Over my last 13 years as a trauma therapist, this has been a question that’s surfaced many times from my clients: Was it childhood trauma if I was privileged?

There’s a bifurcated thought many of us hold that if we had food, a roof over our heads, toys, and clothes, our experiences—painful as they may have been—don’t “count” as childhood trauma because, materially, we had what we needed.

I personally and professionally believe it’s critical that we debunk this myth, unpack why and how many of us hold this belief, and understand why holding a more flexible view on childhood trauma existing against the landscape of a privileged past is important.

Historically, the recognition of childhood trauma has predominantly focused on physical abuse and violence.

This narrow perspective can be traced back to early research and societal understandings, which placed emphasis (understandably) on visible, tangible forms of harm and poor adult outcomes (mentally and socially) because of these experiences.

With physical abuse toward children centered in research and social studies (and, of course, it makes sense why it would be!), psychological and emotional aspects of trauma were, until relatively recently, often overlooked, in part due to the challenges in quantifying and assessing nonphysical forms of abuse, and also due to the relatively early stages of this second wave of traumatology work.

But, increasingly, studies have shown that exposure to childhood trauma beyond physical abuse is also associated with adult psychiatric disorders and poor biopsychosocial outcomes, highlighting the long-term consequences of such experiences​ and validating them.

The evolution........

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