Trauma & Stress

Emotional wounds that can form when a child goes through overwhelming, frightening, or painful experiences.

The fawn response is a survival reaction where a person tries to avoid danger by pleasing and appeasing others when they feel threatened. It's a coping pattern that commonly develops in people who experienced trauma during childhood.

Vivid and distressing dreams that occur during sleep, often experienced frequently after trauma.

A psychotherapy technique that uses eye movements to reprocess traumatic memories.

A specific, step-by-step coping plan created in advance to prepare for crisis situations. It provides clear behavioral guidelines to follow when urges to self-harm or suicidal thoughts arise.

Loss of safety is the state of feeling that the world is no longer safe after a traumatic or shocking experience. It involves the collapse of the sense of security that was once taken for granted.

An attachment wound is a deep emotional scar formed in childhood from relationships with caregivers who were unable to provide consistent safety, comfort, or love when it was needed most.

Attachment trauma is a deep psychological wound that occurs when a child's early bond with their primary caregiver is disrupted by abuse, neglect, inconsistency, or sudden separation — affecting how that person relates to others throughout life.

Verbal abuse refers to the use of words to wound someone's spirit and destroy their self-esteem. Repeated insults, criticism, threats, and ridicule can leave deep psychological trauma.

Historical trauma refers to the phenomenon where large-scale traumatic events experienced by a specific group or ethnic community are passed down across generations. The wounds of the past can continue to affect the mental health of people living today.

Role overload is a state of psychological and physical exhaustion that occurs when a person has too many roles and responsibilities to manage at once. It commonly appears when someone must simultaneously fulfill multiple roles at work, home, and in society.

Peritraumatic dissociation refers to dissociative experiences that occur during or immediately after a traumatic event. It can feel as though what is happening is occurring to someone else, or as if your sense of time has shifted.

Post-traumatic growth is when a person grows beyond their previous level and experiences positive changes through the process of overcoming trauma.

Trauma refers to when an overwhelming, shocking experience leaves a deep wound in the mind that is difficult to cope with.

Traumatic loss is the experience of losing someone precious in a sudden, shocking way — bringing grief and trauma together at the same time.

A mind-body practice that combines physical postures, breathing, and meditation, and is effective for stress management.

Regular exercise has positive psychological impacts, including improved mood, reduced stress, and enhanced cognitive function.

A crisis is a moment of intense emotional overwhelm when your usual ways of coping just aren't enough to get you through.

Also known as 'good stress,' eustress is a positive form of stress where an appropriate level of tension and excitement promotes motivation and personal growth. Stress isn't always a bad thing.

Medical trauma is the psychological distress that arises from medical experiences such as procedures, hospitalization, or diagnosis. The fear and helplessness felt during hospital visits or treatment can linger for a long time.

The opposite of the stress response, the relaxation response is a physiological state where you consciously calm both body and mind.

Secondary trauma is a traumatic stress response that develops from exposure to another person's trauma, even without directly experiencing it yourself.

Secondary traumatic stress is psychological distress resulting from indirect exposure to another person's traumatic experience, often through hearing or witnessing their trauma.

Racial trauma refers to the psychological wounds and distress caused by experiences of racism and discrimination. Whether directly experienced or witnessed, these encounters can leave a deep impact on a person's mental well-being.

Work-life balance means maintaining a healthy equilibrium between your professional responsibilities and your personal life.

Daily hassles are the minor, repetitive stressors of everyday life — things like traffic jams, work deadlines, and household chores. Though they seem small, they can accumulate and affect your mental health just as much as major life events.

Self-care refers to activities you consciously do to support your physical, emotional, and mental health.

Self-soothing is the ability to calm and stabilize yourself when you're feeling anxious or overwhelmed. It involves caring for yourself through the five senses or comforting activities.

A relaxation technique developed by psychiatrist Johannes Schultz that uses self-directed phrases to induce sensations of warmth and heaviness, helping the body shift into a calm, parasympathetic state.

Re-experiencing is a symptom where a person repeatedly relives a traumatic event through flashbacks, nightmares, and intrusive memories.

Disaster Mental Health is a field dedicated to protecting and restoring people's psychological well-being during and after disasters such as natural catastrophes or human-caused incidents. Because anyone can suffer emotional wounds in the aftermath of a disaster, systematic psychological support is essential.

Re-traumatization refers to the reactivation of original trauma responses when a person encounters situations or experiences similar to their past trauma. It can feel as though the original traumatic event is happening all over again.

The intense mental and physical stress that can happen during or after exposure to combat.

A condition involving symptoms of movement or sensation that are not explained by a typical neurological disease pattern.

A technique where you tense and release each muscle group one by one to achieve overall relaxation throughout your body.

The kindling effect is a phenomenon where repeated stress or trauma makes the brain increasingly sensitive, so that smaller and smaller triggers produce stronger reactions. It's like a spark that more and more easily ignites into a flame.

The intense stress response that follows experiencing or witnessing a shocking event like a disaster, accident, or violent incident.

A condition where intense grief after losing a loved one continues for so long that it interferes with daily life. Even as time passes, it becomes very difficult to move beyond the pain of loss.

Stress arising from the work environment, caused by excessive workload, interpersonal conflicts, role conflicts, and more.

Workplace trauma refers to deep psychological wounds caused by serious emotional shocks or repeated stress experienced at work. It can result from workplace bullying, unfair treatment, or excessive work pressure.

A shared wound that forms when a community goes through a devastating event together.

First responder trauma refers to the psychological wounds experienced by firefighters, police officers, paramedics, and others who are first to arrive at disaster or accident scenes. While saving others, these individuals can suffer deep harm to their own mental health.

Emotional trauma that can remain after a frightening or overwhelming birth experience.

A condition where the body's stress hormone, cortisol, is no longer released in its normal, healthy pattern.

Technostress is the stress you feel from excessive use of digital devices and technology, or from struggling to keep up with rapid technological changes.

The fight response is an instinctive survival reaction to perceived threats, where you prepare to confront and resist danger. It shows up as anger, aggression, and confrontational behavior — your body's natural defense mechanism to protect itself.

Coping with trauma means finding ways to heal emotionally after a deeply distressing experience and gradually rebuilding a sense of normal life.

Trauma responses are the various psychological and physical reactions that appear after experiencing a traumatic event.

A trauma narrative is a therapeutic process of organizing fragmented trauma memories into a coherent story told in your own words. It helps the brain process painful experiences as events that belong to the past.

A trauma bond is a powerful and irrational emotional attachment that forms between an abuser and a victim in an abusive relationship. It develops when cycles of abuse and intermittent kindness cause the victim to feel intense emotional dependency on the abuser.