If trauma is an injury to the mind, to the spirit and the soul, then to heal, we must protect ourselves from new injuries. Think of trauma as causing inflammation in your mind, like an injury does to your knee. If you continue to re-injure it, then the knee will not heal, the scarring will be bad and you will never have normal functioning again. To heal, we must stop reinsuring ourselves. The best strategy is to prevent injury in the first place.
A new baby has no scars and we ought to orient our society to try to prevent mental injury in children. As we strengthen community, we strengthen the social safety net for families and children and will reduce trauma. Trauma comes in many forms- neglect, abuse, violence, violation, inappropriate exposure to intense visual media of sexual and violent nature. Trauma comes from poverty, hunger, exploitation, desperation, intimidation, terror and outright war. To heal ourselves, we must change much of what is in fact in our control to minimize exposure to trauma in ourselves and our fellow community members.