Trauma is any event that overwhelms a person’s ordinary capacity to cope. What Might Traumatize People? Illness and/or invasive surgery Giving birth Childhood hospitalization Death of loved ones Imprisonment Experiencing or witnessing a crime or traumatic event Accidents – after an auto accident, most people experience post traumatic stress Physical, mental, emotional and/or sexual abuse
Disconnection is part of many post traumatic experiences Disconnection • from calm Traumatic events jangle the nervous system, knock the breath out of people, and leave them in a state of high alert – disconnected from the capacity to calm and modulate their responses. • from trust After trauma, the disconnection from a sense of safety
Erratic storage of traumatic memories leaves many people with an incoherent or incomplete narrative of the traumatic event For instance, if several people witness the same traumatic event, they may each relate a different version. Deprived of real memories, the thinking brain spins its wheels in a futile attempt to talk about and understand the