The Many Sizes and Shapes of Trauma

The word trauma often invokes images of soldiers in combat or of physical or sexual abuse, usually a violent experience.

A more recent understanding of trauma asserts that each person experiences and processes experiences differently, therefore an experience that is traumatizing to one person may be completely benign to another.

Experiences that most people encounter in their lifetime could prove to be traumatizing to them. Examples of this are the birth of a child, loss of a job, or a relationship that ends unexpectedly. This is based on each individual’s perception of the experience and the way that it affects their life.

Since these common life experiences are not usually classified as “traumatic” they are often not given the attention that is needed in order to process and integrate them into our subconscious. The result are fragmented pieces of the self that are not integrated to form a healthy, whole person. Some symptoms that could result from trauma are: sadness, anxiety, difficulty sleeping, disassociation, inability to focus, substance abuse and other addictions.
By identifying personal events that have caused some degree of trauma and processing these events in therapy a client is able to gain a better understanding of how these events are affecting their lives. The next step would be to recognize symptoms that arise as a result of the trauma and develop coping skills for future times when the problematic symptoms arise.