Hopper, Bassuk, & Olivet (2010, p. 80) define trauma as follows:

Trauma refers to an experience that creates a sense of fear, helplessness, or horror, and overwhelms a person’s resources for coping. The impact of traumatic stress can be devastating and long–lasting, interfering with a person’s sense of safety, ability to self-regulate, sense of self, perception of control and self–efficacy, and interpersonal relationships.

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Trauma is not an isolated phenomenon:

• “Trauma affects the whole person: their mind, body, spirit, and relationship with others” (Downey, 2007, p. 4).
• “Experts explain that trauma is not an event itself, but rather a response to a stressful experience in which a person’s ability to cope is dramatically undermined” (Cole et al., 2005, p. 18).

Researchers have also broken down trauma into two categories. The first of these is “type 1, or acute trauma, which results from exposure to a single overwhelming event” (Bath, 2008, p. 18). Type 2 is “complex trauma (a.k.a. developmental or relationship trauma), which results from extended exposure to traumatising situations” (Bath, 2008, p. 18).