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The concept of trauma originally comes from the world of medicine: It refers to a serious injury or shock to the body, such as what happens as a result of violence, or a major accident.
By extension, trauma has been used in a psychological sense to refer to an overwhelming shock to the system, such as a total shutdown. What people call "traumatic" in everyday language is not necessarily as major as this.
From a therapeutic point of view, it can be useful to view these situations in terms of their effect on the nervous system. Trauma affects the ability of people to self-regulate (i.e. to be calm when appropriate, or agitated when appropriate). Working mindfully on self-regulation is a gentle and effective way of healing trauma.
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