Trauma Informed Care: An approach in the human service arena that assumes that an individual has a history of trauma, recognition of symptoms, acknowledgement of the role that trauma may play in the individual’s life. Realization in the treatment approach that trauma will effect the individual’s response.

Trauma Responsive Care: an agency’s or organization’s organized look at every aspect of staffing, programming, language, and environment, values, mandates in better serving clients, patients who have experienced trauma.

Acute Trauma is the result of a single event that is overwhelmingly stressful, shocking and /or dangerous.

Chronic Trauma is the result of multiple, repeated and prolonged exposure to highly stressful, dangerous threat to life, shocking events.

Complex Trauma The results of exposure to multiple, variable traumatic events.

Insidious Trauma is the daily incidents of perpetration, marginalization, objectification, dehumanization, intimidation that is experienced by certain groups of people targeted by racism, sexism, ageism, this includes the member groups experiencing oppression, discrimination due to socio- economic barriers, ie. poverty and /or mental and intellectual developmental disabilities.

Childhood Trauma is the experience of an event or condition that poses a threat to life of a child or close relation to the child causing fear, helplessness, horror or shock,. The child may express a behavioral response of agitation, anger, disorganization, frustration.

Cultural Trauma: Is when member of a collective group of people identify with the same events or occurrences of persecution, horror, oppression, torment that leaves an indelible marks on their consciousness, marking their memories forever, changing their future identity in fundamental and irrevocable ways.

Historical Trauma: Is an event, number of events and/or a prolonged experience by a specific group of people with a history of being systemically oppressed that continues to have an impact psychologically and physically on a specific cultural, racial, ethnic group of people throughout time from generation to generation bringing damage to their cultural identity.

Intergenerational Trauma: Is the transmission of historical oppression, disparities, negative consequences and response to the trauma across generations.