You're proud of your family's legacy. What does it mean to carry it forward?
You know about the sacrifices, the tight finances, the people left behind. You may understand why your parents valued security, why certain feelings went unspoken or why disappointing the family feels so difficult.
That understanding can leave little room for exhaustion, anger, and grief over what was sacrificed.
Perhaps you are the person everyone calls to translate, solve problems, or settle arguments. As the next generation your family relies on, making your own choices about relationships, career, or the future can feel like letting them down.
At Your Story Counselling, we support adults exploring intergenerational trauma, inherited family roles and cultural expectations. Therapy makes room for what you have carried, the connections you value and the choices you want to make now.
What happens when the role you played growing up follows you into adulthood?
Perhaps you were a parentified child, navigating responsibilities and boundaries beyond your years. You may have discussed your childhood and recognized recurring family patterns, yet still wonder what to do next. Psychotherapy can help you deepen your understanding and find a way forward that feels right for you and the people you care about.
Some of these experiences may feel familiar.
What is intergenerational trauma?
Intergenerational trauma describes how the effects of traumatic experiences in one generation can affect later generations. Those effects may involve relationships, caregiving, family stories or silences, and the conditions in which a family continues to live. Research explores these patterns across families and communities affected by violence, persecution and other historical harms. Read more from the American Psychological Association.
In therapy, this can mean exploring how earlier experiences of danger, loss or instability relate to present-day expectations about safety, emotion, responsibility and trust.
Family conflict, cultural differences and high expectations do not automatically mean intergenerational trauma. You can seek support for the effect these experiences have on your life without deciding on a label first.
Your family’s history also includes sources of care, knowledge, resistance, humour and connection. Those belong in the conversation, too.
Therapy that understands family within a wider history
Families live within social and material conditions. Migration, racism, displacement, financial insecurity and pressure to fit into unfamiliar institutions can shape what people have to do to get through daily life.
For some families, children take on adult responsibilities because language access or practical support is missing.
Education and career choices may carry the weight of financial security for several people. Keeping difficulties private may reflect experiences of being judged or mistreated outside the home.
Your therapist understands the complexities that culture, migration, and generational trauma can bring to the decisions we make on a day-to-day basis. Together in therapy, you can explore those circumstances alongside the impact they have on you, and ultimately how you want to move forward in navigating them.
Understanding why something happened can be meaningful. There also needs to be room to name harm, recognize responsibility and consider what you need now.
Our approach makes space for both the relationships you want to preserve and the changes you want to make.
More choice within the relationships that matter to you
Closeness with family, shared housing, financial support and community responsibility can be important parts of your life.
Therapy can help you examine whether those arrangements leave room for consent, rest, privacy and your own needs. Your therapist can also consider the practical realities of changing them, including housing, money, caregiving and safety.
There are many complexities with these decisions and there is no right or wrong answer. Every family has its own unique circumstances, and therapy is a space that allows you to really unpack those considerations so that you can create a custom plan tailored to suit the best needs for you and your family.
The work might involve:
Choosing how you offer help without being driven by guilt or repeatedly exhausting yourself.
Navigating difficult family conversations and responses.
Building relationships and community where you can receive care.
Acknowledging the hurt that feels too painful or taboo
to admit.
Navigating the grief of what we cannot change
Honoring the traditions and commitments you want to continue the legacy of.
Your goals may include greater closeness, different boundaries, more privacy or distance from a harmful relationship. Those decisions should reflect your circumstances and values.
Meet clinicians who understand you and the family you come from.
Our psychotherapists bring varied lived experiences and professional expertise.
Connect today for a free consultation to find your best fit.
Amy Lee
MSW, RSW, Psychotherapist
For intergenerational trauma, immigrant-family experiences and feeling responsible for others.
Amy’s practice explicitly includes intergenerational trauma, self-esteem and relationship concerns. As a first-generation Korean Canadian immigrant, she describes how racism, settlement stress and family expectations informed her understanding of identity and belonging. Her approach centres the therapeutic relationship, with attention to how past harm affects present life and relationships. She may resonate with you if caring for others has often meant overlooking your own needs.
Online Only
Ontario
Xenia Kwan
MSc, Registered Psychotherapist
For cultural identity, family relationships and making choices grounded in your values.
Xenia works with cultural identity, interpersonal conflict, grief and life transitions. Her relational approach considers your experiences alongside your relationships and the wider social world. She may be a good fit if you want to explore family expectations, belonging or the effect of past experiences on how you relate to others. Her work emphasises collaboration, curiosity and personal agency.
Vaughan & Markham
Ontario
Aqsa Javaid
MACP, Registered Psychotherapist
For trauma, relational wounds and the pressure of high expectations.
Aqsa’s experience includes trauma, perfectionism, identity conflicts and the impact of environments where emotional expression was discouraged. She brings a culturally responsive, relational approach and training across several therapeutic methods, including parts-based, emotional and somatic approaches. Her work may resonate if you have felt silenced, misunderstood or expected to remain strong while carrying considerable distress. She may be a good fit if you want to explore family expectations, belonging or the effect of past experiences on how you relate to others. Her work emphasises collaboration, curiosity and personal agency.
Vaughan
Ontario
Christina Tawdrous
MACP, Registered Psychotherapist
For family expectations, cultural identity and relationship patterns shaped by your upbringing.
Christina supports individuals and couples exploring how family, culture and early experiences shape their relationships, sense of identity and ability to express their needs. As an Arab-Canadian who grew up navigating Middle Eastern family traditions alongside life in Canada, she brings a personal understanding of balancing different cultural expectations. Her collaborative, culturally responsive approach makes room for both your own needs and the relationships you value. She may be a good fit if setting boundaries brings guilt, family expectations create tension with your partner or you find yourself repeating familiar relationship patterns. Together, you can explore where those patterns began and consider what you want to carry forward or change. She brings a culturally responsive, relational approach and training across several therapeutic methods, including parts-based, emotional and somatic approaches. Her work may resonate if you have felt silenced, misunderstood or expected to remain strong while carrying considerable distress. She may be a good fit if you want to explore family expectations, belonging or the effect of past experiences on how you relate to others. Her work emphasizes collaboration, curiosity and personal agency.
Online Only
Ontario
Fees and appointment options
The practice’s published individual therapy fees are:
Therapy Category | Fees |
|---|---|
Supervised therapist interns | $0–$75, subject to availability and suitability. |
Senior clinicians | $190 |
Registered Psychotherapists (Qualifying) | $140 |
Associate Registered Psychotherapists and Social Workers | $160–$170 |
Appointments are generally 50–60 minutes, and all amounts are in CAD.
Confirm the exact fee and appointment type with your selected clinician.
Reduced-fee options vary by provider and suitability for your concern. If using benefits, check coverage for the clinician’s professional designation and service.
In-person in Vaughan and Markham or online in Ontario
Vaughan office
Xenia and Aqsa list Vaughan appointments. Contact the team about current openings and fit for your concerns.
20 Floral Parkway, Unit A3
Vaughan, ON L4K 4R1
Markham office
Xenia lists Markham appointments. Ask about her availability or help finding another suitable clinician.
Check individual profiles for current appointment options. For directions or accessibility questions, contact our team.
7030 Woodbine Avenue, Suite 500
Markham, ON L3R 6G2
Online Ontario care
Amy offers online care only. Xenia and Aqsa also list online appointments. Ask about current availability and arrangements for meeting while you are in Ontario.
For directions, accessibility questions or help choosing:
1-888-310-3652
Questions about intergenerational trauma
Make room for your life alongside the people you care about.
You may want to keep supporting your family while changing what is expected of you. You may be grieving what was missing or trying to build relationships where your needs can be spoken.
A consultation gives you a chance to describe what you are carrying and ask how a therapist would approach it with you.