The Impact of Intergenerational Immigrant Trauma

May marks Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month and Mental Health Awareness Month. To mark the importance of this month and how it intersects our work at the ACLU, we are bringing you this conversation with Malaysian American award-winning writer and audio producer, Stephanie Foo. Stephanie is the author of the new book, What My Bones Know, a memoir about intergenerational trauma and complex post-traumatic stress disorder, or c-PTSD.

In the book, Stephanie details her path of healing from the physical and emotional abuse she endured from both of her parents and explores the kind of trauma that she says had a widespread impact on her immigrant community growing up.

She joins us to discuss how learning her ancestors’ history and the history of her community helped her reconcile her individual struggles.