Question 1: What is trauma and how would you define it?
Trauma is an event or events which overwhelms our capacity to cope. It is also the impact of the events.
It is important to differentiate the trauma of a single incident e.g. bushfire, flood, accident or single assault as an adult. This is often associated with PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder)… from complex trauma. Complex trauma is repeated often extreme or ongoing trauma experienced as a child, young person or adult, or at different ages. It usually occurs between people e.g. abuse, neglect, violence.
We are all individuals. This means that we all react differently to trauma. Our reactions depend on many different factors including culture, background, support etc. Each person’s experience is their experience, as are the impacts of those experiences. There is no value in seeing any hierarchy of trauma.
