Language of Trauma
Below are common terms related to trauma and healing, especially as they relate to EMDR therapy. It includes words that describe different types of trauma, how trauma affects people, and ways to support recovery.
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The psychological impact experienced when adapting to a new culture, often including identity conflict, isolation, and pressure to assimilate.
Trauma resulting from a single incident.
A self-report tool used to assess exposure to 10 types of traumatic or stressful events during childhood (before age 18), including abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction. The questionnaire helps identify individuals at risk for long-term health and psychological challenges associated with early adversity.
Difficulty managing emotional responses to situations or stress.
The emotional bond formed between individuals, particularly between children and caregivers, which can be impacted by trauma.
A self-report tool designed to assess positive, protective experiences during childhood, such as supportive relationships and safe environments, that can foster resilience and mitigate the effects of trauma. It helps identify factors that contribute to emotional well-being and mental health despite adversity.
Trauma resulting from repeated and prolonged exposure to highly stressful events.
Trauma experienced by a group of people, community, or society, often due to war, disaster, or systemic violence.
Collective, culturally grounded processes that address trauma through shared rituals, storytelling, ceremony, and support.
Exposure to multiple, varied traumatic events, often of an invasive, interpersonal nature, typically over a long period.
A lifelong process of self-reflection and learning, acknowledging power imbalances and striving to understand and respect clients’ cultural identities and experiences.
Creating a therapeutic environment where clients feel safe expressing their cultural identity without fear of discrimination or judgment.
The impact of historical and systemic oppression, marginalization, or violence experienced by a group, affecting collective identity and functioning.
An approach to healing that centers indigenous, ancestral, and non-Western ways of knowing, being, and healing; often a response to the limitations of traditional Western models.
Trauma experienced in childhood that affects physical, emotional, cognitive, and social development.
Dissociation is a mental disconnection from one’s thoughts, emotions, memories, body, sense of self, or sense of identity. It is often a protective mechanism that develops in response to trauma, enabling individuals to distance themselves from overwhelming or traumatic experiences. It is typically the downregulation version of an abreaction. While it can be adaptive in the short term, unresolved dissociation can interfere with trauma reprocessing.
Strategies used to help individuals stay connected to the present moment and reduce dissociation or distress.
Cumulative emotional and psychological wounds passed down across generations within a specific cultural group, caused by massive group trauma (e.g., genocide, slavery, colonization, displacement).
A state of heightened alertness and sensitivity to potential threats.
Traditional ways of addressing trauma and restoring balance, which may include ceremonies, connection to land, storytelling, and involvement of elders.
Trauma passed down from one generation to the next, often through behaviors, attachment styles, or epigenetic changes.
A framework for understanding how different aspects of a person’s identity (e.g., race, gender, sexuality, class) intersect and contribute to unique experiences of trauma and oppression.
Unwanted, distressing thoughts, images, or memories related to the trauma.
Subtle, often unintentional, discriminatory comments or behaviors that can accumulate over time and contribute to trauma, particularly in marginalized communities.
A mental health condition triggered by a terrifying event, causing flashbacks, nightmares, and severe anxiety.
Psychotraumatology refers to the study of psychological trauma, which includes treatment, prevention, and research of experiences perceived as traumatic and the responses to those experiences. It is a discipline that includes neurobiological developments, forms of trauma exposure, and its impact across the lifespan, including consequences such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and Complex PTSD (Olff et al, 2019).
The emotional and psychological harm caused by experiences of racism, discrimination, and microaggressions.
The ability to recover from or adapt to adversity or trauma.
Experiencing a new trauma or being reminded of a past trauma in a way that causes renewed emotional distress.
Symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that result from indirect exposure to trauma (e.g., hearing detailed trauma accounts).
The expression of psychological distress through physical symptoms.
Trauma refers to an emotional and psychological response to an event or a series of events that exceeds an individual’s ability to cope either by direct experience or witnessing (indirect) exposure.
These event(s) impact thought quality, behavior, emotions, neurological fight/flight/freeze/fawn reactivity, or other aspects of functioning and healthy regulation. This can result in lasting symptoms of fear, helplessness, dissociation, confusion, or others and disrupts a person’s belief about themselves or the world around them. Traumatic experiences may be singular events or chronic and persistent environmental states, which include human actions (e.g. rape, accidents, war, oppression, childhood abuse), natural forces (e.g. earthquakes), sudden or unpredictable losses (e.g. death of loved one), and medical experiences (e.g. medical diagnosis, progression of symptoms).
Psychotherapy that specifically addresses the impact of trauma, such as EMDR or Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT).
An approach that acknowledges the widespread impact of trauma and seeks to avoid re-traumatization.
Internal or external cues that remind someone of a traumatic event and provoke a response.
Emotional residue from exposure to others’ trauma, often experienced by caregivers or professionals.
The optimal zone of arousal where a person can function effectively; outside of it are states of hyperarousal and hypoarousal.
