Healing Collective Generational Trauma and Building Resilience Through Art Therapy

Current research is limited in the transmission of transgenerational trauma. Most of the research available on the topic was specific to the survivors of the Holocaust. The focus in this thesis is on the Armenian population and how the trauma of the wars and the Genocide has transmitted to future generations and continues to impact the population today. The literature reviewed for this topic explored how trauma transcends these generations but also how the resilience transcends. My goal was to help build resilience through the artmaking process more in the style of Jungian art therapy in a semi-open studio structure. The artmaking and the response art served as a container in expressing the heaviness of the transgenerational trauma and became a catalyst for the reflection on the transmission of resilience. Specific to the Armenian culture, the Armenian population does not tend to seek therapy or talk about their feelings, so in this process the artmaking aided in expressing the trauma with a creative outlet through the exploration of various art materials