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Understanding trauma
What is trauma?
A trauma is a psychologically
distressing event that is outside the
range of usual human experience.
Trauma often involves a sense of
intense fear, terror, and helplessness.
within its specific genetic potential, an
individual’s brain develops capabilities
suited for the ‘type’ of environment he or
she is raised in. Simply stated, children
reflect the world in which they are raised..
• In the face of interpersonal
trauma, all the systems of
the social brain become
shaped for offensive and
defensive purposes.
• A child growing up
surrounded by trauma and
unpredictability will only be
able to develop neural
systems and functional
capabilities that reflect this
disorganisation
If children are exposed to unmanageable
stress, and if caregivers are unable to help
them modulate their arousal they are
unable to organise themselves
physiologically and fail to categorise
experiences in a coherent fashion… At the
core of traumatic stress is a breakdown in
the capacity to regulate internal states.”
Van der Kolk & Courtois, 2005
The way the child is stimulated
and soothed shapes the brain’s
neurobiological structure.
What happens in the early
years has a direct impact on
the child’s capacity for living,
learning and relating as a
social being
Children exposed to consistent, predictable,
nurturing, and enriched experiences develop
neurobiological capabilities that increase their
chance for health, happiness, productivity,
and creativity, while children exposed to
neglectful, chaotic, and terrorizing
environments have an increased risk of
significant problems in all domains of
functioning.
Effects of overproduction of stress
hormone on child development
These functions may be diminished or lost:
 Ability to learn language and to speak
 Understanding feelings or having words to describe
them
 Connection between emotion and sensory experience
 Empathy
 Control of impulse
 Regulation of mood
 Short term memory
 Enjoyment
The Persisting Fear Response:
Developmental Trauma.
A child raised in an environment of chronic trauma (e.g.,
domestic violence, physical abuse, community violence)
will develop an excessively active and reactive stressresponse. Most stress response systems reside in the
brainstem and midbrain. Overdevelopment of these areas,
even in the presence of optimal emotional or cognitive
experience, may lead to a predisposition to act in an
aggressive, impulsive, behaviourally reactive fashion.
Child Trauma Academy
Developmental Neglect: Emotional or
Experiential Deprivation
If key experiences are minimal or absent then
poor regulation of impulsivity can occur and
immature emotional and behavioural functioning
may persist. The ability of the maturing brain to
modify impulsive and reactive responses in the
face of stress or frustration is decreased in
individuals deprived of specific developmental
experiences.
Child Trauma Academy
Neglect and Trauma: The
Malignant Combination
Emotional and cognitive neglect often occur in combination
with traumatic stress. The combination of a lack of critical
emotional experiences and persisting traumatic stress
leads to a dramatic alteration in the brain’s modulation and
regulation capacity. An overdevelopment of lower brain
functions (e.g., anxiety, impulsivity, poor affect regulation,
motor hyperactivity) and an underdevelopment of higher
brain functions (e.g., empathy, problem solving skills)
increases the risk of emotional and psychological problems
including violent behaviour.
Child Trauma Academy
The CT scan on the left is an image from a healthy
three year old with an average head size. The image
on the right is from a three year old child suffering from
severe sensory-deprivation neglect. This child's
brain is significantly smaller than average and has
abnormal development of cortex.
These images are from studies conducted by a team of
researchers from the Child Trauma Academy led by Bruce D.
Perry, M.D., Ph.D.
the most complex, severe and
persistent disorders after
trauma are those that follow
traumatic experience in the first
decade of life
What helps spontaneous recovery
from trauma?
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•
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Supportive attuned carer
Previous positive experience
Healthy coping skills
Early help to process the experience
What impedes spontaneous
recovery from trauma?
• Repeated or chronic trauma
• Actual injury of the child or someone
significant to them
• Caregiver also traumatised
• Trauma caused by family member or other
caregiver