Understanding Developmental Trauma (Core Competencies: 1.5; 1.6; 2.2; 2.3; 2.9; 3.5; 3.7; 4.6; 4.10) Consumer activism and emerging science about brain development have contributed to a shift in how human services are provided. Services are much more effective when they are provided in a trauma-informed way or a way in which perspectives are shifted to see behaviors as adaptations. Just as it is important for service providers to shift their perspective, it is much more hopeful for a person with trauma to understand themselves through a trauma-informed lens. This means that the root of their behavior is due to changes in their physiological response system and does not mean they are just a bad person. For purposes of this training course, this is how trauma will be defined: Trauma refers to extreme stress like a threat to life or bodily harm, which overwhelms a person’s ability to cope. It is important to note that trauma is very subjective. What is traumatic to one person may not be traumatic to another, even if both experienced the same event. Trauma often leaves people feeling vulnerable and helpless and may result in significant fear. It interferes with relationships and beliefs that a person has about themselves and their place in the world. It affects neurodevelopment, resulting in physiological dysregulation and heightened stress responses. Trauma is universal and it happens regardless of age, culture, gender, socioeconomic class, and so on. It lives in the body, whether a person is consciously aware of it or not. Trauma changes people on a cellular level. Acute trauma versus complex trauma People with acute trauma often struggle with re-experiencing the situation. They may have disturbing memories and thoughts, dreams, and flashbacks, with intense psychological (relating to a mental or emotional state) or physiological (relating to the physical state) distress. This includes hyperarousal in which the body stays in high alert. Hyperarousal often causes difficulty going to or staying asleep, paying attention, and having an exaggerated startle response. Being in this hypervigilant mode is stressful on a person’s body and can cause them to seem angry and irritable. People also may experience avoidance and seem detached, numb, or disengaged from the real world. They may seem to be daydreaming or spacing out and appear to be uncaring or unmotivated. Complex trauma is trauma that happens early in life while the brain is still developing. This extreme or toxic stress can occur when a child experiences strong, frequent, and/ or prolonged adversity without adequate adult support and can create an engrained response in the person’s physiological system. There is a significant amount of stigma associated with it and individuals often experience tremendous vulnerability. When
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