma in the genesis of their SUD. and will distinguish historical/intergenerational and racial trauma differs from the effects of trauma that is not racialized or visited only on specific populations - i.e. in that it involves ongoing abuses, triggering due to the systemic nature of this type of trauma. In the presentation, clinicians will be given a template of strategies that come from the perspective of cultural humility, an understanding of cultural identity and the necessity to recognize bias and stereotyping that can unconsciously occur. The presentation will offer strategies for clinicians to help clients with historical / intergenerational / racial trauma build resilience while understanding the impact of their trauma in the genesis of their SUD.