Why Is Trauma Important?

Sitting in the middle of the floor was a sixteen year old girl who had just finished a basketball game. Usually after games, the girl would sit with the rest of the team to watch the boys play. Instead, the girl walked out of the gym with tears freely falling from her cheeks hoping nobody would notice them. After she had sat down, a few members of the team noticed her absence and went looking for her. The reason the girl didn’t want to be seen with tears was because some others on the team had been experiencing the same thing that she was. What this girl was experiencing was emotional trauma created by her male coach. The

Adults who suffer from social development issues stemming from childhood trauma are at risk due to their inability to establish healthy relationships, convey feelings, thoughts, and emotions in a healthy manner, and they can lack the ability of self motivation and self growth. Trauma, including one-time, multiple, or long-lasting repetitive events, affects everyone differently, some individuals exhibit negative social outcomes while others are resilient and have positive learning experience from their traumatic experience. The way that an adult responds to past traumatic experience when it resurfaces indicates the toll it took on their decision making process throughout their life until the point of resurface.

Trauma can be defined as an event or experience that hinders an individual’s ability to cope (Covington, 2008). These experiences have the power to alter biology and brain function, especially earlier on in life. Trauma can change an individual’s world-view, impacting their sense of self. This can lead to difficulties with self-regulation and higher incidences of impulsive behavior (Markoff et al., 2005). Often, individuals who have endured traumatic incidences turn to self-medication as a form of coping (De Bellis, 2002).

The term “Psychological trauma” refers to damage wrought from a traumatic event, which that damages one’s ability to cope with stressors. “Trauma” is commonly defined as an exposure to a situation in which a person is confronted with an event that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to self or others’ physical well-being (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Specific types of client trauma frequently encountered by which therapists and other mental health workers frequently encounter in a clinical setting include sexual abuse, physical , or sexual assault, natural disasters such as earthquakes or tsunamis, domestic violence, and school or/and work related violence (James & Gilliland, 2001). Traumatic

Trauma is perceived as a physical or psychological threat or assault to a person’s physical integrity, sense of self, safety and/or survival or to the physical safety of a significant other; family member, friend, partner. (Kilpatrick, Saunders, and Smith, 2003). An adolescent may experience trauma from a variety of experiences, including but not limited to: abuse (sexual, physical, and/or emotional); neglect; abandonment; bullying; exposure to domestic violence and/ or community violence; natural disasters; medical procedures; loss/grief due to a death of a family member(s); surgery; accidents or serious illness; and war (Kilpatrick, Saunders, and Smith, 2003).

Trauma is an individual’s visceral reaction to a horrible event, events such as early childhood traumas, accidents, sexual abuse, or community violence (apa.org, 2016). An individual may react with shock and denial in the aftermath. As time continues some reactions may comprise of mood swings, intrusive memories, difficulties maintaining relationships and can manifest into physical symptoms to include headache or upset stomach. There are individuals who experience difficulties functioning in their daily lives; these observable responses are a normal response to the trauma (apa.org, 2016).

Trauma occurs when a child has experienced an event that threatens or causes harm to her emotional and physical well-being. Events can include war, terrorism, natural disasters, but the most common and harmful to a child’s psychosocial well-being are those such as domestic violence, neglect, physical and sexual abuse, maltreatment, and witnessing a traumatic event. While some children may experience a traumatic event and go on to develop normally, many children have long lasting implications into adulthood.

These negative effects are often called vicarious or secondary traumas. For instance, a clinician might hear the individual’s traumatic story and feel shocked, which can lead to changes in behavior, mood, and relationships. The clinician may also have intrusive thoughts concerning the individual’s traumatic story. Thus, it is important to have a plan to counteract these changes. It is vital for counselors to increase their education on trauma, such as attending workshops and conferences, reading books and articles, and attending webinars specifically for trauma. Clinician’s can also speak with other helping professionals who work with trauma victims to normalize their feelings and behaviors. As always, counselors can go speak with their supervisor when they are in this

Anybody can experience trauma, whether it’s a man, a woman, or even a child. In fact, over half of the population is expected to experience trauma at least once in their lifetimes. However, everyone will respond to trauma in their own, unique, way, making it difficult to properly equip people with the tools needed to heal from trauma in the event they experience it. Whereas the responses a person and his or her body will have in the event of heart attack have been narrowed down to a small list, and can easily be conveyed to the public through general guidelines or PSAs, the responses a person will have to trauma can range anywhere from shrugging it off to suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This is why the role of mental health professionals, such as therapists, is crucial in regards to helping sufferers of trauma. These professionals are specially trained to be capable of identifying and understanding the responses a person is having to a traumatic experience, as well as the optimal ways to go about the healing process. In Daniel Gilbert’s Stumbling on Happiness, specifically the chapter titled “Immune to Reality,” he analyzes what he calls the psychological immune system, a defence mechanism of the psyche which plays a prominent role in how a person will respond in the event of trauma. While Gilbert outlines the mechanisms that cause people to respond to trauma in the way that they do, Dana Becker, author of One Nation Under Stress, looks at the actual

Debbie had many risk factors involved in her childhood and as she continued to grow up. One risk factor that had impacted her childhood family is that of social acceptance of violence. Debbie’s parents were not only accepting of the violence between their children but they were also promoting it. These violent views and values put Debbie at risk for child maltreatment and abuse as well as social and emotional issues as an adult. Debbie was in a higher risk of maltreatment being the youngest girl then that of her brothers and older sister.

However, Shafran and his associates researched the topic through studying mental representations, examining how one experiences themselves and others. The method used was the Core Conflictual Relationship Theme (CCRT), which assesses central relationship patterns. The relationship patterns have three core components: the person’s wishes, an actualized response from the other party, and the realistic response from oneself. It was found that there is a significant association between relationship patterns and specific psychopathologies and conditions. For example, Shafran explained that for major depressive disorder, the common wish was “to be close and accepting,” while the response of the other party was “rejecting and opposing” and the individual responded by feeling “helpless, disappointed, and depressed.” Similarly, the same pattern was found in adult male combat veterans with PTSD. However, this systematic pattern and association can be extended further; young trauma victims with diagnosed PTSD exhibited specific relationship patterns that were specifically associated with certain types of childhood trauma. In other words, different forms of trauma, whether sexual, emotional or physical. Therefore, it is evident that trauma in childhood plays a role in the trajectory

Because of the depiction made within the media, I also assumed that victims of childhood trauma were only able to overcome through the use of therapeutic care. Therapeutic care is often depicted as the only option that victims use that will ensure that they do not fall into a state of depression or begin to abuse drugs. It is rare to see movies where they are promoting social relationships as a bonus to the use of therapeutic services. Although it is not often depicted, social relationships do help in the quest to overcome the horrors of childhood trauma. Social relationships are any form of bonds created between a person and their

The research has also helped this writer learn ways to engage clients who have experienced childhood trauma, and challenging attachments. In the future, I would like to become a trauma therapist, and Goldsmith et al., (2014) stated that an ethical approach to trauma addresses all factors that are scientifically linked to trauma and its effects. This includes understanding the ways that trauma affects attachment. They further stated that having a narrow approach to trauma could hurt survivors emotionally, medically, and financially (Goldsmith et al., 2014). My primary goal in work with clients is to first, do no harm. I think this includes respecting individuals, their stories, and their boundaries. This is one major way I plan to bring my learnings

When I decided to take the trauma course, I was hesitant at first to take it. I did not know what to expect nor felt I would be prepare listen to stories about traumatic occurrences, despite of the number of years I have worked in the field of community mental health. Therefore, now that we are in week eight, I am delighted to have taken this course. The impression I had at first, has changed my insight concerning what is trauma, as for many years, I did not understand why a person in many instances, could not process their trauma. In a quote by Chang stated, “The greater the doubt, the greater the awakening; the smaller the doubt, the smaller the awakening. No doubt, no awakening” (Van Der Kolk, 2014, p. 22). The goes in congruence with my understanding on trauma and how it has changed during this course. As a result, I feel I am awakening when acquiring more about trauma.

Thompson and colleagues (2009): Physical and sexual abuse was moderately positively correlated with positive symptom severity (especially grandiosity) among ethnic minority participants (N=17), while general trauma was positively correlated with affective symptoms among Caucasian participants (N=13).