Healthy Schools: trauma

Many different types of experiences can lead to psychological trauma. Please check the resources below and contact your school educational psychologist or Haringey's Anchor Approach for more information.

Find all Healthy Schools resources here

Understanding trauma

Trauma can be classified into 2 groups:

• type 1 is the result of a single event
• type 2 (Complex trauma or complex PTSD) results from repeated experiences of needs not being met and usually, betrayals of trust in primary relationships. It's often referred to as developmental trauma.

Complex trauma often involves multiple traumas of different kinds, taking place with different people and in different settings - known as ‘poly-victimisation’. 

Information about the nature of trauma, case-studies and tips on how to support traumatised children and young people can be found in this detailed guide for teachers created by the UK Trauma Council (external link - PDF, 4.4MB).

Read more about the stress response often triggered by trauma.

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Recognise, support and teach

This 30-minute training session delivered by the Anchor Approach covers trauma and poly-victimisation as part of the Returning to school with wellbeing in mind series (Sept. 2019).

Helping children and young people recognise and understand normal physiological and emotional responses to trauma can help to reduce anxiety. This 1-page resource helps you to teach about emotional and physiological responses to trauma and how to support it.

• Teaching About Trauma (PDF, 140KB)

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Look after yourself

Secondary trauma is experienced when we feel the impact of someone else’s distress. Discover how to recognise early signs and what you can do to reduce the risk to you and your colleagues (external link).

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More resources

Look at our Anxiety and Mindfulness pages for tips and tools to reduce distress that might result from a traumatic experience.

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