Complex trauma commonly occurs with repeated trauma against a child. This includes all forms of child abuse, neglect, adverse childhood experiences, community violence – domestic and family violence, civil unrest, war trauma or genocide, cultural dislocation, sexual exploitation and trafficking.

The term complex trauma describes both children’s exposure to multiple traumatic events, often of an invasive, interpersonal nature, and the wide- ranging, long-term impact of this exposure. Whereas, simple trauma, refers to ONE traumatic event that is definable, such as an assault