Trauma can be defined as a rupture in a relationship.  It can be caused by an accident that changes a person's relationship to their own body, by a crime that changes a person's relationship to their community or by a parent's on-going alcoholism that can alter a child's relationship to his or her self. 

No matter what the cause of a trauma, the therapist's first task is to assist the client to establish or re-establish a sense of safety.

Trauma has some predictable consequences; a sense of isolation, fear of the future, distrust of others.  The treatment for trauma has equally predictable outcomes;  the relief of these very consequences over time.  Because everyone has different life stories, the same trauma can affect each individual in a unique way.  A therapy that explores all of the factors in a person's life including trauma can lead to specific insight that can have lasting, profound, and life altering consequences for the better.