when I came to Tomsk about a year ago I
went for a walk around the city the
first day and I was so curious about it
because it was always my dream to see
Siberia at the first two steps of my
walk I saw this and I asked my friend
what is it about and my friend said that
well it’s about the world war two after
20 steps I saw this and after 20 more
steps this they were almost in all
corners of the city later I realized
that they are in all cities in Russia
and it was quite understandable because
Russia has gone through a very difficult
history and the the memory of World War
two has changed their group
consciousness and identity as a
researcher in the field of individual
trauma I became inspired to expand my
knowledge beyond individual trauma and
gain more understanding of collective
trauma a collective trauma is a
traumatic event experienced and shared
by a group of people or even an entire
society experiencing or witnessing
collective trauma may result in a shift
in that societies culture and this is
what we call cultural trauma which is
the situation in which members of a
community feel that they have been
subjected to horrendous events changing
their consciousness and memory forever
in a fundamental and irreversible ways
history has been full of traumatic
events either collective or
individual wars genocides famines and
political repressions as examples of
collective trauma domestic violence
sexual abuse emotional abuse and neglect
and so many other types of traumatic
events that might be experienced by an
individual and we all have had our
difficult times and probably traumatic
experiences think about your own
difficult times and negative experiences
it doesn’t need to be something extreme
it can be a broken leg it can be a
broken heart and you can easily remember
them and feel the accumulation of them
over time the accumulation that may
result in so many psychological problems
in after massive trauma it’s important
to talk about trauma not only because it
affects the individual or collective ‘ti
but also it might be passed from the
first generation of survivors of trauma
to the second and further generations of
offspring of survivors of trauma and
this is what we call transgenerational
trauma so that the psychological
sufferings and consequences of trauma
might might be transmitted to the next
generations and it can be done through
two possible ways the first way is
through family and the second is through
epigenetic mechanisms let me explain a a
dysfunctional parenting pattern may to
be repeated and repeated over
generations within a certain family for
example the actions of a abusive or
neglectful parents might be repeated
among their children in their parenting
style towards their own children and
this cycle of error family trauma might
continue to affect the
generations the second way that trauma
might be transmitted to the next
generations is attributed to epigenetic
mechanisms epigenetic alterations are
changed in gene function that do not
involve change in DNA sequence so the
DNA is the same it’s not changed but
certain genes are turned on or off
activated or deactivated and although
that the research in these fields are
new and not yet conclusive but there are
some evidences that shows that that
certain certain symptoms that might be
caused by trauma might be transmitted to
the next generations via epigenetic
alterations for example a traumatic
experience may disrupt the sleep of
individual and result in let’s say
insomnia and it can be done through
activating or deactivating certain genes
so this is the scary part with regard to
transgenerational trauma because if you
are not lucky then you are going to
inherit a trauma if lucky you might
inherit a luxury villa but what are the
odds for inheriting a luxury villa not
very high and that’s why we should ask
ourselves what can we do it’s important
to ask this not only because we have had
a horrific history full of traumas but
also because we are still living in a
traumatic era there are ongoing Wars
poverty and abuses and so many other
types of traumatic experiences happening
in the world and you are directly or
indirectly affected by them you wake up
at the morning and check your phone and
you see a video of a traumatic event
that has happened in your country or
somewhere else and it affects you it
affects the entire society
that’s why we should ask ourselves what
can we do well a traumatized individual
needs support and treatment a
traumatized society needs treatment and
support too without proper understanding
and treatment these collective traumas
will continue to affect generations
after generations treatment of
collective trauma should include
repairing the families the communities
or that groups connection with their
culture with their values with their
identity and self-image it takes the
form of individual counseling or therapy
it takes the form of spiritual help
supportive group gathering and community
gathering which are all important in the
foundations of treatment process so what
do the state owes a memory of the war in
Tomsk and other Russian cities are
present what is their value well there
are valuable worth of works of art
because they might be helpful in
improving the sense of unity among
people that that they stood together in
face of difficult times of war that they
as a nation successfully passed through
all those difficult times but if these
war related memorials and status are not
coupled and supported with adequate
social psychological and interpersonal
interventions they won’t be of much help
they even can be countered therapeutic
by triggering bitter memories of war and
in the worst case when people remember
bitter memories they tend to get stuck
in bitterness as every other human being
ever to have been alive all of us here
today have had our own difficult time
adverse experiences and probably
traumatic experiences but we do not need
to be worried about it because we have
each other we the people in this room or
let’s say all members of community we
all have the potential to help each
other in face of trauma by offering our
unconditional emotional support care and
love and there are variety of ways to do
so but I’m going to mention two simple
ways that we can use to get help from
others help others and the first way
that they have used to use in our
clothes interpersonal relations is to
hug each other a trauma is all horror
and mistrust a hug is all peace and
Trust and this way of offering
unconditional emotional support can be
done not only in close interpersonal
relations but also in any other kind of
supportive group gathering or community
gathering but if you if you don’t have
anyone to hug and you’re a resident of
Tomsk you don’t need to be worried about
it because you can hug the monument of
happiness in terms and it’s particularly
good for people like me and maybe we
have to ask the mayor of Tomsk to
install more of these is one in Tomsk
State University for students so but
although that our friend is so warm
during the Siberian winter but the point
is that you can’t talk to him and that’s
why we need each other to talk about
trauma we have language through which we
can share our experiences feelings
thoughts and emotions talking is the
core of all psychological treatments
talking is not just talking it’s
but we’re talking about Roma
you can reconstruct the memories of
trauma in your mind how they happened in
the past how they affected you at the
present time and how they may shape your
personality and worldview in the future
so you see all of them in a
chronological order the importance of
talking about trauma is the main message
of this page and because it might not it
might work not only as a something that
may help you to reconstruct the memories
of trauma but also it can be a means of
emotional reaction and release which is
crucial in the process of healing but
it’s not just getting released the core
therapeutic nature of talking about
trauma comes from the magic that happens
at the end when it is realized that the
trauma that was experienced in the past
belongs to the past thank you [Applause]
went for a walk around the city the
first day and I was so curious about it
because it was always my dream to see
Siberia at the first two steps of my
walk I saw this and I asked my friend
what is it about and my friend said that
well it’s about the world war two after
20 steps I saw this and after 20 more
steps this they were almost in all
corners of the city later I realized
that they are in all cities in Russia
and it was quite understandable because
Russia has gone through a very difficult
history and the the memory of World War
two has changed their group
consciousness and identity as a
researcher in the field of individual
trauma I became inspired to expand my
knowledge beyond individual trauma and
gain more understanding of collective
trauma a collective trauma is a
traumatic event experienced and shared
by a group of people or even an entire
society experiencing or witnessing
collective trauma may result in a shift
in that societies culture and this is
what we call cultural trauma which is
the situation in which members of a
community feel that they have been
subjected to horrendous events changing
their consciousness and memory forever
in a fundamental and irreversible ways
history has been full of traumatic
events either collective or
individual wars genocides famines and
political repressions as examples of
collective trauma domestic violence
sexual abuse emotional abuse and neglect
and so many other types of traumatic
events that might be experienced by an
individual and we all have had our
difficult times and probably traumatic
experiences think about your own
difficult times and negative experiences
it doesn’t need to be something extreme
it can be a broken leg it can be a
broken heart and you can easily remember
them and feel the accumulation of them
over time the accumulation that may
result in so many psychological problems
in after massive trauma it’s important
to talk about trauma not only because it
affects the individual or collective ‘ti
but also it might be passed from the
first generation of survivors of trauma
to the second and further generations of
offspring of survivors of trauma and
this is what we call transgenerational
trauma so that the psychological
sufferings and consequences of trauma
might might be transmitted to the next
generations and it can be done through
two possible ways the first way is
through family and the second is through
epigenetic mechanisms let me explain a a
dysfunctional parenting pattern may to
be repeated and repeated over
generations within a certain family for
example the actions of a abusive or
neglectful parents might be repeated
among their children in their parenting
style towards their own children and
this cycle of error family trauma might
continue to affect the
generations the second way that trauma
might be transmitted to the next
generations is attributed to epigenetic
mechanisms epigenetic alterations are
changed in gene function that do not
involve change in DNA sequence so the
DNA is the same it’s not changed but
certain genes are turned on or off
activated or deactivated and although
that the research in these fields are
new and not yet conclusive but there are
some evidences that shows that that
certain certain symptoms that might be
caused by trauma might be transmitted to
the next generations via epigenetic
alterations for example a traumatic
experience may disrupt the sleep of
individual and result in let’s say
insomnia and it can be done through
activating or deactivating certain genes
so this is the scary part with regard to
transgenerational trauma because if you
are not lucky then you are going to
inherit a trauma if lucky you might
inherit a luxury villa but what are the
odds for inheriting a luxury villa not
very high and that’s why we should ask
ourselves what can we do it’s important
to ask this not only because we have had
a horrific history full of traumas but
also because we are still living in a
traumatic era there are ongoing Wars
poverty and abuses and so many other
types of traumatic experiences happening
in the world and you are directly or
indirectly affected by them you wake up
at the morning and check your phone and
you see a video of a traumatic event
that has happened in your country or
somewhere else and it affects you it
affects the entire society
that’s why we should ask ourselves what
can we do well a traumatized individual
needs support and treatment a
traumatized society needs treatment and
support too without proper understanding
and treatment these collective traumas
will continue to affect generations
after generations treatment of
collective trauma should include
repairing the families the communities
or that groups connection with their
culture with their values with their
identity and self-image it takes the
form of individual counseling or therapy
it takes the form of spiritual help
supportive group gathering and community
gathering which are all important in the
foundations of treatment process so what
do the state owes a memory of the war in
Tomsk and other Russian cities are
present what is their value well there
are valuable worth of works of art
because they might be helpful in
improving the sense of unity among
people that that they stood together in
face of difficult times of war that they
as a nation successfully passed through
all those difficult times but if these
war related memorials and status are not
coupled and supported with adequate
social psychological and interpersonal
interventions they won’t be of much help
they even can be countered therapeutic
by triggering bitter memories of war and
in the worst case when people remember
bitter memories they tend to get stuck
in bitterness as every other human being
ever to have been alive all of us here
today have had our own difficult time
adverse experiences and probably
traumatic experiences but we do not need
to be worried about it because we have
each other we the people in this room or
let’s say all members of community we
all have the potential to help each
other in face of trauma by offering our
unconditional emotional support care and
love and there are variety of ways to do
so but I’m going to mention two simple
ways that we can use to get help from
others help others and the first way
that they have used to use in our
clothes interpersonal relations is to
hug each other a trauma is all horror
and mistrust a hug is all peace and
Trust and this way of offering
unconditional emotional support can be
done not only in close interpersonal
relations but also in any other kind of
supportive group gathering or community
gathering but if you if you don’t have
anyone to hug and you’re a resident of
Tomsk you don’t need to be worried about
it because you can hug the monument of
happiness in terms and it’s particularly
good for people like me and maybe we
have to ask the mayor of Tomsk to
install more of these is one in Tomsk
State University for students so but
although that our friend is so warm
during the Siberian winter but the point
is that you can’t talk to him and that’s
why we need each other to talk about
trauma we have language through which we
can share our experiences feelings
thoughts and emotions talking is the
core of all psychological treatments
talking is not just talking it’s
but we’re talking about Roma
you can reconstruct the memories of
trauma in your mind how they happened in
the past how they affected you at the
present time and how they may shape your
personality and worldview in the future
so you see all of them in a
chronological order the importance of
talking about trauma is the main message
of this page and because it might not it
might work not only as a something that
may help you to reconstruct the memories
of trauma but also it can be a means of
emotional reaction and release which is
crucial in the process of healing but
it’s not just getting released the core
therapeutic nature of talking about
trauma comes from the magic that happens
at the end when it is realized that the
trauma that was experienced in the past
belongs to the past thank you [Applause]
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