What is trauma?
Our February LearnTogether focused on trauma-informed practices and was led by Laura McArthur, co-founder of Resilient Futures. Within moments of posting the recording on our YouTube channel, I added it to our required training for tutors.
Trauma can mean many things, and the word is often used loosely in everyday conversation and across social media. According to the American Psychological Association, trauma is “any disturbing experience that results in significant fear, helplessness, dissociation, confusion, or other disruptive feelings intense enough to have a long-lasting negative effect on a person’s attitudes, behavior, and other aspects of functioning.”
Take a moment to think about the students we serve. Many of these children and teens entered foster or kinship care because of experiences that were likely traumatic. But what I sometimes forget is that the act of being removed from the home you know—whether good or bad—and being placed with strangers, or even extended family, can itself be deeply traumatic.
When we consider our students’ lives—the daily uncertainty, the many adults who move in and out of their lives, and the histories they carry with them—it becomes clear that trauma may shape how they experience school, relationships, and learning.
I encourage each of you to watch this presentation. It offers powerful insight into how trauma affects not only a student’s life, but also their education and the way they process the world around them. It shifted my perspective, and I believe it will shift yours as well.