Will Cockram reviews Understanding Trauma by Steve Midgley.
“That was a traumatic experience.” In our culture, that short sentence can be used to describe everything from a stressful commute to work, to the recollections of an adult survivour of child sexual abuse. The former is forgotten quickly and has little lasting impact – the latter, never, and its effects are deep and long-lasting. We all know there’s a chasm between the two.
In this well-titled book, Midgley helps us to better understand the latter – ‘capital T’ Trauma – the kind of exceptional suffering that is outside the range of usual human experience, overwhelms the person in a feeling of helplessness, and has a myriad of long-lasting effects. Note the word “better”. This is not a comprehensive study, nor will it equip you to provide specialist care, but it will help believers to better understand it so as to more effectively walk alongside those who experience it.
