Is Trauma the New Scapegoat?

The phrase trauma seems to be everywhere. Statistics show that over 5,500 podcasts have trauma in the title. On TikTok, #trauma has over 6.2 billion views. A recent article title pretty much sums it up: How trauma became the word of the decade. Good question. There is a growing opinion among some that attribute all our problems to trauma. Is that true? Has the word become overused? 

These days it's common to hear... I was stuck in traffic - it was traumatic! Or... I was traumatized when my baseball team lost the game! But is that trauma? Are we minimizing and desensitizing the word, watering it down and ultimately being disrespectful to what real trauma is? Are we confusing trauma with (our own need for) drama? Are we dealing with it in a healthy way?

The biggest question above all is, what is trauma? And beyond everything else, what can we do about it? Are we stuck being traumatized people? Are we falling into the trap of blaming trauma and avoiding the work we need to do to grow through our challenges? Even as we heal, does our healing remain part of our trauma? Can we recreate our lives to return to and reclaim the pre-trauma state, or are we perpetually stuck in a PTSD state of being?

Please join Rabbi Simon Jacobson for a fascinating and fundamental discussion on trauma and its treatment -- how it has evolved over the years, where we stand today and how we can develop healthy ways to heal the wounds. Learn about the different ways and stages people deal with difficulties -- from denial to blame to empathy. Then by exploring the psycho-spiritual and mystical roots of trauma -- all originating in the primordial dissonance of the tzimtzum -- we discover the steps to move from empathy to empowerment, healing the ruptures created by trauma by reconnecting to your very essence, and finally, transforming the very trauma itself.