Beyond Borders: Global Mental Health Conference

Generational trauma, and intergenerational (or ancestral trauma), refers to the emotional, psychological, and even physical wounds passed down through families and communities. These traumas often stem from unresolved pain, systemic oppression, and deeply rooted cycles of adversity. While it may seem invisible, its impact is far-reaching, manifesting in behaviors, relationships, health issues, and the overall well-being of individuals and entire communities.


This insightful discussion will explore the essence of generational trauma, how it is stored in the body, and how it shapes the way we live, think, feel, and connect. We will examine its deep ties to societal inequities and its significant influence on family structures and marginalized communities, highlighting why addressing it is essential for collective healing and progress.


Participants will gain an understanding of how generational trauma affects all of us, even if we are unaware of its presence. We'll uncover the science behind how trauma is passed down and the transformative power of healing it. Practical tools and strategies for breaking these cycles—such as mindfulness, somatic practices, and community-based approaches—will be shared to inspire action and empowerment.
By acknowledging the weight of the past and committing to the healing process, we can unlock immense benefits, including improved mental and physical health, stronger relationships, and a brighter, more resilient future for ourselves and future generations.


Join us for this impactful conversation as we explore the path toward breaking free from inherited burdens and building communities rooted in understanding, connection, and healing.

In St Kitts and Nevis, a person experiencing a mental health crisis can still be legally described as a lunatic. They can be ordered into confinement by a magistrate, without legal representation, without the right to be present at the hearing, and without any guarantee of treatment. The law that permits this is the Lunacy and Mental Treatment Act 1956 — a colonial statute that has never been replaced, amended in any meaningful way, or aligned with the constitutional rights that independence promised.

This impact story traces what that gap looks like in practice. A young man with schizophrenia kills his grandmother during a psychotic episode. The judge at sentencing acknowledges that imprisonment is the wrong response — that what is needed is psychiatric care in a secure facility with structured review. He sentences the man to twenty-one years anyway, because no other legal option exists. This is not a failure of individual compassion. It is the predictable output of a legal system built for a different era, operating on a different understanding of what a person with mental illness is: not a patient, not a rights-bearer, but a subject for confinement.

Drawing on two years of legal research into the mental health framework of St Kitts and Nevis, this presentation argues that colonial mental health law is itself a form of structural inequity — one that compounds scarcity of services with scarcity of rights. It explores what resilience means when the law works against you, and what a rights-based, therapeutically grounded framework could look like for a small island state with limited resources but profound constitutional obligations.

Presentation Abstract
Mental healthcare access for LGBTIQ+ individuals in Zimbabwe is shaped by structural inequities, social stigma, and heteronormative healthcare systems that often undermine psychological safety and wellbeing. While global mental health research has increasingly recognised the impact of minority stress on mental health outcomes, there is limited evidence from African contexts that centres the lived experiences and resilience of LGBTIQ+ communities.
This presentation draws on a qualitative phenomenological study exploring the experiences of twelve LGBTIQ+ individuals who accessed therapy and mental healthcare services in Harare, Zimbabwe. Guided by the Minority Stress Model and the Affirmative Therapy Approach, the study employed semi-structured interviews and arts-based draw-write-tell methods to capture participants' narratives of vulnerability, identity, and resilience.
The findings reveal that many participants encountered therapy environments characterised by judgement, identity invalidation, fear of disclosure, and discrimination, leading many to conceal their identities or avoid formal mental healthcare services altogether. At the same time, participants demonstrated remarkable resilience through peer support networks, community solidarity, online safe spaces, and creative forms of self-expression that fostered healing and belonging.
Positioned within the conference theme of Using Creative Approaches to Building Resiliency, this presentation highlights how community-based and affirming practices can mitigate the effects of structural inequities and promote mental wellbeing among marginalised populations. It argues for culturally responsive, affirming, and psychologically safe mental healthcare systems that recognise sexual and gender diversity while strengthening resilience in restrictive social contexts. The presentation offers practical implications for mental health practitioners, researchers, educators, and policymakers working to advance inclusive and equitable mental healthcare in the Global South.

Resilience is often described as an individual trait, suggesting that people simply “bounce back” from adversity through strength or determination. Yet survivors of trauma know that healing is rarely linear and that resilience is often built through relationships, opportunities, and communities that foster safety and connection. This presentation explores resilience through the unique perspective of a survivor-clinician, integrating lived experience with nearly two decades of professional work in mental health, substance use treatment, and trauma-informed care.
Drawing from experiences of human trafficking, domestic violence, homelessness, and recovery, alongside years of supporting survivors across community mental health and domestic violence settings, this presentation examines how trauma shapes identity and how healing emerges over time. Through storytelling and clinical reflection, participants will be invited to reconsider common assumptions about resilience, treatment resistance, and recovery.
Rather than viewing resilience as an extraordinary quality possessed by a few individuals, this presentation highlights the roles of community, meaningful relationships, education, culture, and access to resources in sustaining wellbeing. It also explores how systems and professionals can unintentionally reinforce stigma or, alternatively, create conditions that support healing and hope.
By weaving together personal experience and practice-based knowledge, this presentation seeks to amplify voices that are often absent from mental health conversations and to encourage a broader understanding of resilience as something cultivated collectively rather than achieved alone. Participants will leave with a deeper appreciation of how connection, compassion, and community can transform survival into healing.