Psychological Trauma
Definition of trauma
•Trauma is an individual’s response to an emotionally distressing and unexpected event which overwhelms their capacity to manage. It can be a single event or enduring activity, which completely overwhelms the individual’s ability to manage the emotions associated with the experience. Traumatic events shatter an individual’s assumptions of trust, and shake the basis of their beliefs about safety.
•Research has clearly demonstrated the link between severe abuse and traumatic responses in children.
What are the signs of trauma?
•Traumatic experiences often involve a threat to life or safety, but any situation that leaves you feeling overwhelmed and alone can be traumatic, even if it doesn’t involve physical harm.
•It’s not the objective facts that determine whether an event is traumatic, but your subjective emotional experience of the event. The more frightened and helpless you feel, the more likely you are to be traumatized.
• A stressful event is most likely to be traumatic if:
•It happened unexpectedly.
•You were unprepared for it.
•You felt powerless to prevent it.
•It happened repeatedly.
•Someone was intentionally cruel.
It happened in childhood.
CHILD ABUSE Child abuse is defined as "any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation, an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm".
The four main types of abuse are physical, sexual, psychological, and neglect.
Neglect
Neglect is the instance in which the responsible adult fails to adequately provide for various needs, including physical (failure to provide adequate food clothing, or hygiene), emotional (failure to provide nurturing or affection) or educational (failure to enroll a child in school)
Poverty
Poverty refers to the condition of not having the means to afford basic human needs such as clean water, nutrition,
•Trauma is an individual’s response to an emotionally distressing and unexpected event which overwhelms their capacity to manage. It can be a single event or enduring activity, which completely overwhelms the individual’s ability to manage the emotions associated with the experience. Traumatic events shatter an individual’s assumptions of trust, and shake the basis of their beliefs about safety.
•Research has clearly demonstrated the link between severe abuse and traumatic responses in children.
What are the signs of trauma?
•Traumatic experiences often involve a threat to life or safety, but any situation that leaves you feeling overwhelmed and alone can be traumatic, even if it doesn’t involve physical harm.
•It’s not the objective facts that determine whether an event is traumatic, but your subjective emotional experience of the event. The more frightened and helpless you feel, the more likely you are to be traumatized.
• A stressful event is most likely to be traumatic if:
•It happened unexpectedly.
•You were unprepared for it.
•You felt powerless to prevent it.
•It happened repeatedly.
•Someone was intentionally cruel.
It happened in childhood.
CHILD ABUSE Child abuse is defined as "any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation, an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm".
The four main types of abuse are physical, sexual, psychological, and neglect.
Neglect
Neglect is the instance in which the responsible adult fails to adequately provide for various needs, including physical (failure to provide adequate food clothing, or hygiene), emotional (failure to provide nurturing or affection) or educational (failure to enroll a child in school)
Poverty
Poverty refers to the condition of not having the means to afford basic human needs such as clean water, nutrition,