Ask A Therapist: What is collective trauma? (and why are we all experiencing a sense of dis-ease in the world?)

In Ask a Therapist, our therapists answer questions about therapy, mental health, and healing practices. Today, Kelsey answers the question: why are we all experiencing a sense of dis-ease in the world? by centering the question: what is collective trauma?

Connect with Kelsey at Kelsey@RoomToBreatheChicago.Com

Connect with Ramya at RamyaMK@RoomToBreatheChicago.Com

Interview transcript {edited for clarity}

Ramya (she/her): Hello, everyone! Welcome back to our Ask a Therapist segment. Today we have Dr. Kelsey Schroeder back to talk to us about collective trauma, right?

Kelsey (she/her): Yes, yeah, thanks for having me on. I'm excited to be here.

Ramya: Yeah. Yeah, of course! This feels so relevant with everything going on in the world right now.

Kelsey: Yeah.

Ramya: How we're engaging with our environment, how we're healing with our own stuff. And just watching the news and everything else that's going on.

Kelsey: Totally. Yeah, I've been noticing both, obviously, with myself, but people in my life, and with clients, like the kind of crux between…. News fatigue, climate crisis, anxiety, existential dread, and also just burnout of the social-political climate that we're experiencing, and have been experiencing, I mean our entire lives, but also really in heightened way since 2020.

Ramya: Yeah, yeah. So that's…. 5 plus years of traumatic experiences, and then not to mention things that you know, individually, we all have. So let's get into it. Where do you want to start?

Kelsey: Yeah, no, totally. So…. I thought it'd be helpful to kind of start, I guess, talking a little bit about….Why… well, one, like, why are we experiencing this kind of general sense of dis-ease in the world? And, like, I think, right, it's….It can feel easy, especially with the allure of, like, systems of oppression, like capitalism and white supremacy, to kind of go back to this, like, sense of normal, or constantly be seeking this sense of normalcy that we're just not going to have. And I think sometimes it's easy to internalize that kind of pathologizing nature or narrative that - if we're not doing okay in response to the world around us, then we have something to fix, as opposed to, like - none of us have to be okay right now. And that does not mean that we cannot seek out therapeutic care, community care, like, what does it mean to be engaged in resistance, liberation, activism work, and trying to find connection and, like, touchpoints of humanity?

Ramya: Yeah.

Kelsey: While still living in the midst of the current times.

Ramya: I know we're only recording for a couple minutes today, but briefly tell us what collective trauma is.

Kelsey: Yeah. So, collective trauma is really defined as a trauma that's experienced by a group, generation, or society. So historically, this could be due to things like war, pandemic, systemic racism, things like that. So we're living through, kind of, different layers of collective trauma, like I said, and being systems of oppression, white supremacy, capitalism. Patriarchy. Also, obviously, the COVID-19 pandemic disruption, especially during formative years for, like, Gen Z clients, or people, folks. Obviously we have, like, massive gun violence in the United States, so increases in school shootings, and obviously fear, righteous fear of gun violence. Um, we're experiencing climate change anxiety, right? We're living in the midst of incredibly intensified police brutality. And then there's a lot of economic and job instability, so there's this kind of different…categories of how we're experiencing collective trauma as a society. And again, like, really the idea of collective trauma also encapsulates that these events aren't just affecting individuals, but they really reshape our greater identity, worldview, and our trust in institutions. Like, we saw a lot of institutions that historically, maybe we would trust a little bit, or trust a lot, or somewhere in between really crumble, and I think we're also kind of seeing that in the current administration as well.

Ramya: Yeah. How does it usually show up for individuals?

Kelsey: So, what I've seen for a lot of folks is…. Again, it's a spectrum, right? There's no one right way to experience trauma.

Ramya: Yeah.

Kelsey: But it can look like heightened anxiety in daily life, so whether this is a greater anxiety at, like, larger social gatherings, um, larger events, dread about the future. Sometimes for folks, it can feel kind of like a…. A low hum in the background of, like, just more persistent anxiety than they've experienced in the past. Sometimes it's very pointed fear, because life does not look how any of us expected, especially after… or, like, in the midst of a pandemic, now an epidemic, right? We've all had to really change our expectations of what life is going to look like. And I think for many folks, that has also required a restructuring and some grieving process around what they thought their life was going to be like, or what they thought early adulthood, middle adulthood, late adulthood, adolescence, was gonna look like.

And I think there's also this kind of greater sense of sometimes disconnection or isolation. I've also noticed with folks, especially because we have such easy access in, like, the virtual worlds that we are often a part of, and that can be a great sense of community, but it can also really perpetuate the sense of helplessness.

Ramya: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Kelsey: Or, like, each of us play such a small part. And I think there is….some value in exploring, like, what do you want your impact to be, and also that none of us have to carry any of this load all by ourselves, and again, like, that's….kind of the refocusing back on community, but I think it looks a lot of ways, and I think it affects everybody a little bit differently, but I do think the reality that…. Everybody is being affected in some way, shape, or form also offers us the space to kind of normalize our experiences. And also, think about, like, what else are we needing to further connect in that?

Ramya: Yeah, yeah. What's next on your talking points there? Yeah, yeah, what next do you want to talk about?

Kelsey: That's what I want to offer. Yeah. Well, I think it might be useful to kind of dig a little bit, or I know briefly, into this idea of, like, how collective trauma also can disrupt our sense of belonging.

So, right, like, we know that common trauma responses are to internalize the trauma, that you've done something wrong, you perpetuated it. You have somehow not been able to stop it, that you… again, it can really disrupt sense of agency or sense of helplessness. And I think for many folks, or many of our trauma responses can be to, again struggle to deepen connection with community because we can feel this desire to withdraw, or we have to kind of really lean into ourselves to be able to create protection.

This is even further true if there are themes around, like, intergenerational trauma, or folks experiencing greater displacement. Obviously, like, there are….righteous concerns right now around, like, ICE raids and folks not having the same kind of access to social safety that they have in the past, or a sense of safety, or again, like, being able to kind of lean into some type of thing that they've maybe felt that they could hold onto historically. And so, what else that kind of looks like is, therapeutically, right, like, finding other spaces. Again, either in therapy or outside of therapy, to feel connected, to feel a sense of safety within. And again, community can be one person, it can be many people. But really tying back into, like, what else do you need to feel more connected? And how do we help facilitate greater change in shifting from helplessness to greater empowerment or agency to find greater connection.

Am I making sense?

Ramya: Yeah, yeah, you are. I feel like this topic could be….Like, a whole two- or three-part series for our other segment for our coffee chats that we do.

Kelsey: Totally.

Ramya: But…. Okay, so in, like, the last couple of minutes here. What do we do about the collective trauma?

Kelsey: Great question. So. What comes to my mind immediately is, like, there's kind of….well, there's really 3 things. One is we survive it, and we survive it by having other people and being in relationship. None of us are surviving any of this alone. We never have as a species, right? And so, as we consider, like, what does it again mean to be in community and have relationships. And survive the current times. It is looking at, like, where do we find love, where do we find belonging, and where do we find support? Therapeutically, or in a therapeutic space, especially with, like, an individual therapist or in group therapy where you can invite discussions around, like, media consumption boundaries, right? Again, so media can be… or online forms can be such a great place to get media, and we also have to think about, like, what is happening in your brain and body when we're consuming media content all day long.

Ramya: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Kelsey: Like, that's obviously gonna have an impact on any of our well-being, and we want to be intentional about, yes, it is important that we are informed, socially and politically, and like, what does it mean to be a global citizen? And also that none of us have to be consuming media all of the time in order to do so. I think also it can look like processing feelings of guilt, or again, like, helplessness about privilege, about intersectional or layers of identity, about how do you want to engage, how do you want to participate, and what does it mean to also care for oneself. This can also incorporate conversations about activism burnout, right? Like, living in white supremacy culture, there's often this idea that, like, you have to always be on, you have to always be engaged, you have to do everything all the time, you have to be the most aware and the most knowledgeable. And the reality's like, none of us are doing that, right?

Ramya: Right.

Kelsey: Like, that's why, again, like, activism requires large groups of people, or, like, communities, because no one has to carry that baton by themselves all of the time.

And then lastly, like I said, really normalizing, that it's okay and understandable and a righteous response to not be okay in a not okay world. And that is a lot of grief work, right? Like, again, grieving what we didn't anticipate, grieving futures that we don't get to have, grieving what we expected. And I think that there is a lot of freedom and flexibility in doing so, but there's no way for us to get around this. We do have to move with it and through it, and again, none of us do that alone.

Ramya: Yeah, yeah. You bring up some really good points.

Last question, anything that we didn't cover that you really, really wanted to talk about today?

Kelsey: I don't think so. I think the only thing I also maybe wanted to….I guess, leave…. At the end here is, and I put it in the note too, but, like, really emphasizing the power of resistance, art, joy, and solidarity as healing practices. And again, like, so much of social transformation happens in healing. And that work, again, can be done within oneself, with small community, with large community. And there's no one right way to do it. Healing work happens if you're trying, then you're doing.

Ramya: Mm-hmm. That's beautiful. I love it. Alright, let's try and….Do more for a longer segment next time, because there's just so much here that we can keep talking about.

Kelsey: Yeah.

Ramya: But thanks for tuning in, everyone. Make sure you catch us on Instagram, and check out our website for therapy and yoga, and reach out to our wonderful therapists if you're wanting services.