A traumatic experience can be classified into different categories. These are:
- Acute Trauma
- Chronic Trauma
- Complex Trauma
- Secondary Trauma
- Generational Trauma
We will briefly discuss each type of trauma.
Again, the goal of this is to help you categorize and improve your understanding of trauma.
1. Acute Trauma
- What is it? A traumatic experience that occurs at one point in time. An acute trauma is a one-time occurrence that you have experienced.
- Examples: Being involved in a car crash, the sudden death of a loved one, being physically attacked or assaulted, being in a natural disaster, witnessing a violent death.
2. Chronic Trauma
- What is it? Chronic Trauma refers to trauma that is repeated or prolonged
- Examples: This can include long term physical or sexual abuse, experiencing persistent neglect, including emotional or physical neglect and experiencing or witnessing domestic violence. These are only a few examples, chronic trauma often refers to a stressful situation that continues over a long period of time or repeated traumatic experiences that occur over a long period of time.
3. Complex Trauma
- What is it? Complex trauma refers to experiencing multiple traumatic events. These events usually occurred in childhood and can involve interpersonal relationships
- Examples: A child who lives in a home where they experience physical and emotional abuse and witness domestic violence, could have complex trauma.
4. Secondary Trauma
- What is it? For secondary trauma, you may not have directly experienced the traumatic event, however you have been exposed to the trauma by hearing firsthand about another individual’s traumatic experiences. These details can be distressing. First responders, nurses, physicians, mental health care workers and other service providers can be susceptible to secondary trauma. This is sometimes called second-hand trauma.
- Examples: You may hear a detailed traumatic story from a friend about them experiencing sexual abuse.
5. Transgenerational Trauma
- What is it? Transgenerational trauma refers to trauma that has been passed down from generations, and is widespread throughout an entire culture or group of people.
- Examples: People who have experienced years of war or have survived a genocide can experience generational trauma.