What is Trauma?

It’s the start of a new year so we thought we’d go back and start at the very beginning, it is after all a very good place to start.

I remember when we first learned about trauma and its impacts, and how that new knowledge impacted me. Learning about trauma changed me in two very important ways:

• It made me empathetic
• It made me compassionate

I think we need to look at Complex Developmental Trauma (CDT) and the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACES) with some amount of frequency to help keep us filled with empathy and compassion.

So let’s briefly look at what creates trauma in a child’s life.

• Stress and harm during pregnancy
• Complications during delivery
• Early medical trauma
• Abuse
  • Physical Abuse
  • Emotional Abuse
  • Sexual Abuse
• Neglect
  • Physical Neglect
  • Emotional Neglect
• Other Trauma
• Household Dysfunction
  • Mental illness
  • Incarcerated relative
  • Mother treated violently
  • Substance abuse
  • Divorce
• System effects

Click on the image below to listen to the latest episode of The Empowered Parent Podcast where we discuss “What is Trauma?”