Hope for families
The Childhood Trauma Recovery Network exists to support people from across the UK to find the help they need to recover from childhood trauma, and to ensure that the professionals they work with are trauma-informed.
Trauma can disrupt, destroy and devastate a child, young person or adult’s life. Trauma can come from the actions of a stranger, someone inside or known to the family, or from an incident that the child or young person has experienced or witnessed. These traumatic experiences can impact the ways they behave, communicate, relate to other people, and perceive the world around them. Many people tell us that they find it hard to trust or feel safe around other people, or in their everyday lives. The consequences of childhood trauma can stay with a person over their lifetime.
With the right support, children, young people and adults can overcome their experiences of childhood trauma. Some people call this recovery, growth or healing, and others talk about living beyond the trauma they have suffered.
Whatever you call it, know that the Childhood Trauma Recovery Network is here to support you, and we will be trying to make the organisations and professionals you might work with more trauma-informed.
People, families and professionals often tell us that they can find it difficult to access the most appropriate support to make sense of, and recover from, the trauma they have experienced in childhood.
Human-focused
The Childhood Trauma Recovery Network is human-focused.
We live in a world where many people ask what condition or diagnosis you have, rather than ‘what has happened to you?’, ‘what you experienced?’, ‘how can I best support you?’.
Some professionals see psychological trauma as a medical condition, focused on the pathology and symptoms of traumatic stress, and assessing whether someone reaches a clinical threshold for a diagnosis of, for example, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD), or Acute Stress Disorder (ASD).
We know that a diagnosis of a trauma and/or stress-related condition can be very meaningful for people who have experienced childhood traumas. However, we also know that the majority of people are unlikely to seek a diagnosis or may not reach a psychiatric diagnostic threshold, but will still live with the consequences of traumatic experiences on their lives.
The Childhood Trauma Recovery Network is human-focused, we deeply can about people’s lived experiences of trauma in childhood, the impact it has had on their lives and relationships. Importantly, we are dedicated to ensuring that services and professionals play their part in becoming trauma-informed, offering hope to children, young people, families and adults impacted by childhood trauma, and ultimately to support them to grow, live and recover from the experiences they have faced.
