Barbara Whitmer Violence has harmful effects on those who experience it both directly and indirectly. Trauma Traumatic experience may be defined as an event outside the range of usual human experiences that would be markedly distressing to almost anyone.
Trauma destroys the trust relationship of the victim with themselves and the world.
This creates an inordinate amount of stress on the mental, emotional and physical capacities of the victim whose coping behaviours and belief structures have been shattered by trauma. The victim no longer knows how to act or what to expect from the world in order to survive. The victim develops characteristic symptoms described as post-traumatic stress disorder. Secondary, or vicarious trauma, refers to those people who care for, or are involved with, those who have been directly traumatized. This will produce an increase in affect in the therapist, with alternate periods of numbing and withdrawal.