Child & Youth Trauma

Deftly combining unforgettable case histories with his own compassionate, insightful strategies for rehabilitation, Dr. Perry explains what exactly happens to the brain when a child is exposed to extreme stress -- and reveals the unexpected measures that can be taken to ease a child's pain and help him grow into a healthy adult.

In The Body Keeps the Score, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers’ capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust. He explores innovative treatments—from neurofeedback and meditation to sports, drama, and yoga—that offer new paths to recovery by activating the brain’s natural neuroplasticity.  

Trauma and Recovery is revered as the seminal text on understanding trauma survivors. By placing individual experience in a broader political frame, Harvard psychiatrist Judith Herman argues that psychological trauma is inseparable from its social and political context. Drawing on her own research on incest, as well as a vast literature on combat veterans and victims of political terror, she shows surprising parallels between private horrors like child abuse and public horrors like war.  

This article, written by Dr. Christine R. Ludy-Dobson and Dr. Bruce D. Perry provides information on how the role of healthy relational interactions can buffer the impacts of childhood trauma.

In this article, written by Dr. Richard L. Gasskill and Dr. Bruce D. Perry, the impacts on the developing brain of traumatic experiences, including child sexual abuse, as well as treatments and interventions are discussed. 

In this article, written by Dr. Bruce D. Perry, information on how early experiences of maltreatment shape children and culture, as well as prevention and solutions to child maltratment and its consequences are discussed.

This article, written by Dr. John Read, Dr. Roar Fosse, Dr. Andrew Moskowitz and Dr. Bruce D. Perry, provides information on the evidence that childhood adversities are risk factors for psychosis has accumulated rapidly. Research into the mechanisms underlying these relationships has focused, productively, on psychological processes, including cognition, attachment and dissociation. Indeed, in this article, the literature on biological mechanisms underlying the relationship between childhood trauma and psychosis published since 2001 is summarized.

The purpose of this article, written by Dr. Bruce D. Perry is to provide an overview of PTSD in children. While targeted for an interdisciplinary audience, portions may be helpful to parents and caregivers living with children suffering from PTSD.

The purpose of this article, written by Dr. Bruce D. Perry, is to examine potential mechanisms underlying the well documented and complex relationships between maltreatment in childhood and the subsequent development of psychopathology. 

This article reviews recent literature that has changed clinical and social viewpoints on child abuse and neglect and can be used as a primer to better understand: (1) influences of child abuse and neglect on physical illness; (2) critical diagnostic advances relevant to persons who have experienced child abuse and neglect; and (3) ethical, research, and practical questions generated by these new understandings.

This guide offers information about complex trauma, how it can impact youth, both good and harmful coping strategies, and ways to improve. This guide is for youth who have experienced complex trauma or who know someone who has. Clinicians, caregivers, and other adults can also use the guide to have conversations with youth about what complex trauma is. 

This fact sheet provides information about trauma in Indian country, impact of trauma on Indigenous children and characteristics of trauma-informed systems.  

This document will help you learn more about child maltreatment among young children and adolescents in Quebec. It also provides a better understanding of the consequences and how to prevent further victimization.

This document provides information on the consequences of childhood trauma in Quebec, based on data from youth protection services.

This page provides clear definitions of the different themes related to sexual assault and helps to distinguish them.

This page provides a clear understanding of the various consequences that can result from sexual abuse, including physical, emotional, psychological and academic consequences.

This page offers tips on how to prevent sexual violence.

These fact sheets provide guidance about child development and trauma, grouped by age, as well as possible indicators of trauma and trauma impacts. 

This fact sheet will help you learn more about childhood trauma and answer the following questions: What is a traumatic event? What experiences might be traumatic? What is child traumatic stress? What are the risk and protective factors?  

This fact sheet provides information on a range of traumatic events or trauma types to which children and adolescents can be exposed.

This guide provides information on various topics related to complex trauma, such as effects, screening and assessment, and interventions to prioritize.

This guide takes a step-by-step approach to learning more about the effects of toxic stress.

This infographic, developed by SAMHSA’s National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative (NCSTI), provides information on the prevalence and impact of traumatic events on children, and what actions can be taken to support children who experience traumatic events.

This infographic provides information on the prevalence of trauma, the types of trauma and the symptoms that can be experienced as a result of trauma. It also offers ideas for coping strategies that can help integrate trauma, as well as outlining the different kinds of treatment that can be effective for people coping with such situations.

This infographic answers frequently asked questions about adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and their link with toxic stress. 

This infographic provides information on the "freeze" and "shut down" traumatic reactions to help differentiate them.

This infographic offers further information on the importance of considering trauma, particularly by outlining the consequences of trauma.

This infographic offers mental health providers information on understanding cultural responsiveness to racial trauma, why it matters, and what to do. This infographic includes information on what is racial trauma, what is cultural responsiveness, how did we get here, what are the effects of racial trauma and discrimination, as well as your responsibility as a mental health provider.

The window of tolerance is a concept originally developed by Dr. Dan Siegel, MD to describe the optimal zone of “arousal” for a person to function in everyday life. When a person is operating within this zone or window, they can effectively manage and cope with their emotions. For people who have experienced trauma, it is often difficult to regulate emotions and the zone of arousal where they can function effectively becomes quite narrow.

This infographic addresses how your nervous system responds to danger. According to polyvagal theory, the nervous system has three pathways it can follow in the face of a threat. By helping clients map these pathways, they can begin to identify their triggers and develop strategies for staying grounded.

This infographic explains how, after trauma, children are often left with many painful sensations and emotions including shame and guilt, and that’s especially true if they weren’t able to protect themselves or escape. It thus focuses on why it is useful to understand how their brain and body did work to protect them during the traumatic event.

This infographic provides a better understanding of childhood interpersonal trauma, listing the related developmental sequelae.

This infographic illustrates the possible reactions a human being can have when faced with danger, and explains how children who are victims of trauma have their alarm systems constantly activated.