The 7 Types of Trauma

According to the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, around 70% of adults in the USA have experienced a traumatic event in their lifetime; that’s approximately 233.3 million people¹. Despite trauma being so common, its impact can be intense and profound.

Many people have an image of trauma coming from war, an accident or abuse. However, trauma can come in many different forms, and each kind can affect your life in different ways.

The seven types of trauma concept provides us with a useful framework, breaking trauma down into seven categories. This can help us to find a more specific name for our experience, which can be useful when we need to communicate and understand how we’re feeling.

So, what are the seven types of trauma? And how do they differ? This article will cover all your questions about the seven trauma types, sometimes called the 7 core traumas, including the impact of trauma on the inner child and how to start your healing journey.

What Are the Seven Types of Trauma?

To understand the seven core traumas, we first have to understand what “trauma” itself means. According to the American Psychological Association, trauma is²:

“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. Traumatic events include those caused by human behavior (e.g., rape, war, industrial accidents) as well as by nature (e.g., earthquakes) and often challenge an individual’s view of the world as a just, safe, and predictable place.”

You might have noticed that this defines trauma quite broadly – anything that is disruptive enough to shake your worldview can be traumatic. This is why it’s sometimes useful to categorize our experiences, although there’s no formal, clinical way to do this. The seven core traumas break trauma down into 7 key categories, accounting for the differences in how trauma can happen and the wide array of consequences of the traumas.

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Remember, these aren’t all diagnosable terms, but they can help you to explain your unique experiences to others and understand them better yourself.

Types of Trauma in Psychology

1. Big “T” Trauma

Some people use the term “Big T trauma” to describe the most life-altering events. These are the things we might traditionally consider traumatic, like assault, a serious accident, or sudden hospitalization.

Anything that affects you seriously enough can be considered “Big T trauma” – we’ll talk a bit more about how to tell if trauma is Big T trauma after explaining its alternative, Little T trauma.

2. Little “T” Trauma

Little “T” trauma, also known as small “T” trauma, is more “every day” than Big T trauma. This type of trauma is one that happens because of commonplace problems, such as losing a job, unexpectedly having to move, or difficult relationships.

Little “T” trauma doesn’t get a lot of airtime, because all of us experience these things throughout our lives. Yet, they can still leave us feeling out of control, helpless, and overwhelmed.

Big T vs Little T Trauma

Since this isn’t a formal classification system, what counts as Big vs Little T trauma isn’t always obvious. Some clinicians are against the idea of Big vs Little T trauma for this reason – what might be a “little T” trauma to someone else could be a “big T” trauma to you, and that’s okay; we’re all affected differently by our unique experiences. If the Big T vs Little T trauma idea helps you to understand and explain your experiences then you may wish to use it this way, but if it doesn’t resonate with you then there’s no need to make your experiences fit this classification.

3. Chronic Trauma

“Chronic trauma” can be used to describe either a traumatic experience that lasts a long time, or a trauma response that lasts longer than the threat³. For example, you might use this term if you have experienced a period of homelessness, or you experience ongoing trauma symptoms after one traumatic incident.

You could also use “chronic trauma” to describe the impact of bullying or repeated abuse, but there’s another term that’s often used when the trauma is relational, meaning it involves another person or people.

4. Complex Trauma

Similar to chronic trauma, complex trauma occurs after repeated exposure to distressing events. However, complex trauma tends to stem from relationships and is often linked to difficult childhood experiences.

Unlike other definitions listed here, a form of “complex trauma” may be used clinically as “complex PTSD”. Complex PTSD is an ICD-11 diagnosis in which all criteria for PTSD are met, plus⁴:

• Difficulty with emotional regulation
• Feelings of low self-worth and guilt or shame associated with the traumatic event
• Difficulties sustaining close relationships with others

It’s important to understand the difference between using “complex trauma” to describe your experience and having a diagnosis of complex-PTSD, or C-PTSD. If you’re not sure whether you might fit the criteria for C-PTSD, it could be worth discussing this with a licensed psychologist.

5. Insidious Trauma

“Insidious trauma” is used to describe the ongoing, often daily, negative experiences of belonging to a marginalized group of people. This may include microaggressions, stereotyping, and bullying.

While significant traumatic events can be associated with having a marginalized identity, insidious trauma defines the cumulative effect resulting from the build-up of less obvious, sometimes subtle or unnoticeable experiences.

6. Secondary Trauma

Secondary trauma, sometimes called vicarious trauma, describes feeling traumatized by events you did not experience yourself. This might include seeing disturbing content online, hearing the details about a traumatic event – especially involving someone you’re close to – or working closely with distressing information.

For example, people within healthcare, the police force, or journalism can be particularly at risk of secondary trauma. Therapists can also experience secondary trauma from hearing the details of other people’s trauma, so they often have strong support systems in place.

7. Intergenerational, Historical, Collective, or Cultural Trauma

These terms are used to describe the effects of trauma that are passed down within a specific family or culture. For example, if your great-grandparent was directly affected by a traumatic event such as the Holocaust, they may have found it more difficult to parent their own child, your grandparent, with patience and attentiveness. This may have affected your grandparent as a child, which impacted the way they raised your parent, which affected your own upbringing. Even if you never met your great-grandparent or experienced their trauma, what happened to them could affect you today.

Impact of the 7 Core Traumas on the Inner Child

The “inner child” is a concept used to describe the automatic thoughts and beliefs we might hold from childhood⁵. Essentially, it’s a part of ourselves that formed in childhood and hasn’t changed, such as an assumption that we are not good enough or a sense of isolation from others.

When we go through something traumatic as a child, this can give us a sense of insecurity or a lack of trust in ourselves, others, and the world in general. If it helps you, you can think of healing from these experiences as looking after your inner child.

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How to Heal from the Seven Core Traumas

The psychological wounds from trauma take time to heal, and it isn’t always a linear process where each day is better than the last. To heal from one of the seven core traumas, it’s important to allow yourself time to recover and to focus on self-care and therapeutic support, if possible.

Practice Self-Compassion

If you have any kind of trauma, you might experience lots of confusing feelings including shame, guilt, and frustration about the event or events. Practicing self-compassion can help to alleviate these feelings, making it easier to manage your emotions day to day and process traumatic experiences⁶.

Part of self-compassion involves treating your body well: moving, relaxing, eating well, and a healthy sleep routine can help more than you might expect.

Find & Join a Support Group

Talking things through can help process traumatic experiences, but not all trauma-focused therapy groups will involve discussing what you’ve been through. Many prefer to focus on the here and now, and may aim to teach you about the symptoms and experiences you’re having in the present instead of processing the past. Sometimes they will just be about gathering or doing an activity together, without discussing trauma at all – in any case, sitting in a room with other people who have had similar experiences often helps us to feel less alone.

Speak to a Licensed Mental Health Professional

If you can, speaking to a licensed mental health professional is an important step in recovery from traumatic events. A therapist, counselor, or psychiatrist can help you make sense of your experiences and learn ways to manage so that your past doesn’t have such a big impact on your future. If you need crisis mental health support, contact a local crisis service or emergency services.

Final Words on the 7 Trauma Types

Though most of us experience trauma in some capacity, the effects on our lives can be massive. Our relationships, work life, and self-esteem can all be more difficult to manage, and we may experience symptoms that are hard to explain.

Identifying with one of the 7 core traumas can help you to understand what’s happening and explain it to others. With this knowledge and support, you may be able to start processing what happened and re-establishing connection with others. With that said, these definitions of trauma are not clinical and not set in stone, so it’s okay if none feel right for you.

While recovery may not feel within reach right now, it is possible. Your trauma doesn’t have to define you. By taking care of yourself, finding a support group you trust, and seeking professional help, you can begin to overcome your past experiences.

References

1. The National Council for Mental Wellbeing. How to Manage Trauma. Accessed August 21, 2025. https://www.thenationalcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Trauma-infographic.pdf
2. American Psychological Association. APA Dictionary of Psychology. April 19, 2018. Accessed August 21, 2025. https://dictionary.apa.org/trauma
3. Feriante J, Sharma NP. Acute and chronic mental health trauma. InStatPearls [Internet] 2023 Aug 2. StatPearls Publishing.
4. World Health Organization. ICD-11 for Mortality and Morbidity Statistics. 6B41 Complex post traumatic stress disorder. Accessed August 21, 2025. https://icd.who.int/browse/2025-01/mms/en#585833559
5. Hestbech AM. Reclaiming the inner child in cognitive-behavioral therapy: The complementary model of the personality. American Journal of Psychotherapy. 2018 Jul 1;71(1):21-7.
6. Winders SJ, Murphy O, Looney K, O’Reilly G. Self‐compassion, trauma, and posttraumatic stress disorder: A systematic review. Clinical psychology & psychotherapy. 2020 May;27(3):300-29.