What is Trauma? [Transcript]
What is trauma? Trauma is both a psychological and physiological experience. It occurs as a result of a severely distressing event, or a series of such events, that exceed a person’s normal capacity to cope. Trauma comes with a shock to a person’s nervous system, a sense of overwhelming, loss of emotional and/or physical safety, and the inability to escape that disorganizing situation. Simply put, trauma is an internal and/or external experience of everything becoming undone.
Traumatic experiences can be grouped into three distinct categories:
A single traumatic event
This can threaten a person’s survival or sense of security. Examples include:
- Being exposed to a terrorist attack or school shooting;
- Becoming a victim of violence, hate crime, sexual assault or rape, or witnessing such an event;
- Experiencing physical trauma or an acute life-threatening medical condition;
- Surviving a catastrophic event, such as a hurricane, flood, or a domestic fire
Prolonged exposure to traumatic stress
Examples include:
- Being in an abusive romantic or professional relationship, or ongoing domestic violence;
- Being bullied or harassed;
- Living with a chronic medical condition, such as cancer or HIV/AIDS;
- Being an immigrant or a refugee
Developmental trauma (childhood trauma)
This type of trauma occurs as a result of ongoing or repeated abuse, neglect, or abandonment by a parent, a family member, or any other significant interpersonal relationship where uneven power dynamic is present. Developmental trauma is not an event: it is a relationship that breaks bonds of attachment and a secure sense of self.
Examples include:
- Being repeatedly called names, degraded, shamed;
- Having an emotionally unstable parent, or a parent who is an alcoholic or an addict;
- Being physically or sexually abused;
- Having basic needs neglected or threatened as a punishment;
- Growing up LGBTQ in a homophobic, heteronormative family or a community
[av_button_big label=’Watch Our Webinar’ description_pos=’below’ link=’page,6235′ link_target=” icon_select=’no’ icon=’ue800′ font=’entypo-fontello’ custom_font=’#ffffff’ color=’theme-color’ custom_bg=’#444444′ color_hover=’theme-color’ custom_bg_hover=’#444444′ admin_preview_bg=” av_uid=’av-1tt6hj’]
Getting Out of the Rabbit Hole.
Understanding and Healing Trauma
[/av_button_big]
If you’re interested in seeking treatment for trauma, check out our trauma treatment services.
https://studio.youtube.com/video/j6VFGAFCmXk/edit
- Why It is Important to be in Therapy While Taking Medication - May 10, 2019
- Three Ways We Disconnect - March 21, 2019
- What is Motivation and How it Works - January 3, 2019
3 comments
Great job! I especially like that HIV/AIDS was added to the list of potential traumatic experiences because there is so much stigma around it that folks forget about that trauma involved.
Thanks so much for your outstanding Webinar, Elena! It has been helping several of my clients to understand the various categories of trauma.
What about racism and inter-generational trauma? You seem to have left that out.