Trauma by its very nature is complicated and unique. An event may cause Post Traumatic stress (PTS) symptoms in one person whilst someone else who experiecned the same event may not have PTS symptoms, or, their symptoms may be very different.

People have different resilliance capacity and strategies, different triggers, and different responses.

A traumatic response can be triggered by seemingly small or by massive events.

Trauma can be simple, complex or chronic.

As teachers we need to have a good understanding of how trauma can impact our learners. We need to tread carefully, safely and knowledgeably in order to support our learners to be the best they can be. We need to understand how to open the doors to learning for them.

I am a teacher, a professional learning facilitator and Arts Therapist.

If you or your school are looking for support with learners who have experience of trauma, or are looking to work in a more trauma informed way, please feel free to contact me: ruth.foulkes@waikato.ac.nz