Trauma glossary, in plain English
These are the words we use across Recovery Trauma™, defined with compassion. They're not clinical descriptions — they're a starting point for understanding yourself with more kindness.
A
Attachment
The emotional bond formed between a child and their earliest caregivers. When early attachment feels unsafe or inconsistent, it can shape how we later trust, connect, and feel safe in relationships. These patterns can shift over time with new, safer experiences.
B
Boundaries
The limits we set to protect our energy, body, time, and emotional wellbeing. Boundaries aren't walls — they're an act of self-respect that helps relationships feel safer. Learning them is often part of trauma recovery.
C
Co-regulation
The process of calming our nervous system in the presence of a safe, regulated person. A steady voice, kind eyes, or slow breathing next to us can help our own body settle. It's how humans are wired to soothe each other.
Cognitive Distortions
Habits of thinking that twist how we see ourselves, others, and the world — like all-or-nothing thinking, catastrophising, or personalising. They often develop as survival strategies. Noticing them is the first step to gently reframing them.
Related:Core BeliefsSelf-Compassion
Complex PTSD
A response to prolonged or repeated trauma — often relational or in childhood — rather than a single event. It can include emotional flashbacks, difficulty with self-worth, shame, and challenges in relationships. Complex PTSD (CPTSD) is not a life sentence; healing is possible with the right support.
Core Beliefs
Deep, often unspoken beliefs we hold about ourselves, others, and the world — like 'I'm not safe' or 'I have to earn love'. Many form early, in response to what we needed to survive. They can be examined and softened over time.
D
Dissociation
A protective disconnect from thoughts, feelings, body, or surroundings — often the nervous system's way of shielding us when something feels overwhelming. It can look like zoning out, feeling numb, or feeling unreal. Grounding practices can help.
Related:GroundingFreezeNervous System
E
Emotional Flashbacks
A sudden return of the emotional intensity of the past — often without clear visual memories. You might feel small, terrified, or ashamed for reasons that don't match the current moment. Naming it and grounding can help the wave pass.
Related:Complex PTSDGroundingInner Child
Emotional Regulation
The ability to notice, tolerate, and gently work with emotions rather than being overwhelmed by them. It's a skill, not a personality trait, and it strengthens with practice. Trauma can make this harder — and support can rebuild it.
Related:Window of ToleranceRegulation
Emotional Validation
Acknowledging that a feeling makes sense, without needing to fix or change it. You can validate your own feelings, and receiving it from others can be deeply healing. Validation isn't agreement — it's respect.
F
Fawn
A survival response where safety was found in pleasing others — being agreeable, over-accommodating, or losing your own needs. It's a wise adaptation that later benefits from learning boundaries and self-trust.
Related:BoundariesAttachment
Fight
A survival response where the body mobilises to defend itself — through anger, confrontation, or pushing back. It's protective, not 'bad'. Chronic fight responses can leave the body exhausted and hypervigilant.
Related:Nervous SystemHyperarousal
Flight
A survival response where the body mobilises to escape — through avoidance, over-busyness, or literal fleeing. It often shows up as anxiety, restlessness, or perfectionism. Slowing down safely can help.
Related:Nervous SystemHyperarousal
Freeze
A survival response where the body goes still and shut-down when fight or flight aren't possible. It can feel like numbness, heaviness, or being 'stuck'. Gentle movement and warmth can help bring the body back online.
G
Gaslighting
A pattern of behaviour that makes someone doubt their own reality, memory, or feelings. It can be subtle or overt, and it's genuinely disorienting. Naming what happened and being believed are important parts of recovery.
Related:Trauma BondEmotional Validation
Grounding
A set of gentle practices that bring your awareness back to the present moment through the senses. It can help when you feel overwhelmed, dissociated, or triggered. Even one slow breath and both feet on the floor counts.
Related:SomaticRegulation
H
Hyperarousal
A high-activation state of the nervous system — racing heart, tight muscles, scanning for danger, difficulty sleeping. It's fight/flight energy that has nowhere to go. Slow exhales and rhythmic movement can help discharge it.
Related:FightFlightWindow of Tolerance
Hypervigilance
A constant, exhausting scanning of your environment for signs of threat. It's a wise adaptation from times when danger was real — and it can be gently retrained as safety becomes more consistent.
Related:HyperarousalNervous System
Hypoarousal
A low-activation state of the nervous system — numb, foggy, heavy, disconnected. It's the freeze/shutdown end of the survival spectrum. Warmth, gentle movement, and connection can slowly bring energy back.
I
Inner Child
The younger part of us that still carries the feelings, needs, and hurts of earlier years. Turning toward this part with compassion — instead of criticism — is often at the heart of trauma recovery.
Related:Parts WorkSelf-Compassion
M
Mindfulness
The practice of noticing what's happening right now, with kindness and without judgement. It doesn't require a quiet mind — just a willingness to notice. Small, regular moments count more than long sessions.
N
Nervous System
The body-wide network that senses safety and threat, and shifts us between calm, activation, and shutdown. Trauma affects the nervous system, not just thoughts — which is why body-based practices matter so much.
Neuroplasticity
The brain's ongoing ability to form new connections and change. It's why healing is possible at any age. Repeated experiences of safety, warmth, and choice literally reshape the nervous system over time.
P
Parts Work
An approach that treats the mind as made up of different 'parts' — protectors, exiles, inner critic, inner child — each with its own role. The goal isn't to silence any part, but to relate to them with curiosity and compassion.
Related:Inner ChildSelf-Compassion
Polyvagal Theory
A framework (developed by Dr Stephen Porges) describing how the vagus nerve helps us shift between safety, mobilisation, and shutdown. It offers a compassionate, body-based way to understand why we react the way we do.
Related:Vagus NerveNervous System
Projection
When feelings that are hard to hold in ourselves get placed onto someone else. Noticing it — 'is this really about them, or about me?' — is a caring form of self-honesty, not self-blame.
R
Radical Acceptance
A DBT skill of fully acknowledging reality as it is, even when it's painful, without demanding it be different. It's not approval — it's freeing yourself from fighting what has already happened, so you can respond to what is.
Regulation
The ongoing work of gently steering your nervous system back toward a place where you feel safe enough, calm enough, and connected enough. It's rarely a one-time state — it's a rhythm.
Related:Co-regulationWindow of Tolerance
Resilience
The capacity to bend without breaking, to recover, and to keep growing after hard things. Resilience isn't 'toughing it out' — it's built through safety, support, self-compassion, and small repeated practices.
S
Self-Compassion
Meeting yourself with the same kindness you'd offer a dear friend — especially when you're struggling. It's not self-pity or excuse-making; research shows it strengthens motivation, resilience, and change.
Related:ShameInner Child
Shame
The painful feeling that something is wrong with who I am (not just what I did). Trauma often installs shame that never belonged to us. Being seen with compassion — by ourselves and others — is what unbinds it.
Related:Self-CompassionInner Child
Somatic
Anything that relates to the body. Somatic practices work with sensation, breath, and movement to help release what talking alone can't reach. The body is a partner in healing, not an obstacle.
Related:Nervous SystemGrounding
T
Trauma Bond
A powerful attachment that can form in relationships with cycles of harm and repair. It's not weakness or foolishness — it's how the nervous system tries to find safety in unsafe conditions. Support helps loosen its grip.
Related:AttachmentGaslighting
Trigger
A present-moment cue (a smell, tone, place, or feeling) that activates a past survival response. Triggers aren't a sign you're 'broken' — they're your nervous system remembering. Naming them helps take away their charge.
Related:Emotional FlashbacksGrounding
U
Urge Surfing
A mindfulness skill for riding out strong urges — noticing them rise, peak, and pass, like a wave, without acting on them. Urges are temporary, even when they don't feel that way.
V
Vagus Nerve
A long, wandering nerve that connects the brainstem to the heart, lungs, and gut. It plays a central role in feeling calm, connected, and socially safe. Slow exhales, humming, and gentle touch can support it.
Related:Polyvagal TheoryNervous System
W
Window of Tolerance
The zone where you can feel, think, and connect without being overwhelmed (above the window) or shut down (below it). Trauma often narrows the window — safe practices gradually widen it.
Wise Mind
A DBT concept for the place where reasonable mind (logic) and emotion mind (feeling) meet. It's the calm, grounded knowing that comes from listening to both — and often from slowing down enough to hear it.
Educational only. Recovery Trauma™ is not a therapy service or medical provider. For urgent support see Crisis Resources.
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