CJ 720 Trauma & Crisis Intervention Blog
Could I Have Become One of Them? What Ordinary Men Taught Me About Human Behavior
One of the most unsettling lessons I have learned in the Trauma and Crisis Intervention course is that acts of pure evil and malice are not always committed by malevolent people. Before reading Christopher Browning’s Ordinary Men, I found it easy to believe that the perpetrators of the Holocaust were fundamentally different from others, that they were uniquely cruel or inherently evil. Browning’s historical analysis challenged that assumption by presenting Reserve Police Battalion 101 as a group of ordinary, middle-aged German men who gradually became active participants in mass murder. Rather than leaving me with simple answers, the book forced me to ask an uncomfortable question: could ordinary people –including myself– be influenced by similar social pressures under different circumstances?
The social psychology research we explored in Module 5 helps explain why Browning’s conclusions are unsettling. Stanley Milgram demonstrated that many people are willing to obey authority figures, even when those orders conflict with their own morality. Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment further demonstrates how quickly typical people can internalize social roles and adapt their behavior to fit the expectations of a situation. Browning argues that Zimbardo’s findings are especially relevant because the men of Reserve Police Battalion 101 were not simply following direct orders. Many individuals gradually adapted to their roles as they became desensitized to violence, even volunteering for more violent tasks. The transformation was not immediate; it occurred through conformity, peer influence, and the normalization of cruelty rather than just unquestioned obedience.
While reading these works, I had found myself thinking about Marina Abramovic’s 1974 performance, Rhythm 0. During the performance, Abramovic stood motionless for six hours while audience members were told they could use any of seventy-two objects on her however they wished with no consequence. What started with harmless interactions gradually escalated into physical violence, as participants observed others crossing the line of morality. By the end of the performance, audience members had cut her clothing, damaged her skin, and even held a loaded gun to her head. Although Rhythm 0 is not comparable to the Holocaust in scale, intent, historical context, or severity it demonstrates a similar psychological phenomenon: when accountability is diminished and harmful behavior becomes normalized within a group, ordinary people may begin acting in ways they never imagined possible.
What connects Browning, Milgram, Zimbardo, and Abramovic is not the claim that people are intrinsically evil. Instead, they collectively suggest that human behavior is profoundly influenced by social environments, authority, group norms, and perceived responsibility. This realization is unnerving because it shifts the conversation away from identifying “bad people” and toward recognizing the conditions that allow harmful behavior to emerge. At the same time, these works also remind us that some individuals resisted. A small number of Battalion 101 members refused to participate in the Jozefow massacre despite the social pressure surrounding them. Their actions indicate that situational influences are powerful but not absolute.
As someone pursuing a career in psychology and criminal justice, I believe this may be one of the most important lessons of the course. Understanding how ordinary people became capable of devastating harm is not about excusing these perpetrators, but about recognizing warning signs before they escalate into violence. It also highlights the important of cultivating moral courage. The willingness to question authority, resist harmful group norms, and recognize the humanity in others even when doing so is difficult. If we continue believing that atrocities are committed only be people fundamentally different from ourselves, we risk overlooking the social conditions that make such atrocities possible. In that sense, Browning’s Ordinary Men is not only a history of the Holocaust but a warning about the potential that exists within every society and within every one of us.
References:
Abramović, M. (1974). Rhythm 0 [Performance].
Browning, C. R. (1992). Ordinary men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. HarperCollins.
Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67(4), 371–378. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0040525
Zimbardo, P. G. (2007). The Lucifer effect: Understanding how good people turn evil. Random House
Public Service and Vicarious Trauma: Exploring the Wounded Healer Archetype
To enter into a career of public service is akin to formally putting the needs of others (and the community at large) above your own. For this reason, careers in medicine, emergency services, law enforcement, and social work tend to attract people with a certain mindset. Altruistic and service oriented, these individuals are driven by empathy to help others. All too often, however, the people who professionally provide care for others are the same people who struggle to ask for help themselves.
Vicarious Trauma
First responders, medical personnel, and those who work in or adjacent to the criminal justice system are routinely exposed to the physical and psychological distress of those they serve. Trauma does not have to be directly experienced for it to have an impact; being a repetitive witness to it can also take its toll (Rousseau, 2026). Referred to as “vicarious” or “secondary” trauma, the buildup of stress from continuous exposure to violence or trauma presents an ongoing occupational challenge for many of those in public service roles. In bearing witness, practitioners can develop symptoms similar to post traumatic stress disorder, including hypervigilance, guilt, avoidance, sleep disturbances, addiction, and more (Rousseau, 2026). Maintaining resilience, the ability to adapt to stress and maintain psychological wellbeing in the face of adversity (SAMHSA, 2018), throughout these repeated exposures becomes critical for career longevity.
The Wounded Healer
Stress management for public servants rarely involves speaking about it openly. Why do so many “professional helpers” have a hard time asking for assistance themselves? Historical stigmatization and fear of penalization have resulted in the internalization of vicarious trauma as a private, personal ordeal, especially in law enforcement fields where self-control, emotional stoicism, and hypermasculinity are expected (and even encouraged). Another explanation is the “Wounded Healer” archetype popularized by psychiatrist Carl Jung in the 1950s (Jung, 1954). Taking inspiration from Greek mythology’s Chiron, a centaur who can heal others but not himself, Jung characterizes the Wounded Healer as an individual whose personal experience with adversity permits them greater empathy and insight for helping others (Mehta, 2024). A profound sense of meaning can be derived from helping others. The idea of being barred from doing so due to declining mental health could be another potential reason for keeping struggles to oneself.
This archetypical explanation is more retrospective than circumspective, however. That is, it better explains why some people choose public service (aware of the challenges associated with such fields), rather than why they may not recognize signs of struggle within themselves enough to ask for help. A meta-analysis published in 2021 found there exists a relationship between prior adverse experiences and vocational decisions in those who go into helping professions (Bryce et al.). Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and cumulative trauma have long-lasting effects, including the desire to understand and derive meaning from enduring/surviving trauma. Early family dysfunction, parentification, and traits developed through adversity (e.g. altruism, empathy, sensitivity to others’ distress or vulnerability) were each associated with career choice in public service (Bryce et al., 2021). In short, the "Wounded Healer" is someone drawn to the helping professions as a way to remedy prior traumatic experiences or to prevent others from having to experience the same. The latter “preventionist” mindset is truly what stops them from asking for help. Role reversal away from being the “rescuer” may feel like an existential threat to their entire identity.
Deriving meaning from your career is not inherently harmful. Meaningful work can encourage engagement and genuine fulfillment in life. It is when the job becomes entirely tied up in your self-worth that resilience begins to fall away and burnout can set in. For this reason, healthy coping mechanisms and self-care are vital for those at risk for vicarious trauma.
References
Bryce, I., Pye, D., Beccaria, G., McIlveen, P., & Du Preez, J. (2021). A systematic literature review of the career choice of helping professionals who have experienced cumulative harm as a result of adverse childhood experiences. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 24(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/15248380211016016
Jung, C. G. (1954). The Collected Works of C. G. Jung: The Practice of Psychotherapy (Vol. 16). Pantheon Books. https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/luminist/EB/I-J-K/Jung%20-%20The%20Practice%20of%20Psychotherapy.pdf
Mehta, D. H. (2024). Nurturing resilience in the wounded healer. In Psychiatric Times. https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/nurturing-resilience-in-the-wounded-healer
Rousseau, D. (2026). MET CJ720 – Module 1 – Introduction to Trauma [Online module]. Blackboard Ultra. Boston University.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2018). First Responders: Behavioral Health Concerns, Emergency Response, and Trauma. In Disaster Technical Assistance Center Supplemental Research Bulletin. https://www.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/dtac/supplementalresearchbulletin firstresponders-may2018.pdf
Healing Together: How Sexual Assault Can Impact Romantic Relationships
Sexual assault is a traumatic experience that can have lasting psychological, emotional, physical, and social effects on survivors. Many of these survivors experience symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Van der Kolk (2014) explains how some individuals who have experienced trauma have a difficult time moving past their experience, making it difficult to bridge the gap between their experience and their current life. Unfortunately, these individuals are stuck in a constant cycle of what happened to them, failing to adopt ways to move forward. These effects can also shape romantic relationships, especially when sexual assault occurred before or during the relationship, impacting the quality and level of satisfaction. While there is a large focus on the psychological and emotional consequences of trauma, less attention has been placed on how those experiences influence romantic relationships over time. Romantic relationships can be an important source of comfort, safety, and connection. For survivors of sexual assault, intimacy may also become complicated by trauma-related symptoms, changes in trust, communication challenges, and concerns about emotional or physical closeness. While every survivor’s experience is different, sexual assault impacts not only the survivor’s well-being but also the overall functioning of a romantic relationship.
After a sexual assault, survivors may experience anxiety, depression, hypervigilance, flashbacks, or avoidance. These trauma-related symptoms can make communication, emotional and physical intimacy difficult, which could impact the development and maintenance of healthy romantic relationships. Survivors may feel distant from their partners, struggle with vulnerability, or find that certain situations trigger distress. Research shows that trauma symptoms are often associated with lower relationship satisfaction, emphasizing that the effects of sexual assault extend beyond the individual survivor (DiMauro & Renshaw; Georgia et al., 2018), creating additional challenges when symptoms are not understood or addressed. By understanding their symptoms and regulating their emotions, a survivor can foster resilience. Resilience is important in a survivor’s recovery from stress and trauma and is associated with positive changes in thinking and perception, which regulate symptoms of PTSD (Wu et al., 2015). Resilience occurs mentally, physically, emotionally, and socially, all areas that impact a romantic relationship. Growth in these areas encourages survivors to be open to new opportunities and changes in relationships, promoting intimacy, connection, and mutual understanding.
In romantic relationships, a supportive partner can play a meaningful role in a survivor’s healing process, helping them experience post-traumatic growth, which is an extension of resilience. Post-traumatic growth may be encouraged by positive social support, gratitude, strong family ties, secure attachment, self-care, meaning-making, debriefing, and prompt intervention (Rousseau, 2026). Research suggests that partners who offer patience, understanding, and emotional support can play a significant role in a survivor's healing process (O'Callaghan et al., 2019; Person et al., 2024; Stockman et al., 2024). However, support does not mean trying to “fix” the survivor or rush recovery. Instead, it involves listening without judgment, respecting boundaries, being patient, and creating an environment where the survivor feels safe expressing needs and concerns. When partners respond with empathy and consistency, survivors may feel more empowered to rebuild trust and intimacy at their own pace. Open communication about boundaries, triggers, comfort levels, and emotional needs can also help couples better understand one another. Although these conversations may be difficult, they can also create opportunities for closeness, respect, and mutual care. Partners who communicate clearly and compassionately are better positioned to navigate challenges together rather than allowing trauma-related stress to create distance.
Healing after sexual assault is a deeply personal process, and no two relationships will look the same. Supportive partnership, patient communication, and trauma-informed care can help couples navigate the effects of assault while building healthier patterns of connection. EMDR is one trauma-informed intervention that may benefit survivors who have yet to address their trauma. It is designed to reduce distress connected to traumatic memories by guiding clients through rhythmic eye movements while recalling the traumatic event and shifting toward more positive thoughts (Cowan et al., 2020). This process identifies areas associated with the client’s distress, allowing them to desensitize themselves from the memories, which can help survivors gain the control they need to become calm when encountering triggers. For survivors who have disclosed their experiences to their partner, sex therapy could help address challenges through honesty, empathy, and mutual support, as this has the potential to increase relationship satisfaction. Recognizing the lasting effects of sexual assault on romantic relationships while promoting open communication and trauma-informed, evidence-based interventions can help survivors and their partners strengthen intimacy, build resilience, and develop healthier, more fulfilling relationships.
References
Cowan, A., Ashai, A., & Gentile, J. P. (2020). Psychotherapy with survivors of sexual abuse and assault. Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience, 17(1-3), 22–26. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7239557/
DiMauro, J., & Renshaw, K. D. (2019). PTSD and relationship satisfaction in female survivors of sexual assault. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 11(5), 534-541. https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0000391
Georgia, E. J., Roddy, M. K., & Doss, B. D. (2018). Sexual assault and dyadic relationship satisfaction: Indirect associations through intimacy and mental health. Violence Against Women, 24(8), 936–951. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801217727371
O’Callaghan, E., Shepp, V., Ullman, S. E., & Kirkner, A. (2019). Navigating sex and sexuality after sexual assault: A qualitative study of survivors and informal support providers. The Journal of Sex Research, 56(8), 1045–1057. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2018.1506731
Person, A. I., Frazier, P. A., Selvey-Bouyack, A. M., Anders, S. L., Shallcross, S. L., & Simpson, J. A. (2024). Associations between sexual assault and romantic relationship functioning: A mixed-methods analysis. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 41(8), 2297–2322. https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075241241496
Rousseau, D. (2026). Module 1: Lesson 1.2: Addressing trauma [Online Module]. Blackboard at Boston University. https://learn.bu.edu/ultra/course
Stockman, D., Van Parys, H., Uzieblo, K., Littleton, H., Keygnaert, I., Lemmens, G., & Verhofstadt, L. (2024). Coping with sexual violence as a post-assault formed couple: A dyadic phenomenological interview analysis. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, 50(7), 787–810. https://doi.org/10.1080/0092623X.2024.2374245
Van der Kolk, B. A. (2014). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Viking.
Wu, K., Zhang, Y., Liu, Z., Zhou, P., & Wei, C. (2015). Coexistence and different determinants of posttraumatic stress disorder and posttraumatic growth among Chinese survivors after earthquake: Role of resilience and rumination. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1043. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01043
Who is helping the helpers? Importance in Self Care
When we think about trauma, we often focus on the people directly experiencing it. We think about victims of violence, abuse, or disasters, but we don't always stop to consider the professionals who witness these experiences every day. Social workers, police officers, behavioral specialists, teachers, counselors, and other helping professionals spend their careers supporting individuals through some of the most difficult moments of their lives. While helping others is incredibly rewarding, it also comes with an emotional cost. One of the biggest lessons I have learned throughout my professional experiences is that helping others begins with taking care of yourself!
As a former social worker, I worked closely with individuals and families experiencing abuse, crisis, and other traumatic life events. Although I wasn't directly experiencing the trauma, I used to listen to heartbreaking stories every day and worked alongside clients during some of the most challenging periods of their lives. Over time, I realized that constantly absorbing other people's pain could become emotionally exhausting if I didn't make time to care for my own mental health. Maintaining healthy boundaries, relying on supportive colleagues, and finding time to disconnect after work became essential rather than optional.
My perspective on trauma continued to grow during my internship conducting research with local law enforcement. While I was not responding to emergencies myself, I had the opportunity to work alongside officers and gain insight into the realities of policing. The course readings describe critical incidents as events that can overwhelm an individual's normal coping abilities, and law enforcement officers often experience these incidents throughout their careers (Rousseau, 2026). Seeing the emotional demands placed on officers reinforced how important it is for agencies to support their employees through wellness initiatives and programs such as Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM). Too often, officers feel pressure to hide their struggles because of the stigma surrounding mental health or fear that seeking help could negatively affect their careers. However, ignoring trauma does not make it disappear- it often allows it to grow.
Today, I work as a Behavioral Specialist in a school district, where I continue to see the effects of trauma every day. Many students arrive at school carrying emotional burdens that affect their ability to learn, build relationships, and regulate their behavior. This experience has taught me an important lesson: behavior is often a form of communication. Instead of immediately asking, "What's wrong with this student?" I find myself asking, "What has this student experienced?" Taking a trauma-informed approach has allowed me to better support students while also reminding me that professionals must protect their own emotional well-being if they want to continue helping others effectively.
One concept that has stood out to me throughout this course is that recovery and resilience are not just important for trauma survivors; they are equally important for the professionals who care for them. Compassion fatigue, secondary traumatic stress, and burnout are real challenges across helping professions. Without intentional self-care, these challenges can impact decision-making, relationships, job performance, and overall mental health!
Organizations have an important role to play in supporting employee wellness. Providing confidential counseling services, peer support programs, regular wellness check-ins, and training that reduces the stigma surrounding mental health can make a meaningful difference. Equally important is creating workplace cultures where asking for help is viewed as a sign of professionalism rather than weakness. When organizations invest in the well-being of their employees, they are also investing in better outcomes for the individuals and communities those professionals serve.
At the end of the day, I have learned that self-care is not selfish... it is necessary. Whether working in social work, law enforcement, education, or another helping profession, we cannot continue pouring into others if our own cup is empty. Taking time to recover emotionally and physically allows us to remain compassionate, effective, and resilient in careers that ask so much of us. If we truly value helping others heal from trauma, we must also remember to care for the people doing the helping.
Reference
Rousseau, D. (2026). Module 6: Trauma and the Criminal Justice System. Boston University. Blackboard.
The Long Way Home: What Healing from Trauma Actually Looks Like
We tend to talk about recovery like it's a finish line, like one day you wake up and the weight is just gone. In reality, healing from trauma is less like crossing a line and more like learning to walk again after an injury that never fully goes away. You get stronger. You get steadier. But the process rarely moves in a straight line, and it almost never happens on the timeline anyone would choose for themselves.
Part of what makes trauma so hard to talk about is that it doesn't look the same on any two people. One person might replay the event over and over, unable to stop the intrusive thoughts. Another might go quiet and numb, disconnected from their own body, barely able to describe what happened at all. Someone else channels it into anger, or into a hypervigilance that never quite switches off, always scanning the room for the next threat. None of these responses is more real than the others. They are just different nervous systems trying to protect the same person in the only ways they know how, based on whatever that person's history and biology taught them was safest.
That variability is exactly why recovery isn't a single path. Some people find real relief in medication that quiets the nervous system enough to make everything else possible, things like better sleep, fewer intrusive images, and less of that constant edge. Others need a therapy that works directly with the story itself, gradually revisiting what happened until it stops having the same grip on their daily life. Still others find that talking isn't where the healing happens at all, that the body holds onto trauma in ways words can't quite reach, and that breathwork, movement, or yoga does something a conversation never could. None of these approaches is the right one in any universal sense. They are simply different doors into the same room, and finding the door that actually opens for you can take some trial and error.
What's easy to miss, especially early on, is that recovery doesn't mean the memory disappears or the event stops mattering. It means the nervous system stops treating an old danger like a current one. It means being able to think about what happened without your whole body reacting as if it's happening again right now. That shift can take months. It can take years. And for a lot of people, it isn't linear at all. There are stretches of real progress followed by weeks that feel like sliding backward, and that isn't failure. It's just how healing tends to move when the thing being healed is this complicated.
It also matters who is doing the healing, not just what happened to them. Research on gender differences in trauma response has shown that women are more likely to internalize distress, turning it inward through isolation or self-destructive behavior, while men more often externalize it through anger or substance use. A recovery approach built around one default experience is going to underserve a lot of people, which is part of why treatment has slowly moved toward programs that meet people where the evidence actually shows them to be, rather than where a generic model assumes everyone starts.
There is also the question of support outside a therapist's office. Recovery rarely happens in isolation, even when the work itself feels deeply personal. The people around someone, family, friends, coworkers, even a pet trained to interrupt a panic response, often shape how safe a person feels while they are doing the harder internal work. Community matters too. Feeling understood by people who have lived through something similar can soften the isolation that trauma so often creates, even when every individual experience is different in its details. None of that replaces professional treatment, but it tends to make the whole process more sustainable, especially on the days when progress feels invisible.
If there's one thing worth holding onto, it's that needing more than one approach, or needing a different approach than someone else found helpful, isn't a sign that something is wrong with you. It's just proof that healing has to be built around the person, not the other way around. The goal was never to erase what happened. It's to get to a place where the past no longer runs the show, where a memory can sit quietly in the background of a life instead of steering every decision made within it.
Sources
Covington, S. S., & Bloom, B. E. (2006). Gender responsive treatment and services in correctional settings. Women & Therapy, 29(3-4), 9-33.
Emerson, D., Sharma, R., Turner, & Turner, J. (2009). Trauma-sensitive yoga: Principles, practice, and research. International Journal of Yoga Therapy, 19, 123-128.
Price, M., et al. (2017). Effectiveness of an extended yoga treatment for women with chronic posttraumatic stress disorder. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 10(10).
Rhodes, A., Spinazzola, J., & van der Kolk, B. (2016). Yoga for adult women with chronic PTSD: A long-term follow-up study. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 22(3).
van der Kolk, B., et al. (2014). Yoga as an adjunctive treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 75(0).
The Trauma of Existing in Modern Society
Existing in the world that we have come to know is inherently traumatic. Over the last decade, rates of depression in U.S. adults has steadily increased, and that of teenagers has nearly doubled. The society that we have come to know—one that is characterized by extreme capitalism and technological “advancements” such as artificial intelligence and social media that detaches people from the genuine human connection and critical thinking—are quickly deteriorating the fabric of society with no clear solution in sight.
Trauma can result from a wide variety of causes, whether it’d be a singular extreme event or years to decades of accumulating stress. With the rise of social media, children and teenagers grow up with unfettered access to inappropriate content. Many youths have been the victims of cyberbullying online, which can have devastating consequences. While bullying has always existed, the introduction of social media has exposed children to the anonymous criticism of those from all over the world. The permanent nature of the online world means that simple mistakes all children make can haunt them for a lifetime. According to recent reports, teens spend an average of five hours day on social media, blurring the lines between the online world and the real world.
After a childhood full of screens and scrollings rather than socializing and playing outside, modern teens are met with an economy and job market that pales in comparison the the “American dream” they grew up reading about. Chronic stress, which can often materialize into trauma, is often the result of socioeconomic stressors. Saddled with student loans from degrees that no longer guarantee steady work, impossible rent prices and costs of living, adults are struggling to keep their heads above water. People don’t have time to socialize or care for themselves, people can’t afford therapy or other resources that may help them cope with the stressors of everyday life. Their only reprieve is a couple hours of “doomscrolling” after a long day of work, in the apartment they share with several roommates that has tripled in price in the last two decades. There is no more sense of community, everyone is too occupied with fending for themselves. Taking time for oneself to unwind or reconnect with nature or seeking proper care for mental or physical illness is inaccessible for the majority of Americans.
The society that we have come to know is one that, for the majority of people, causes an unsustainable amount of stress and anxiety that is bound to develop into trauma somewhere along the line, not to mention the amount of political and social turmoil in this decade alone. Viewing the current state of humanity from a trauma-informed lens reveals a bleak landscape that is in desperate need of reform, in order to prevent society as a whole from reaching an inevitable breaking point.
References
Zhu, C., Zhang, T., Li, Q., Chen, X., & Wang, K. (2023). Depression and Anxiety During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Epidemiology, Mechanism, and Treatment. Neuroscience bulletin, 39(4), 675–684. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12264-022-00970-2
Brody DJ, Hughes JP. Depression prevalence in adolescents and adults: United States, August 2021–August 2023. 2025 Apr; (527)1–11. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.15620/cdc/174579
Rothwell, J. (October 27, 2023). Parenting mitigates social media-linked mental health issues. Gallup. Survey conducted between June 26–July 17, 2023, with responses by 6,643 parents living with children between ages 3 and 19, and 1,591 teens living with those parents.
Beyond a Single Event: Understanding Complex and Developmental Trauma
When most people think of trauma, they imagine a discrete, identifiable event, it could a car accident, a natural disaster, a single violent incident. Much of our early clinical and diagnostic language was built around this model. PTSD, as defined in the DSM, emerged largely from observations of combat veterans and survivors of acute catastrophe. But what happens when trauma is not an event but an environment? What happens when it is the water a child swims in, day after day, year after year?
This question sits at the heart of what clinicians and researchers now call complex trauma and, more specifically, developmental trauma — two related but distinct concepts that demand a more expansive view of how adversity shapes human beings.
Complex trauma, as described by Judith Herman in her foundational work Trauma and Recovery (1992), refers to prolonged, repeated interpersonal trauma — captivity, ongoing domestic violence, childhood abuse, often in situations where escape is impossible or extremely difficult. Herman proposed a diagnosis she called "Complex PTSD" or "Disorders of Extreme Stress Not Otherwise Specified" (DESNOS), arguing that chronic trauma produces a distinct and broader symptom profile than single-event PTSD.
Developmental trauma is a more specific term, focused on complex trauma that occurs during childhood, when the brain and nervous system are still forming. Pioneered by Bessel van der Kolk and colleagues at the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN), developmental trauma recognizes that early repeated adversity does not simply create PTSD symptoms in a young person — it fundamentally alters the architecture of the developing brain, the regulation of emotion, and the child's working model of relationships and the self.
The standard PTSD model is largely built on a fear-conditioning paradigm: a terrifying event creates a strong, poorly integrated memory, and certain cues trigger a re-experiencing of that fear. Treatment, accordingly, often focuses on processing that specific memory — approaches like Prolonged Exposure or EMDR are well-validated for this population.
Developmental trauma presents differently. When adversity is chronic and relational — when the source of fear is also a caregiver — the child faces an impossible bind. They cannot flee, they cannot fight, and the person who should be a safe haven is the source of danger. This leads to profound disorganization in the attachment system. Rather than a single intrusive memory, the individual may struggle with pervasive affect dysregulation, dissociation, chronic shame, an unstable sense of identity, and deep difficulty trusting others.
Van der Kolk and colleagues have described this profile under the proposed diagnosis of Developmental Trauma Disorder (DTD), which has not yet been included in the DSM-5, though Complex PTSD did receive formal recognition in the ICD-11 (WHO, 2018). The failure of existing categories to capture this population has real clinical consequences: children and adolescents with complex trauma histories are frequently misdiagnosed with ADHD, bipolar disorder, conduct disorder, or borderline personality disorder, diagnoses that do not address the underlying traumatic etiology.
One of the most important contributions to understanding developmental trauma came not from clinical psychology but from epidemiology. The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study, conducted by Felitti et al. (1998) in collaboration with the CDC and Kaiser Permanente, surveyed over 17,000 adults about their childhood exposure to ten categories of adversity and tracked their health outcomes.
The findings were striking. ACEs were remarkably common, and they were dose-dependent: the higher an individual's ACE score, the greater their risk for a wide range of negative outcomes, including depression, substance use disorder, heart disease, cancer, and early death. The study helped establish that childhood adversity is not a niche clinical concern but a fundamental public health issue with lifelong biological consequences.
It would be incomplete to discuss developmental trauma without acknowledging that adversity does not uniformly determine outcomes. Research on resilience — including the landmark Kauai longitudinal study by Werner and Smith — demonstrates that protective factors such as one stable supportive relationship, strong temperament, and community connection can significantly buffer the effects of early adversity. Practitioners working in this field must hold both the real and lasting impacts of developmental trauma and a genuine belief in the capacity for growth, healing, and meaningful change.
The goal, ultimately, is not to define clients by their ACE scores or their symptom profiles, but to understand the logic of survival strategies that were adaptive in dangerous early environments. and ultimately, to help individuals expand their repertoire of responses as they move through a world that, ideally, is safer than the one they grew up in.
A Deeper Look: How Trauma Affects Students Academic Behaviors
Introduction
When individuals such as family, friends, or peers witness students struggling in school, it is assumed that they are simply “misbehaving” or not trying hard enough. Yet, that is not always the case. What is often looked at as trouble, overlooks the role that trauma plays in students lives. It is never known exactly what students might be carrying, some hold experiences of violence, or abuse within their home environment. These experiences travel with them from outside their home, then into the classroom, shaping how students engage within their academics and peers.
By understanding trauma, it changes the way we will view students behavior. What might be labeled as a lack of effort, can be one's response to stress,pain, PTSD, anxiety, etc. Understanding is the most effective tool.
Mental Health
Trauma holds an immense effect on a young adult’s mental health. Students who experience trauma(s) are at the high risk of developing depression, anxiety, traumatic stress disorders such as PTSD, etc. These conditions can make students feel overwhelmed, or stressed and distracted. This hinders their ability to think properly, and instead of paying attention in class they might be distracted by their thoughts, making their learning process harder.
Trauma impacts not only how students feel about themselves and their lives, but it impacts their academic performance and engagement with their peers. When students experience trauma it affects their grades and school activities (clubs, sports, extracurriculars, attendance, etc).
When schools start pointing their fingers to the students, they target it as “fixing” the “problem”, when it’s the wrong thing. Instead of focusing on proper trauma informed care practices, schools result in creating deeper risks, pulling the students away from wanting or seeking proper treatment. Responding only with punishment risks the root of the problem.
Why does this matter
Students are not able to focus on their academics and learning abilities if their needs are not being met properly. If students are feeling unheard it can lead them to pull away from their studies, explaining why they might struggle with their attention and behavior. Although it may feel as if they have no way to cope with their emotions, some students might demonstrate resilience, focusing heavily on their academics and setting high expectations for themselves. This is why the education system must implement trauma focused approaches that are beneficial to all students. Schools must stop basing help on one student's experiences and treating all students to one policy, especially since all experiences are different.
- Creating safe, supportive classrooms
- Checking in with students, showing care and support
- Allowing students to express their emotions
- Teacher gestures
Challegnes
- There are limitations on what teachers can do
- Schools lack proper resources
- Does not improve home/out of school experiences
- Trauma is connected to deeper issues (typically rooted in the home)
Conclusion
Trauma has multiple impacts on a student's academic performance and their behavior. Trauma is not something that can be ignored within school walls, nor is it something that can be treated the same as different individuals. Schools won't be able to treat all student’s trauma, but they can implement supportive policies followed by a supportive setting. Awareness is how schools must move forward, increasing trauma informed care practices that are found amongst educational institutions.
References
Frieze, Stephanie. “How Trauma Affects Student Learning and Behaviour.” BU Journal of Graduate Studies in Education, 2015, pp. 1–8, https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1230675.pdf.
Dods, Jennifer. “Bringing trauma to school: Sharing the educational experience of three youths.” Exceptionality Education International, vol. 25, no. 1, 21 Mar. 2015, https://doi.org/10.5206/eei.v25i1.7719.
The Limits of AI in Trauma-Informed Care
Going through this course allows for deep reflections about trauma-informed care and its focus on human connection, trust, and emotional concerns. Ironically, the first time I thought about AI in correctional mental health care, the paradigm of trauma-informed care did not cross my mind. I saw the benefits to the technology’s ability to provide care demand, to locate and assess people in need, and to provide help where there aren’t mental health care workers. However, in the most extreme and troubling of care, AI can render itself to be the most effective to the most needy.
The more I am able to reflect on trauma, the more I realize the level of healing necessary for the work that is most needed is extremely labor intensive. Trauma is the most extreme form of emotional and mental lockdown. After a trauma, people can’t be expected to be able to Trust and keep the most basic form of safety. Trauma seeks an emotional healing. Where AI is able to learn, it is not able to be the healer and be the most humane of care. Loss of AI is the most extreme level of compassion. AI makes a true loss of the most basic loss of care; people.
The constant monitoring through AI is something I worry most about trauma healing. The AI constant monitoring invites an increase in trauma. In reward based settings of our correctional system, the monitoring is designed to create a lack of control; in the most extreme of the work to regain safety and Trust of the most basic. AI is not a healer, it is an extreme loss of safety. The work to regain Trust and safety from a trauma system should always be worked from the level of the most basic humane care. AI is not that.
I think trauma-informed care is where AI can have a positive impact as long as it's used responsibly. AI can support professionals by locating individuals requiring support and enhancing the availability of care. Improving accessibility to care shouldn't be at the expense of the many human relationships involved in treating and caring for the mental well-being of a person. Trauma-informed care is not only about the care itself; it's about creating a space of safety, trust, and empathy through real connections and human-based relationships. I have also found comfort in the balance of innovation and simplicity. Healing from trauma is a very personal experience, and for professionals, real recovery involvement should be the core of their understanding. AI provides a new way of viewing care, but it is not a replacement for human-based relationships.
References
The Body Keeps the Score
van der Kolk, B. A. (2014). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Viking.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2024). Trauma-informed approaches and programs. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Trauma and Recovery
Herman, J. L. (2015). Trauma and recovery: The aftermath of violence—From domestic abuse to political terror (Rev. ed.). Basic Books.
The Psychedelic Turn in Trauma Treatment: A Critical Examination
In recent years, psychedelic substances — particularly MDMA, psilocybin, and ketamine — have attracted significant attention in clinical research circles and popular media alike as potential tools for trauma treatment. Major publications have heralded a so-called "psychedelic renaissance," and some researchers have described early-stage trial results with considerable optimism. However, a closer and more critical reading of the current evidence reveals that the field remains in its infancy, and that framing psychedelics as an established or broadly appropriate form of trauma treatment is premature, potentially misleading, and ethically problematic.
The limits of current research
While there are peer-reviewed studies — most notably trials exploring MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD conducted by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) — it is essential to scrutinize these findings carefully. These trials have involved small sample sizes, highly controlled settings, and very specific participant profiles. Critically, the "treatment" in these studies is not the psychedelic substance alone; it is a structured psychotherapy protocol in which the substance is used as an adjunct. The conflation of psychedelics as a treatment with psychedelics as a tool used within a broader clinical framework is a distinction that is frequently lost in public discourse.
Furthermore, the FDA declined to approve MDMA-assisted therapy in 2024, citing concerns about trial design, data integrity, and the need for more rigorous replication. This is not a minor footnote — it signals that even the most well-funded and advocated psychedelic research has not yet met the evidentiary standards required for clinical approval.
Risks and contraindications
Trauma survivors present a particularly vulnerable population when considering any pharmacological intervention. Psychedelic substances can provoke intense emotional and perceptual experiences — including the re-emergence of traumatic material — that may be destabilizing without proper therapeutic containment. For individuals with complex trauma histories, dissociative disorders, or co-occurring psychosis-spectrum conditions, psychedelic experiences can pose significant risks of retraumatization or psychiatric crisis. The literature on adverse events in psychedelic trials, though sometimes underreported, includes cases of acute psychological distress, prolonged perceptual disturbances (HPPD), and abuse of the therapeutic relationship in highly intimate treatment settings.
It is also worth noting that psychedelics remain Schedule I controlled substances in the United States, meaning that outside of tightly regulated research contexts, their use is illegal. The proliferation of unregulated "healing retreats" and underground facilitation — often marketed directly to trauma survivors seeking relief — operates without clinical oversight, standardized protocols, or meaningful accountability. This is a serious public health concern that practitioners in the trauma field must be prepared to address with clients.
Evidence-based alternatives
It is important to recognize that effective, well-validated trauma treatment modalities already exist. Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Prolonged Exposure (PE), and Somatic Experiencing each have robust bodies of evidence supporting their efficacy across diverse populations. These approaches are accessible, replicable, and do not carry the legal, medical, or ethical complications associated with psychedelic use. For practitioners working in the field, centering these established treatments — and advocating for equitable access to them — remains a far more grounded and responsible priority than directing clients toward experimental interventions of uncertain safety.
A note on cultural and ethical dimensions
Some proponents of psychedelic-assisted therapy point to Indigenous ceremonial traditions involving plant medicines as a basis for therapeutic legitimacy. While it is important to approach these traditions with respect and cultural humility, equating Indigenous ceremonial practice with clinical trauma treatment reflects a problematic form of appropriation that strips spiritual practices of their cultural context. Trauma practitioners must be thoughtful about how enthusiasm for psychedelics in Western clinical settings can inadvertently reproduce dynamics of cultural extraction, particularly when these practices originate in communities that have themselves experienced significant collective trauma.
Conclusion
The excitement surrounding psychedelic research is understandable — trauma is a field where the need for effective intervention is urgent and profound. However, that urgency must not lead us to outpace the evidence. Psychedelics are not, at this time, an established or recommended treatment for trauma. They are a subject of ongoing and contested research, not a clinical solution. As scholars and practitioners, our obligation is to rigorously evaluate the evidence we encounter, advocate for our clients' safety, and resist the pull of narratives that promise more than the science currently supports.
Key references: Mitchell et al. (2021), Nature Medicine; FDA briefing documents on MDMA-assisted therapy (2024); van der Kolk, B. (2014), The Body Keeps the Score; Foa, E. et al. (2019), Prolonged Exposure for PTSD; Shapiro, F. (2018), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing.