• When something happens suddenly. Typically a single incident experience.
• Car accident, sexual assault, natural disaster, medical event.

• When exposed to an ongoing traumatic experience environment over time.
• Childhood abuse/neglect, domestic violence, bullying, sexual abuse, living in poverty or extreme conditions, war.

• When exposed to several different traumatic experiences or a combination of acute and chronic traumas.
• Attachment trauma (ruptures in connection with caregivers in the earliest years of life) and a combination of acute and chronic situations.

Witnessing another person experience a traumatic event.

When people who have experienced or witnessed trauma have not had an opportunity to heal from that trauma, it can be transferred to the next generation.

Trauma can also be transferred to subsequent generations ie beyond just the next generation. When trauma is transmitted across a number of generations it is known as transgenerational trauma.