Trauma occurs when an individual experiences a situation that is overwhelming, frightening, or deeply distressing, and they lack the emotional, physical, or psychological resources to process or escape it safely. This can occur during the actual experience or shortly after if the person doesn’t have the capacity, or appropriate support to properly process the event.

Trauma can happen during a single acute experience such as an accident, natural disaster, medical emergency, or sudden loss, or through ongoing exposure to stressors like abuse, neglect, domestic violence, bullying, chronic illness, or living in an unsafe or unpredictable environment.

Trauma isn’t just about what happens, but how the nervous system responds in the moment. When the brain perceives a threat, it activates the body’s stress response; fight, flight, freeze, or fawn, to survive. If the experience is too intense or prolonged, and the person doesn’t have adequate support to process or resolve it, the nervous system can remain stuck in a state of hypervigilance or shutdown. This can interrupt normal brain development in children and alter the way the brain and body respond to future stress.

Because trauma is stored in the body and nervous system, not just in memory, it can have lasting effects on emotional regulation, relationships, physical health, and overall well-being. Importantly, trauma is subjective: what overwhelms one person may not overwhelm another, and the presence of safety, support, and connection plays a critical role in how someone experiences and recovers from trauma.