ABOUT
TRAUMA
Trauma is perhaps the most avoided, ignored, belittled, denied, misunderstood and untreated cause of human suffering
Trauma is defined
As a 'deeply distressing or disturbing experience’ and comes in many forms. It is usually thought of in terms of extreme and visible instances where we experience too much going into our brains; horrific accidents, war, disasters, childbirth, physical or sexual abuse, bullying, living through a global pandemic, and even witnessing violence.
Watching something traumatic happen can be as traumatising as being directly involved.
Issues resulting from trauma can include addictive or destructive behaviours, self harm, depression, anxiety, and somatic problems or illnesses, and can lead to a feeling of disempowerment or disconnection, and diagnoses such as PTSD and C-PTSD.
Not receiving what we need on an emotional level over a prolonged period of time can be a cause of trauma: examples of this are emotional or verbal abuse or neglect, developmental trauma.
Trauma is defined
As a 'deeply distressing or disturbing experience’ and comes in many forms. It is usually thought of in terms of extreme and visible instances where we experience too much going into our brains; horrific accidents, war, disasters, childbirth, physical or sexual abuse, bullying, living through a global pandemic, and even witnessing violence.
Watching something traumatic happen can be as traumatising as being directly involved.
Issues resulting from trauma can include addictive or destructive behaviours, self harm, depression, anxiety, and somatic problems or illnesses, and can lead to a feeling of disempowerment or disconnection, and diagnoses such as PTSD and C-PTSD.
Not receiving what we need on an emotional level over a prolonged period of time can be a cause of trauma: examples of this are emotional or verbal abuse or neglect, developmental trauma.
Trauma is defined
As a 'deeply distressing or disturbing experience’ and comes in many forms. It is usually thought of in terms of extreme and visible instances where we experience too much going into our brains; horrific accidents, war, disasters, childbirth, physical or sexual abuse, bullying, living through a global pandemic, and even witnessing violence.
Watching something traumatic happen can be as traumatising as being directly involved.
Issues resulting from trauma can include addictive or destructive behaviours, self harm, depression, anxiety, and somatic problems or illnesses, and can lead to a feeling of disempowerment or disconnection, and diagnoses such as PTSD and C-PTSD.
Not receiving what we need on an emotional level over a prolonged period of time can be a cause of trauma: examples of this are emotional or verbal abuse or neglect, developmental trauma.
The emotional attunement you receive from your parents through your childhood shapes how safe, connected and tethered in the world you feel, and this continues to be the blueprint you use as an adult. Some people can spend a lifetime trying to forget a few minutes of their childhood.
The emotional attunement you receive from your parents through your childhood shapes how safe, connected and tethered in the world you feel, and this continues to be the blueprint you use as an adult. Some people can spend a lifetime trying to forget a few minutes of their childhood.
In 1998, CDC-Kaiser Permanente published a groundbreaking study that investigated the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE’s) on physical and mental health problems in over 17,000 adults. During the study, the adults were asked about 10 different types of ACE’s. These included physical and mental abuse, neglect, household dysfunction, and if they had experienced them prior to the age of eighteen.
The study showed a direct correlation between ACE’s and future health and behavioural complications. (see ‘useful links’)
In 1998, CDC-Kaiser Permanente published a groundbreaking study that investigated the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE’s) on physical and mental health problems in over 17,000 adults. During the study, the adults were asked about 10 different types of ACE’s. These included physical and mental abuse, neglect, household dysfunction, and if they had experienced them prior to the age of eighteen.
The study showed a direct correlation between ACE’s and future health and behavioural complications. (see ‘useful links’)
Psychotherapist in training with
Psychotherapist in training with
Psychotherapist in training with
Psychotherapist in training with
Trauma can be historical, and passed on and experienced intergenerationally and/or collectively. Racism, slavery, war, genocide, systemic inequality, forcible removal from a family or community, are all examples of this.
We can also experience trauma vicariously. By listening or trying to support someone who has gone through a trauma, we can experience the symptoms ourselves. If you have experienced trauma hold yourself with compassion. It's likely that some emotions connected with the trauma are either unavailable to you or intermittently or relentlessly disturbing to you.
If the brain is under sufficient enough stress to cause trauma, it can suffer lasting changes and these changes produce symptoms and behaviours which at the time are helpful to us in managing ourselves in the world but may outgrow their usefulness when transferred into the present, and become negative or destructive.
The effects, through no fault of your own, can impact every dimension of your life - your relationships, your health, your sense of safety, and your self worth. There is hope, not only can you heal from the effects of trauma - you can emerge with more resilience, joy, and purpose than before.
Trauma can be historical, and passed on and experienced intergenerationally and/or collectively. Racism, slavery, war, genocide, systemic inequality, forcible removal from a family or community, are all examples of this.
We can also experience trauma vicariously. By listening or trying to support someone who has gone through a trauma, we can experience the symptoms ourselves. If you have experienced trauma hold yourself with compassion. It's likely that some emotions connected with the trauma are either unavailable to you or intermittently or relentlessly disturbing to you.
If the brain is under sufficient enough stress to cause trauma, it can suffer lasting changes and these changes produce symptoms and behaviours which at the time are helpful to us in managing ourselves in the world but may outgrow their usefulness when transferred into the present, and become negative or destructive.
The effects, through no fault of your own, can impact every dimension of your life - your relationships, your health, your sense of safety, and your self worth. There is hope, not only can you heal from the effects of trauma - you can emerge with more resilience, joy, and purpose than before.
Trauma is not what happens to you; trauma is what happens inside you as a result of what happens to you.
You might be reading this thinking that ‘trauma’ sounds a bit intense…
‘I’m not traumatised, I’m just feeling a bit out of sorts’ or ‘ what happened to me wasn't that bad, others have it worse…’.
Whether you personally experienced something as traumatic or not is down to your subjective experience of it rather than the event itself.
You might be reading this thinking that ‘trauma’ sounds a bit intense…
‘I’m not traumatised, I’m just feeling a bit out of sorts’ or ‘ what happened to me wasn't that bad, others have it worse…’.
Whether you personally experienced something as traumatic or not is down to your subjective experience of it rather than the event itself.
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