Some descriptions

'A traumatic experience is an event that falls completely outside the scope of your normal life. The experience does not fit within your image of how the world should be put together and how you should function within it. It is an event that provokes very strong emotions, such as fear, rage or powerlessness'. (Scholte, www.warchild.nl)

'A difficult situation becomes a traumatic event when it is a sudden, extreme, abnormal and fearful experience'. (AVSI Handbook for teachers (USAID), 2003, p. 12)

'A sudden and acutely shocking experience that washes over the individual, rendering him or her powerless for a brief or a longer period of time. The event can lead to a post-traumatic stress reaction or even disorders'. (Wolters, 1991)

'A traumatic experience is a very shocking event of a special order, which renders the individual temporarily helpless or hopeless. Normal mechanisms of self-maintenance are often made redundant but not always: some may actually be activated. The normal coping repertoire (link to what is coping?) is no longer there. That in and of itself constitutes a very vulnerable situation because often and especially in situations of war you need to be fully alert and have that coping repertoire available'. (professor Wolters)

• read more about the AVSI handbook for teachers ( pdf)