Leaving Vietnam at age 2 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 (i.e. story-telling) to expand the conversation about intergenerational trauma to encompass the impact of forced migration, combined with acculturation and enculturation pressures upon the subsequent generation. Unnameable losses cannot be grieved, and can manifest as clinical expressions of mental illness. Ambiguous grief – once named – will allow Generations 1.5 and 2.0 to forge a collective path towards healing and reclamation.

Objectives: 

• 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 and loss associated with generation 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 key features of adult children raised by traumatized parents, as well as interactive family dynamics

Student discount and sliding scale discount available. Please contact us at chicagominds@gmail.com for details.

Workshop participants who opt to receive CE certification, please select the CEU option. This workshop fulfills requirement for 1.5 CE credits. CE sponsorship is approved by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR), credits are applicable to LCSW and transferrable to LCPC in Illinois. If you have a different licensure or are licensed outside of Illinois, please check with your licensure body before purchasing. Please note that we require your live attendance in order to issue CE certificates. If you are unable to attend live, please let us know at least 24 hours before the event.

About the Speaker:

Linda Thai, LMSW, ERYT-200, CLYL

Linda is a mental health clinician, storyteller, and educator who has had her own lived experiences of individual, collective, historical and cultural traumatization…and healing. She uses her background in trauma therapy, somatic therapies and yoga to guide others through steps that help you to recognize and safely release tension through resourcing the body. She believes in empowering others through education and skills, thereby igniting potential and fueling your innate desire to learn, to grow, to heal.

Linda is an adjunct faculty member in the Social Work Department at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and specializes in trauma-informed care and compassion fatigue resilience skills; Mental health clinician at ND Systems, specializing in somatic therapies and trauma therapy. 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. In her work at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, she is responsible for training clinicians in all departments, including psychology, nursing and medicine. She has a Master of Social Work with an emphasis on the neurobiology of attachment and trauma.