From “Soul Medicine for a Fractured World: Healing, Justice, and the Path of Wholeness” by Liza J. Rankow
Trauma can be understood as the lingering impact of experiencing a physical, emotional, spiritual, or psychological harm so distressing it overwhelms our ability to cope. The etymology of the word is Greek, meaning a wound, a hurt, or a defeat. Dr. Gabor Mate is an expert in trauma and addiction. His own traumatic experience as a young Jewish child in Budapest during the Nazi occupation of World War II later led him to specialize in working with trauma survivors. “Trauma is not what happened to you,” he explains, “it’s what happens inside you as a result of what happened to you. So the sexual abuse or the neglect or the war tragedy is not the trauma – that’s the traumatic event that induces the trauma – the trauma is the would that you sustain.” Trauma is the response to a highly stressful or painful event, or series of events, but not everybody who experiences those events will develop trauma. A traumatic response is more likely to result when we feel unsupported and alone in the face of the experience, when our sense of safety, belonging, and dignity is ruptured. Somatics practitioner and innovator Staci Hames identifies these elements – safety, belonging, and dignity – as the interdependent core necessities for human well-being.