Trauma Background and Resources
For support in a crisis please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or in an emergency please call 000
Other useful contacts can be found here
Other useful contacts can be found here
What Is Trauma?
Trauma is a psychological and physiological response to a deeply distressing event or experience. It occurs when both internal and external resources are inadequate to cope with external threat, and is characterised by an individual’s experience of an event, rather than the event itself. Trauma refers to intense or overwhelming experiences that involve serious loss, threat or harm to a person’s physical and/or emotional wellbeing.
Trauma is often characterised by feelings of
Traumatic experiences can occur at any time in a person’s life and can occur due to a single event or repeated events over many years. People experience trauma in different ways. Some events may have little impact on one person, but cause severe distress in another.
(Trauma is very common. Studies suggest that between 57-75% of Australians will experience some form of trauma during their lifetimes.)
Types of Trauma
Single Incident: occurs as a result of a single event (such as an accident, act of violence or natural disaster. This type of trauma is commonly associated with PTSD
Complex Trauma: Cumulative, repetitive and often involves another person. Includes abuse in all forms (sexual, physical, emotional and neglect). It is particularly harmful if it occurs in childhood and where the source of trauma is a person who has a caregiving and trusting relationship, and is meant to be a source of safety. (Mental Health Coordinating Council [MHCC], 2013). Key features of complex trauma include a more complex and tenacious set of symptoms, major personality changes and greater risk of further harm
Intergenerational Trauma: Passed from a generation of survivors who directly experienced the event to future generations. Trauma can be passed on through parenting practices, behavioural problems, violence, harmful substance use and mental health issues.
Vicarious Trauma: Negative experiences from a helper that results from engaging with trauma survivors and their stories, combined with a commitment or responsibility to help them.
Trauma and Disability
Impacts of Trauma
In the first days and weeks after a traumatic event, people often experience strong feelings of fear, sadness, guilt, anger, or grief. As they begin to make sense of what has happened to them, these feelings usually begin to subside. Most people will recover quite quickly with the support of family and friends. For some people though, a traumatic event can lead to mental health issues such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, alcohol and drug use, as well as impacting on their relationships with family, friends, and at work.
The impacts of trauma can have lasting effects on every aspect of a person’s life.
Trauma is a psychological and physiological response to a deeply distressing event or experience. It occurs when both internal and external resources are inadequate to cope with external threat, and is characterised by an individual’s experience of an event, rather than the event itself. Trauma refers to intense or overwhelming experiences that involve serious loss, threat or harm to a person’s physical and/or emotional wellbeing.
Trauma is often characterised by feelings of
- Intense fear
- Powerlessness or helplessness
- Overwhelmed coping skills
Traumatic experiences can occur at any time in a person’s life and can occur due to a single event or repeated events over many years. People experience trauma in different ways. Some events may have little impact on one person, but cause severe distress in another.
(Trauma is very common. Studies suggest that between 57-75% of Australians will experience some form of trauma during their lifetimes.)
Types of Trauma
Single Incident: occurs as a result of a single event (such as an accident, act of violence or natural disaster. This type of trauma is commonly associated with PTSD
Complex Trauma: Cumulative, repetitive and often involves another person. Includes abuse in all forms (sexual, physical, emotional and neglect). It is particularly harmful if it occurs in childhood and where the source of trauma is a person who has a caregiving and trusting relationship, and is meant to be a source of safety. (Mental Health Coordinating Council [MHCC], 2013). Key features of complex trauma include a more complex and tenacious set of symptoms, major personality changes and greater risk of further harm
Intergenerational Trauma: Passed from a generation of survivors who directly experienced the event to future generations. Trauma can be passed on through parenting practices, behavioural problems, violence, harmful substance use and mental health issues.
Vicarious Trauma: Negative experiences from a helper that results from engaging with trauma survivors and their stories, combined with a commitment or responsibility to help them.
Trauma and Disability
- People with a disability are 3-4 times more likely to experience abuse than those without a disability.
- People with an intellectual disability are more likely to experience traumatic events, especially sexual and physical abuse.
- Trauma exposure can increase the risk of mental health problems, lengthen the duration of illness, compound severity and complexity and impact on treatment response.
Impacts of Trauma
In the first days and weeks after a traumatic event, people often experience strong feelings of fear, sadness, guilt, anger, or grief. As they begin to make sense of what has happened to them, these feelings usually begin to subside. Most people will recover quite quickly with the support of family and friends. For some people though, a traumatic event can lead to mental health issues such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, alcohol and drug use, as well as impacting on their relationships with family, friends, and at work.
The impacts of trauma can have lasting effects on every aspect of a person’s life.
How does Trauma present?
- Difficulty taking direction
- Physical and emotional reactivity
- Difficulty calming down after outbreaks
- Difficulty letting go of grievances
- Regressive behaviours
- Rejecting support from others (not engaging in services)
- Perceiving dangers when there is none
- “Challenging behaviours” or “behaviours of concern"
Neurobiology of Trauma
The prefrontal cortex is the decision-making/choice-making part of the brain; it's the part of the brain responsible for rational thinking, planning responses and remembering important information.
When a person is experiencing a traumatic event or experiencing extreme fear, their Fear Circuitry may kick in and the prefrontal cortex begins to function less effectively. This means that in the midst of trauma, a person may not be able to think through the situation and make decisions such as calling for help. It is not a matter of choice--their brain is in survival mode and the fear circuitry is bypassing their prefrontal cortex entirely.
Many people are familiar with the concept of "fight or flight," but research shows that there is a third response called "freeze." A common example is a deer in the headlights, and humans have this same fear response--in fact, freezing is the most common reaction to trauma or fear, rather than fighting back or running away.
In addition to freezing, some survivors may experience extreme survival reflexes such as immobility. If you've ever seen a possum go limp when it is scared, you are familiar with this brain response. Going limp, feeling "sleepy" or passing out, or being completely unable to move or speak are survival mechanisms hard-wired into our brains. It is not a sign of weakness, nor is it a choice the person is making.
Survivors may also experience dissociation, which is a survival reflex where someone may feel disconnected from their body or may go into "auto-pilot" mode. In auto-pilot mode, a person is not using their prefrontal cortex to make decisions, but is instead relying upon habitual modes of being. Habitual responses are rooted in socialisation--for example, women are socialised to be polite and pleasing, to "save face" or placate. This means that even during an assault, a person might engage in acts, say polite things, even smile, but they are not consenting; they are experiencing extreme fear and their brain is operating on auto-pilot as a survival mechanism.
Memories are encoded differently during a traumatic event. The brain does not encode memories in chronological order, there are gaps in memory, and whatever the "fear circuitry" in the brain focused attention on during the assault is more likely to be encoded into memory than periphery details. For example, a survivor may have a very clear memory of the smell of the perpetrator's cologne, but not have any memory of what the room looked like. Contextual information (e.g., the layout of a room) and time‐sequence information (e.g., the order in which acts occurred) are often poorly encoded. Again, this is not a conscious choice a survivor is making about what to focus on or remember during an assault; it is a common impact on the brain when the "fear circuitry" survival response kicks in.
Principles of Trauma Informed Care
Foundational Values of Trauma Informed Support.
Safety: Prioritising physical and emotional safety. “Safety is the foundational value on which all other principles depend. There is consensus that a trauma-informed approach must privilege safety.” (Jackson et al., 2015).
Relationships and Trustworthiness: Maximising trustworthiness through relationships, task clarity, consistency and interpersonal boundaries
Collaboration: Maximising collaboration through sharing power
Choice: Maximising choice and control
Voice: Prioritising the person’s voice being heard and heeded.
Person Centred Practice: Ensuring the person’s needs, goals and wishes drive practice.
The prefrontal cortex is the decision-making/choice-making part of the brain; it's the part of the brain responsible for rational thinking, planning responses and remembering important information.
When a person is experiencing a traumatic event or experiencing extreme fear, their Fear Circuitry may kick in and the prefrontal cortex begins to function less effectively. This means that in the midst of trauma, a person may not be able to think through the situation and make decisions such as calling for help. It is not a matter of choice--their brain is in survival mode and the fear circuitry is bypassing their prefrontal cortex entirely.
Many people are familiar with the concept of "fight or flight," but research shows that there is a third response called "freeze." A common example is a deer in the headlights, and humans have this same fear response--in fact, freezing is the most common reaction to trauma or fear, rather than fighting back or running away.
In addition to freezing, some survivors may experience extreme survival reflexes such as immobility. If you've ever seen a possum go limp when it is scared, you are familiar with this brain response. Going limp, feeling "sleepy" or passing out, or being completely unable to move or speak are survival mechanisms hard-wired into our brains. It is not a sign of weakness, nor is it a choice the person is making.
Survivors may also experience dissociation, which is a survival reflex where someone may feel disconnected from their body or may go into "auto-pilot" mode. In auto-pilot mode, a person is not using their prefrontal cortex to make decisions, but is instead relying upon habitual modes of being. Habitual responses are rooted in socialisation--for example, women are socialised to be polite and pleasing, to "save face" or placate. This means that even during an assault, a person might engage in acts, say polite things, even smile, but they are not consenting; they are experiencing extreme fear and their brain is operating on auto-pilot as a survival mechanism.
Memories are encoded differently during a traumatic event. The brain does not encode memories in chronological order, there are gaps in memory, and whatever the "fear circuitry" in the brain focused attention on during the assault is more likely to be encoded into memory than periphery details. For example, a survivor may have a very clear memory of the smell of the perpetrator's cologne, but not have any memory of what the room looked like. Contextual information (e.g., the layout of a room) and time‐sequence information (e.g., the order in which acts occurred) are often poorly encoded. Again, this is not a conscious choice a survivor is making about what to focus on or remember during an assault; it is a common impact on the brain when the "fear circuitry" survival response kicks in.
Principles of Trauma Informed Care
- Take time to understand and embrace each person’s goals and aspirations, strengths and support needs, including communication, problem solving and other cognitive processes.
- Understand and recognise trauma and its impacts, including the potential relationship with behavioural difficulties that may be experienced by the person.
- Create opportunities for people to make and find their own meanings and to create the environment that supports them to communicate their feelings.
- Promote a safe physical and emotional environment tailored to each individual
- Be culturally respectful and informed and work towards cultural competence.
- Support the person’s control, choice and voice to have or work towards autonomy, self-determination, participation and respect for human rights and freedoms.
- Share power and governance in a genuinely inclusive way.
- Value safe and genuine relationships in the process of recovery.
- Embed a family-sensitive approach
- Ensure access to supported trauma-specific treatment, delivered by trained professionals
- Acknowledge that recovery is possible for everyone and the importance of hope, fun, joy and peer support in the present and for the future
- Integrate practice that has a holistic view of the person and the recovery process and facilitates communication among services and systems to support continuity
- Acknowledge the need to be and feel safe
Foundational Values of Trauma Informed Support.
Safety: Prioritising physical and emotional safety. “Safety is the foundational value on which all other principles depend. There is consensus that a trauma-informed approach must privilege safety.” (Jackson et al., 2015).
Relationships and Trustworthiness: Maximising trustworthiness through relationships, task clarity, consistency and interpersonal boundaries
Collaboration: Maximising collaboration through sharing power
Choice: Maximising choice and control
Voice: Prioritising the person’s voice being heard and heeded.
Person Centred Practice: Ensuring the person’s needs, goals and wishes drive practice.
Foundations of Trauma Informed Services
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Creating a Safe Environment
Building Trust and Relationships 1. Actively listen 2. Set boundaries 3. Don’t promise what cannot be delivered 4. Always follow up if needed 5. Communicate clearly and openly 6. Answer honestly-especially if you don’t know something Person-Centred Approaches It is important to create an empowering relationship with someone being supported to enable them to have their own choices and control over their lives. It takes time to understand embrace each person’s goals and aspirations, their unique strengths as well as their support needs, including communication, problem solving a cognitive processes. Promoting Hope Hope can be created and fostered through
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Useful Contacts and Resources
For support in a crisis please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or in an emergency please call 000
Trauma Specific Resources and Services
Blue Knot Foundation www.blueknot.org.au
Foundation House www.foundationhouse.org.au
Psychological Trauma Recovery Service www.austin.org.au
The Geelong Clinic www.thegeelongclinic.com.au
Link Up Victoria www.linkupvictoria.org.au
Berry Street www.berrystreet.org.au
Phoenix Australia https://www.phoenixaustralia.org
Helplines
Phone Counselling and Support
Where people are in crisis and need to talk to someone about their distress or trauma, there are a range of organisations listed below that can assist them.
beyondblue
www.beyondblue.org.au
1300 22 4636
beyondblue is a national organisation that has a range of information and resources associated with depression and anxiety. Useful resources and further information are available on its website at www.beyondblue.org.au or by contacting its Support Service on 1300 22 4636 (toll free). The Support Service runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. All calls are one-on-one with a trained mental health professional, and completely confidential.
Lifeline Australia
www.lifeline.org.au
13 11 14
Lifeline Australia provides a free, confidential and anonymous, 24-hour telephone counselling service for adults needing emotional support. Lifeline Australia also has a range of information and resources available from their website, about providing care in times of crisis.
Mensline Australia
www.mensline.org.au
1300 78 99 78
Mensline Australia provides a free, confidential and anonymous, 24-hour professional telephone counselling service for men needing emotional support or in crisis. Mensline also has a range of information and resources available from their website, about providing support and taking care of yourself, in times of crisis.
Kids Help Line
www.kidshelp.com.au
1800 55 1800
A number of children and youth may also need emotional. Kids Help Line is a free and confidential, telephone counselling service for 5 to 25 year olds in Australia.
Black Dog Institute
www.mycompass.org.au
The Black Dog Institute provides a 24 hour free mobile phone/computer-based programme to assist those with mild to moderate depression, anxiety and stress (myCompass).
Suicide Prevention ServicesFor those at risk of suicide or self-harm the Suicide Callback Service is available seven days a week. Similarly, bereavement services are available 24 hours a day for those bereaved by suicide.
Suicide Callback Service
1300 659 467
The Suicide Callback Service is a free nation-wide telephone support service available to support people at risk of suicide and their carers, and is well suited to people who are geographically or emotionally isolated. The service can support callers through structured 50 minute telephone counselling sessions, scheduled according to the caller’s needs. The Suicide Callback Service operates seven days a week.
Wesley LifeForce – Wesley Mission
This project aims to build community capacity to engage in suicide prevention activity, improve access to appropriate services and to support those at risk of suicide and bereaved by suicide by building suicide prevention networks and providing education.
StandBy Response Service – United Synergies Ltd
www.unitedsynergies.com.au
The StandBy suicide Bereavement Response Service provides a 24 hour face to face response service for those bereaved by suicide, training for front line emergency response services in the community, and coordination of suicide response services.