Individual trauma and collective trauma

There are many types of trauma.

Two that are most commonly experienced during war, conflict and forced displacement are individual trauma and collective trauma.

What is individual trauma?

  • An experience of traumatic events that impacts an individual.
  • Survivors can sometimes experience feelings of guilt and shame around their reactions.
  • These experiences can impact a person’s self-worth, behaviour, mental health and aspirations for what they want their life to look like in the future.

What is collective trauma?

  • Shared experience of traumatic events that impact a community or society.
  • Can be experienced as a group based on religion, race, sexuality, gender, culture and more.
  • These experiences can become held in the collective memory and body of an individual and the group, impacting their lives in different ways.
  • These can be experiences that happened generations ago but still have consequences on people today.

To solidify your understanding of individual and collective trauma, complete the following task.

Activity icon Task 4: Individual or collective trauma?

Timing: 10 minutes

Part 1

Now check your understanding of individual and collective trauma.

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Part 2

As you return to your classroom or learning space this week, how will any of this week's content impact the way you interact with students, plan their learning activities or support them in another way?

What are three key points you will share with your colleagues?

What steps will you take to ensure your fellow educators can make use of this knowledge in your workplace?

Make notes in the text box below.

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Comment

As demonstrated in the activity above, the students have likely experienced a mixture of individual and collective traumas both forcing them to flee and occurring during their displacement.

Utilise the knowledge you gained from the learning on trauma, toxic stress, the window of tolerance, the triple trauma paradigm and the two types of trauma just discussed, to help guide how you work alongside your refugee students and what kinds of support you offer to them to help them resettle in your school and community.

Supporting students and young people can take its toll on you too.

You will now work through the final section of the unit which focuses on some impacts of supporting those with trauma: compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma.

The Triple Trauma Paradigm

Educator wellbeing and impacts