What is trauma

The word trauma means injury or wound. A psychological trauma can be defined as a mental wound or injury that is caused by external influences and which troubles the affected person afterwards.

Trauma includes isolated accidental trauma, such as in a serious car accident or illness. In the case of repeated trauma, where serious events have occurred several times over a longer period, they are called complex trauma. Examples of this can be family violence or various forms of neglect and abuse.

You can find more information about the various forms of trauma in the tabs below. You can read more about treatment of trauma here.