Trauma Spirituality

Words: 1755
Pages: 8

Trauma, Development, and Spirituality
Katrina Marqua
Liberty University

Trauma, Development, and Spirituality According to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN, 2016), traumatic events can occur in the lives of children and adolescents in two forms. When a child or adolescent experiences a short-lived tragic event that takes place at a particular time and place, such as a serious injury to oneself or witnessing a serious injury of another person or facing the reality of a looming threat of serious harm or death to oneself or to others, then these events are referred to as acute traumatic events (NCTSN, 2016). Examples of acute traumatic events would be a school shooting, a sudden and violent loss of a loved one,
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Sometimes these events happen at the hands of people who force their will onto other people while at other times, these events occur within our natural environment at the fault of no one. Unfortunately, for the many people who endure traumatic events, they are left with a memory that can haunt them for the rest of their life. Certain people, places, smells, or even sounds can trigger that memory and send the individual into a dark place that can manifest through varying degrees of reactionary behaviors. Due to the plasticity of the brain, it has been altered by the traumatic event, making it a challenge for the individual to realize that it is a memory of the past not a reality of the present. Fortunately, the individual does not have to live with the constant fear of when their next episode might occur due to an unexpected environmental stressor. Through spiritual development, building up the cohesiveness of the family unit, learning and implementing strategies to cope, and even through education, one can learn to overcome the traumatic events, undoing some of its negative …show more content…
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