Defining Trauma: What is Trauma?

Defining Trauma: What is Trauma?

As a trauma specialist, I’m often asked, “How do you define trauma?” Trauma is a word we hear and use often, but what does it really mean? Before defining trauma, it’s important to acknowledge that while tidy definitions are helpful, the essence of trauma is anything but. 

Trauma is often explained through many lenses. My own understanding is influenced by the leading voices in the field of trauma theory and somatic psychology. These leaders include Peter Levine, Bessel van der Kolk, Larry Heller and Donald Kalsched.

Now let’s take a closer look.

Trauma happens when something is “too much”

Consider that at any given moment your mind, body and psyche are processing innumerable pieces of information. It makes use of what it needs and gets rid of the rest. Take your gastrointestinal system, for example. When you eat an apple slowly, you’re giving your body time to take in what’s useful and discard what’s not. Taking the time allows you to absorb and metabolize the fruit. Imagine what would happen if you hurried through not just one apple, but four or five. Or what if you swallowed a whole bushel of apples all at once? Not only is it impossible to digest, but all the organs involved would suffer serious damage and collapse. 

This last scenario obviously couldn’t happen in real life, but the dramatization helps get us closer to defining trauma. An experience that is “too” anything for you to process (rapid, intense, terrifying, unexpected, prolonged, etc.) and that carries a direct threat to basic safety and survival is considered traumatic. The resulting effect is a fragmentation and shut down of your internal systems on a variety of levels.

To understand more about different categories of trauma, please read the next blogpost: “Defining Trauma: Understanding Types of Trauma.”