Trauma is like having a broken arm, except it’s invisible so it’s a lot harder to identify and treat. If your trauma is never healed, you may be able to get by, but it’s not the same as it was before - things feel harder and take more effort. Conversations and activities which used to be easy and fun now feel unbearable. You may be limited in your capacity for how long you can handle stressors before exploding in anger or collapsing in depression.

Trauma can be overt (war) or covert (racism).

Companies who profess to support mental health AND diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) for their employees, but who silo their efforts or treat them as unrelated initiatives, are missing yet another intersectional aspect of DEI. The abusive, power-imbalanced, transactional relationship between employers-employees that is foundational to capitalism is emotionally toxic to our human natures that crave connection, affirmation, and mutuality.