What is Trauma?

What is Trauma? What makes an experience traumatic? As therapists, in order to treat trauma, we first have to understand what trauma is and what it's not. In this video, Tori provides an overview of the causes and types of trauma and how these experiences often lead to symptoms of PTSD in our clients. She differentiates between single event trauma or "big T" trauma and "little t" trauma that arises from chronic stressors or emotional abuse. For example, stress during childhood can lead to attachment trauma. Other examples of "little t" or chronic traumas are racial trauma or insidious trauma.

Trauma is not an event. Trauma is the impact of the experience on our nervous system. That's why the same event can lead to PTSD symptoms for one person and not for another. Hallmarks of trauma are feeling overwhelmed, powerless, helpless, humiliated or trapped. What we describe as the symptoms of PTSD is really just the result of the way that our brain becomes rewired in an attempt to avoid ever experiencing these intolerable feelings again. This "survival mode," a state of hyper-arousal or hypo-arousal and avoidance can begin to have a negative impact on our relationships, physical health and self esteem and can lead to substance abuse and depression.

Trauma therapy promotes neural integration and works to help our clients to return to a state of empowerment and resilience. This video is the first chapter from Tori's course on Ethical Trauma Treatment. If you're interested in earning Ethics CEUs while learning about experiential and neurobiologically informed approaches to trauma treatment, you can purchase my full three hour course here:

https://toriolds.com/ethical-trauma-t...

00:00 What is Trauma
04:50 Types of Trauma
06:14 "Small t" Trauma
07:00 Attachment Trauma