The trouble with trauma

This article explores how trauma theory has become influential in recent years in the fields of child welfare, out-of-home care and youth justice. It argues that this has brought with it some serious concerns. These include a belief that trauma informed approaches provide the answer to most or even all the challenges faced in human service delivery and that it applies equally across a diverse range of clients. There is also a lack of clarity about the definitions and nature of trauma including the conflation of different types of adversity, and some evidence of rigid, unthinking applications of theory, research findings and clinical propositions.