Understanding Trauma and Vicarious Trauma
- Maryann Aita
- 4 hours ago
- 4 min read
Understanding Trauma and Vicarious Trauma Trauma is a very common reason people seek therapy, but it’s also a complex topic that can be oversimplified on social media. There are common trauma responses, but trauma also affects people uniquely based on a number of factors. Even defining the word trauma can be difficult. Most people could name examples of traumatic things, but how do we decide that one thing is traumatic and another is not? One of the most essential things to understand is that trauma is a spectrum; the question of “is this traumatic?” is generally not as helpful as the question “how traumatic is this to this individual?” Many definitions of the word are framed as the result of an experience rather than the specifics of the experience itself.
The American Psychological Association (2026) defines trauma in terms of the response to it: “a disturbing experience that results in significant fear, helplessness, dissociation, or confusion [...]” (para. 1). The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA, n.d.) explains trauma similarly as an event that “results in physical harm, emotional harm, and/or life-threatening harm” (para 1).
When beginning to work through the impacts of trauma, it can be helpful to start at the end. Rather than focus on whether or not something was traumatic “enough,” we can focus on how we reacted to something and how it is currently impacting our lives. There are varying degrees of trauma, and it’s not uncommon to want to compare our experiences to others’. But comparison can get in the way of becoming our best selves. Still, having a framework to work from can be useful in therapy. Instead of comparing one person’s trauma to another, it might be helpful to think about trauma as falling into different categories. Hilary Jacobs Hendel explains these as “Big T” and “small t” trauma.
“Big T” Trauma
Some events are more universally perceived as “traumatic” than others. War and violence, for example, are unequivocally traumatic. These, according to Hendel, are “Big T” traumas. Other Big T traumas include the sudden loss of a loved one, rape and sexual assault, being a victim of a violent crime, major accidents, and natural disasters. These things often leave long-lasting impacts on people who experienced them, though not everyone will feel the impacts of trauma the same way. For instance, some veterans return from war with PTSD, while others experience less severe negative impacts to their lives.
“Small t” Trauma
There is also a long list of “small t” traumas: experiences that can have harmful outcomes but may not have the same degree of impact as a major trauma. “Small t” trauma encompasses a lot. Common examples of small t trauma include divorce, losing a job, growing up with a family member dealing with addiction or mental illness, emotional neglect, bullying, and feeling “othered.” There are also plenty of other experiences that fall within the trauma spectrum. Just as with “Big T” trauma, people who go through “small t” trauma will not all react in the same way. Also, the severity and frequency of small t events can amplify someone’s negative response to trauma.
In particular, witnessing or hearing about trauma might be a “small t” trauma, but when it happens repeatedly, it can have a serious impact on someone.
This is a specific type of trauma known as vicarious trauma.
Vicarious Trauma
Vicarious trauma is when a person witnesses or hears someone else’s trauma often enough that they become traumatized. The term originated in 1990 to explain how trauma therapists could become traumatized through the process of providing therapy for trauma victims. First responders, therapists, social workers, and people in emergency medical services are especially vulnerable to vicarious trauma because they work with victims of trauma frequently. Hearing about someone else’s trauma or witnessing a traumatic event–even if you are not experiencing the event–can lead to vicarious traumatization.
This can lead to burnout, depression, anxiety, and even PTSD. There are many ways someone can experience vicarious traumatization, even though this type of trauma is not as often recognized as Big T trauma. For example, having a family member or friend going through a trauma can also lead to vicarious traumatization. A young child who watches their older sibling go through cancer treatments, for instance, could have a very negative reaction.
This kind of trauma can be overlooked because it is not as salient as Big T trauma.
These categories can be helpful for us to have a better understanding of the nuances of trauma, but trauma-informed counseling means validating individual experiences of, and reactions to, any kind of trauma. Trauma affects individuals differently. Two people could experience the same event and one might develop PTSD while the other has minimal interruption to their daily life. This doesn’t mean one of them was impervious to trauma; rather, they may have had different levels of resilience based on their age, race, existing support networks, and mental and physical health status. Resilience is multifaceted, and building resilience is part of my trauma-informed work with clients.
When I work with clients who have intense anxiety and hypervigilance because of vicarious trauma, I support them in their current experience. I do not define what is traumatic for someone else. I may contextualize their experience by considering things like how “small” traumas have overlapped to interrupt the process of developing resilience. Or, I may help clients explore how trauma at a certain age can stay with us for a very long time. There is no universal reaction to trauma, nor is there a single path to healing from it.
As a trauma counselor, I am grateful to be able to help clients forge their unique pathways to healing.
References
Berlin, D. (2023). How vicarious trauma touches every family member | Upper Saddle River, NJ | Aspire Psychological Group. Aspire Psychological Group.
Hendel, H. J. (2018). It’s not always depression: Working the Change Triangle to Listen to the Body, Discover Core Emotions, and Connect to Your Authentic Self. Random House. Kadambi, M. A., & Ennis, L. (2004). Reconsidering Vicarious Trauma: A Review of the Literature and Its’ Limitations. Journal of Trauma Practice, 3(2), 1–21.
The Vicarious Trauma Toolkit | What is Vicarious Trauma? | OVC. (n.d.). Office for Victims of Crime. https://ovc.ojp.gov/program/vtt/what-is-vicarious-trauma Trauma. (n.d.). American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/topics/trauma
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