As a psychotherapist I deal with many of them, but the most impressive thing remains that, when that happens, I am in the presence of a TRAUMA that has wreaked havoc in someone’s life.

Regardless of how you want to call it and abbreviate it. If you, like me, watched the movie “American Sniper”, true story about U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, you may think that stress arising from the experience of traumatic events affects only war veterans or civilians involved in catastrophic accidents, measured according to the intensity of the event. So untrue.

In one of my roles, such as of psychological 1st responder, I have been involved in many situations that we may all agree to call tragic: from debriefing a yacht crew following the sudden death of a young crew member, to helping others to overcome the shock of witnessing a freak accident while manoeuvring, which cost one of their crew body mutilation. Or dealing with the guest who caused the accident whilst driving the wave runner, still unable to sleep and victim of panic attacks. Or the chef walking back to the yacht late at night and falling off the gangplank. And many others, all widely removed from any war related situation or catastrophe.

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