Let me begin by saying that the terms developmental trauma, complex trauma, childhood trauma, and relational trauma can be used interchangeably.

But throughout my writing over the last nine years, I’ve predominantly used the term "relational trauma" versus "childhood trauma". This largely centers on the fact that it’s been a struggle for many people to see their lived experience as “counting” as a childhood trauma experience.

I talked about that in my last essay but, I want to provide more psychoeducation and share six reasons why you might struggle with the term “childhood trauma.”

First, let’s ground ourselves in what used to be considered a childhood trauma experience.

Historically, my field has used ACEs, or Adverse Childhood Experiences, to diagnose and understand childhood trauma/relational trauma.

This framework, established by the landmark CDC-Kaiser study in the late 1990s, aimed to identify and categorize experiences that could be classified as childhood trauma leading to long-term health issues.

It identified ten types of ACEs: emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional neglect, physical neglect, mother treated........

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