Date of Award
Spring 6-13-2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D. in Social Work
Organizational Unit
Graduate School of Social Work
First Advisor
Nicole Nicotera
Second Advisor
Ramona Beltrán
Third Advisor
Miriam Valdovinos
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
All Rights Reserved.
Keywords
Contemplative, Healing, Historical trauma, Intervention, Trauma, Vietnamese
Abstract
Fifty years after the Fall of Saigon, Vietnamese Americans remain impacted by historical trauma, though research on this topic remains emerging and shrouded by narratives of the model minority myth and assimilation. Historical trauma among Vietnamese Americans manifests itself mainly through a narrative of silence which erases the atrocities of the past, hinders family communication about traumas, impairs parent-child relationships, and impacts identity development. Given the dearth of intervention work, this study aims to contribute a healing-centered engagement perspective, guided by theories of collective growth and awareness-based contemplative healing. The present study examined the impact of a community-engaged, contemplative-based group intervention called Wellness, Emotional ALignment, and inTergenerational Healing (WEALTH) which was piloted twice at a major university in Denver. Participants were eligible if they identified as English-speaking Vietnamese Americans between the ages of 18 and 35. Of the 29 participants who enrolled, 24 participated in the group. Data were collected via group audio recordings, post-group evaluation forms, and individual post-group interviews. Narrative thematic analysis of group audio recordings was used to explore the collective experiences of participants in the WEALTH program. Analysis followed six phases including iterative systematic coding of data and generating thematic maps to further illustrate the rich connections between themes, subthemes, and sub-subthemes. The findings consist of three umbrella themes: Impacts of Historical Trauma, which reveal a web of systemic, community-level, family-level, and individual impacts of historical trauma stemming from the Vietnam War; Change and Healing, which pertain to the experiences of insight, new conversations, and healing catalyzed by participating in the WEALTH group; and Resistance, which denotes qualities of strength and opposition to suffering woven throughout the narratives of trauma and healing. The findings confirm the rooted presence of historical trauma within the Vietnamese American community which affect the mental health of second-generation Vietnamese Americans and manifest in numerous ways beyond clinical symptoms. The data also suggest the utility of collective interventions and contemplative practices for creating spaces of healing from historical trauma among Vietnamese Americans, with potential for cross-application to other contemporary refugee populations. Additional implications for practice and research are discussed.
Copyright Date
6-2025
Publication Statement
Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
Rights Holder
My Ngoc To
Provenance
Received from ProQuest
File Format
application/pdf
Language
English (eng)
Extent
236 pgs
File Size
7.4 MB
Recommended Citation
To, My Ngoc, "“It’s Really Bitter… But It’s Sweet”: Healing Historical Trauma among Vietnamese Americans in the WEALTH Program" (2025). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2610.
https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/2610
Included in
Asian American Studies Commons, Asian History Commons, Community-Based Research Commons, Family, Life Course, and Society Commons, Migration Studies Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, Social Work Commons, Sociology of Culture Commons