Our models of trauma needs to be updated to include systemic trauma. And this is for everyone, not just for marginalized people.

The problem with leaving out systemic trauma from our trauma model is not only that marginalized people's trauma is left out of the conversation.

If we don't include systemic trauma, then we aren't fully examining how trauma functions in a collective social context FOR ANYONE.

Almost ALL trauma stems from systemic oppression, even interpersonal trauma like violence, abuse, and emotional neglect.

If we only focus on individual and interpersonal trauma, we might miss the fact that the bigger picture, societal systems that we rely on to model relationality and connection are usually the root of the problem.

"Cycle breakers" exist because the system normalized the trauma pattern your family was in. The trauma in my family isn't limited to my family, it's influenced by my parents' greater community and cultural system.

Resmaa Menakem points out that racialized trauma shows up differently in different demographics, but everyone who lives in a racist culture is traumatized by the culture, just in different ways.

People of all demographics experience trauma caused by capitalism, patriarchy, heteronormativity, neuronormativity, sanism, diet culture, rape culture, hussle culture, etc. People of all demographics experience medical trauma, institutional betrayal, and ecological trauma.

People who have a LOT of power and privilege experience trauma even while causing trauma for people who have less power and privilege. Maintaining power within these cultural systems that are built to control humans damages their nervous systems.

Even dictators don't stay healthy for long - the relational cost of consolidating power is never-ending stress and trauma. When systemic power is the motive, they can never stop strategizing and fighting long enough to connect with another human in a safe way.

In neglecting systemic trauma, the most popular models of trauma don't include the majority of the trauma in the world and they don't include a map for prevention.

We live in cultural systems that normalize trauma. Everyone who exists within a system of oppression experiences systemic trauma. We have to examine those systems of power to fully understand trauma.

If we understand this broader model of trauma, the purpose of healing our trauma is not just to relieve individual suffering but to grow our capacity to confront and change the system that perpetually generates trauma.