Make Things Well, Author at Canadian Emergency Response Psychosocial Support Network

Building social connections
During and after a traumatic event, we need other people. Relationships are key to helping individuals and communities heal after something bad happens.
- Social connections can reduce the impacts of trauma. They let us lean on others during our times of greatest need.
- Strong relationships can bring people together, even those who feel alone or excluded.
- Social connections take time and energy to build and maintain.
It’s worth investing in trusted relationships. When they are formed, those who have experienced trauma can feel supported and find hope for their future.

How can I build social connections after trauma?
- Look at your current relationships:
  - Think about the people who are already in your life.
  - This might include family, friends, co-workers, or neighbours.
  - Ask yourself: Can I turn to them for support?
- Find community social supports:
  - Are there nearby groups and organizations you can join?
  - Look for clubs, groups, teams, committees, online forums, and more.
- Connect with cultural and identity-based orgs:
  - Are any groups related to your culture, identity, or religion?
  - This might include family, friends, and others who share your values or beliefs.
- Map out your social connections:
  - Write down or draw a diagram of the connections you have just identified.
  - Include people and groups from across your personal, community, and cultural areas.
- Plan to connect:
  - Select one connection to reach out to first.
  - Make a plan to do that using the S.M.A.R.T. method: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely.
Example of a social connections map
Moral challenges, moral distress, & moral injury
Sometimes you are exposed to situations that challenge your sense of right and wrong. These experiences can vary in how long they last and how intense they feel. They can stir up feelings that range from mild moral frustration to more serious moral injury.

Understanding moral challenges
- A moral challenge might cause moral frustration, such as worrying about the state of the world. Usually, this feeling does not affect you too deeply or last for very long.
- Moral distress can bring up emotions like anger, sadness, and guilt, although it rarely has a lasting negative effect. Being lied to or having something stolen might cause moral distress.
- A potentially psychologically traumatic experience can be a singular event or an ongoing situation. It is a rare but intense violation of your deeply held moral beliefs. Many PPTEs are high-stakes scenarios that can create long-standing challenges in how you see yourself or other people.
Types of potentially psychologically traumatic experiences

PPTEs can happen in different ways, such as:
- Transgressions of the self involve doing (or not doing) something you think is right.
- Transgressions of others happen when someone else’s actions or inactions go against your morals.
- Betrayals occur when people or institutions you trust let you down.
Examples of potentially psychologically traumatic experiences

Things that might be considered PPTEs include:
- Seeing something harmful or immoral happen and being unable to stop it.
- Experiencing misconduct from a trusted person or institution.
- Feeling unsupported by leadership after a major event that went against your beliefs.
- Carrying out orders you believe are immoral.
- Feeling like you should have done something to prevent someone’s death or injury.
- Witnessing suffering in others caused by actions that were committed by you or someone else.
Signs of moral injury

After a PPTE, you might notice changes in your emotions, behaviours, and social life — perhaps even your beliefs. These could include:
- Feeling exhausted or disconnected from your work and the people around you.
- Feelings of shame, guilt, anger, or hopelessness.
- A sense of betrayal or injustice.
- Loss of purpose or sense of identity.
- Having difficulty concentrating.
- Losing trust in yourself or others.
- Isolating or feeling cut off.
- Blaming yourself.
- Struggling with your spiritual or existential beliefs.
- Self-sabotaging, self-harming behaviours, like using alcohol or drugs to cope.
What can help?

If this sounds familiar and you think you are experiencing a moral injury, here are some steps you can take:
- Write down your thoughts and reflect on the values that matter to you.
- Talk to people you trust, like colleagues, family members, spiritual advisors, peer supporters or your friends.
- Seek help from a mental health professional.
- Learn more about moral injury within your community (e.g., first response, health care, military).
Resources

If you are interested in learning more about moral injury — particularly among essential service workers — you can read:
Cultural considerations
This page is for you if:

You feel different parts of your identity (professional, personal, racial, gender, etc.) are in conflict with one another

You feel you need to ignore, forget, or drop important parts of your identity in parts of your life (e.g., be someone else at work)
Contents:

Can you bring your whole self to work?

How do different cultures experience mental health?

Activities

Writing prompt
Can you bring your whole self to work?

Human beings are incredibly complex. We all have multiple aspects to our identities that contribute to how we see ourselves and the world around us. 

Your identity — for example, being Black, gay, Muslim, non-binary, autistic, deaf, or living with chronic pain — is who you are.

It may not be possible for you to leave these parts of yourself behind when you go to work. There are many parts of your identity that cannot be switched off, including:
- Race and ethnicity
- Sexual orientation
- Gender identity
- Age
- Religion
- Ability
- Neurodiversity
- Health status
It can be stressful to feel that you should or must put these intersecting, multi-faceted aspects of your identity aside when your experience of the world is rooted in them. This may be particularly true during personal, societal, or global crises that bring awareness to particular parts of your identity — for example, increased awareness of the Black Lives Matter movement or the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Black and racialized communities.

Navigating these experiences in high-stress or unsupportive environments can lead to personal challenges including:
- Difficulty reconciling conflicting roles and responsibilities
- Conflict or confusion within your values, or between your values and the values of others
- Feeling shame or hiding important parts of yourself in certain settings
- Feelings of anger, injustice, or betrayal (towards yourself, an important other, and/or society)
- Feeling powerless or at the mercy of society’s views and assumptions about you
- Compassion fatigue
- Feeling misunderstood, unseen, and/or underappreciated
How do different cultures experience mental health?

Apart from these stressors, there are cultural and social differences to how we all experience mental health.
- Different cultures and communities can experience trauma differently. What might be traumatic for someone from one culture may not be for someone else from a different culture.
- Different cultures and communities can experience mental health symptoms differently. For example, people from some cultures are more likely than others to describe physical symptoms (e.g., stomach aches, feeling heavy or weighted, cardiac-related issues, etc.) when discussing their mental health.
- Different cultures and communities can differ in beliefs, values, and ideas around mental health. In some cultures, seeking mental health help is considered acceptable. In others, it may be discouraged or even considered shameful.
- Different cultures and communities can have different ideas and ideals around healing the mind, body, and spirit. Therapeutic practices can vary greatly across cultures.
For people who grew up in a different culture but now live and work in a predominantly white Western community, it can be difficult to adapt to the fixed perspective through which that community views mental health. In addition, people who grew up within Western culture and work in the same environment may disagree with how societal views have evolved over time.

Activities

Connect

No one else has ever lived through your exact experiences. An important part of honouring your own complex identity can involve connecting with others who share or have shared some of its parts.

Seek out others who have part or parts of your identity in common. Connect over the nuanced ways those parts inform your overall experience of the world.

Identify your hats

Take some time to think about the parts of your identity that are most important to you. Write them out in a list. Next, indicate which, if any, are in conflict with your current place in the world. For each of these conflicts, jot down a few examples of ways that you already are (or could be) engaging with and expressing these parts of yourself.

Writing prompt

What were you taught about mental health growing up? How, if at all, have your views changed over the course of your lifetime?
Lifestyle factors
This page is for you if:

You have trouble falling asleep or getting restful sleep during the night

You are looking for strategies to boost your brain health and increase the effectiveness of your coping strategies

You want to learn about how taking care of your body can improve your ability to tolerate mental stress and help with emotional regulation
Contents:

Sleep

Nutrition

Movement

Activities

Writing prompt
Sleep

Sleep is a state of unconsciousness in which the body is at rest in response to external stimuli, but very much active and responsive to internal stimuli. It is thought to play a restorative role for both the body and brain. It gives your brain cells a chance to shut down and repair themselves.

Your quality of sleep and rest impacts all areas of your health and wellness. This is because the brain controls all aspects of your body, including:
- Physical health: Sleep heals and repairs cells, increases immune system functioning, and balances hormones.
- Mental health: Quality of sleep can influence mood and impact emotion regulation abilities.
- Productivity: If you lack adequate sleep you may take longer to finish tasks, be more likely to make mistakes, and have slower reaction times.
- Consolidating memory: Your ability to learn and store new information is dependent on good quality sleep.
People who experience high stress and/or trauma often notice an impact on their sleep habits. For example, sleep disturbances impact 70–91 percent of individuals diagnosed with PTSD.

These problems include:
- Difficulties falling asleep due to racing thoughts. Feeling like your mind cannot settle
- Less restful sleep
- Difficulty staying asleep
- Upsetting dreams or nightmares
Insufficient or low-quality sleep can be impactful during the daytime hours when you are awake, including:
- Reduced ability to learn or solve problems
- Difficulty making decisions and concentrating
- Reduced ability to regulate emotions and manage stress
- Low mood and increased irritability
Because many of the consequences of poor sleep overlap with symptoms of posttraumatic stress, they often perpetuate and exacerbate one another. For example, many people who experience symptoms of trauma will notice high levels of stress, making it difficult to relax, wind down, and achieve restful sleep. In turn, this can decrease their ability to cope with daytime stressors.

Nutrition

It’s also important to nourish the brain. Food is essential to grow new brain cells, transmit important nutrients and chemicals, provide fuel for your nervous system, and help protect you from disease.

Nutrition is an important part of a healthy and fit brain.

A healthy diet is good for your body and your mind. This includes fresh fruits and vegetables, lean proteins, whole grains, nuts, seeds, spices, and herbs.

A nutritious diet is important for people who have experienced high stress or trauma. Its benefits include:
- Increased mood and emotional health
- Improved cognition and decreased risk of cognitive decline
- Increased sense of control
- Increased energy and motivation
Nacamulli, M. (2016 June 21). How the food you eat affects your brain – Mia Nacamulli. [Video]. TED-Ed. How the food you eat affects your brain – Mia Nacamulli – YouTube

Movement

Physical activity is a vital part of any healthy lifestyle. Regular exercise has many benefits that can minimize symptoms of stress and PTSI, including:
- Improved mood: Exercise increases dopamine and serotonin, the chemicals in the brain that make you feel good
- Improved cognition: Exercise stimulates growth of new brain cells and reduces harmful chemicals in the brain
- Improved sleep and restfulness
- Increased feelings of strength and self-esteem
- An outlet for intense emotions (e.g., anger or anxiety)
- Stronger mind-body connection
- An opportunity to set goals and develop new healthier routines
- Opportunities to connect with others and form a community around a shared interest or hobby
- Reduced stress and increased opportunities for play and fun
There are many lifestyle factors that can impact your ability to tolerate stress and recover after traumatic experiences.

This resource is not an extensive list. Remember: everything that affects you and your body also affects your mental health.

Activities

Progressive muscle relaxation

This technique teaches you how to relax your muscles through a two-step process.

First, tense a particular muscle group in your body, such as your biceps or fists, for about three seconds.

Next, gradually release the tension and notice how those muscles feel when relaxed.

You can start from your toes and work your way up to your forehead. This exercise will lower overall tension and stress levels and help you relax. It can also improve sleep and reduce physical problems such as stomach aches and headaches.

Practice sleep hygiene

Create a bedtime routine that you complete each night before sleeping. It might include a final check of your phone or email, cuddle time with a pet or loved one, brushing your teeth, a meditation or breathing exercise, reading, or anything else you like to do before bed.

Complete the routine in the same order at the same time each night. The repetitions will cue your body that it is time to wind down and relax, which can help improve your sleep.

Writing prompt

Write your responses to these questions:
- What do you fuel your body with? What kinds of food, substances, movement, and/or rest are you giving to yourself?
- How do you feel after you give yourself those things?
- What kinds of fuel would you like to give your body? Why, and how so?
- What is getting in the way of giving yourself the things you want?
Moral injury
This page is for you if:

You struggle to cope with having to make difficult decisions

You feel let down or even betrayed by others whom you expected to do the right thing and/or protect you

You struggle to make sense of things you’ve done, things that have been done to you, and what’s happening in the world
Contents:

What is moral injury?

What’s considered a morally injurious event?

What are the symptoms of a moral injury?

Activities

Writing prompts
What is moral injury?

Like posttraumatic stress, moral injury (MI) is a type of stress response that follows a morally distressing situation. It feels like an injury to your moral compass.

Morally distressing situations, also known as morally injurious events, arise when you feel your morals are being violated. They make you question right and wrong and challenge your faith in the goodness of yourself, others, or the world.

Not everyone who experiences trauma goes on to develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Similarly, moral violations and moral pain do not always mean you will develop a moral injury.

Moral pain exists on a spectrum. On one end there are common moral challenges and resulting moral frustrations. (For example, you may experience guilt if you call in sick or feel angry when a request for time off is denied.) At the other end of the spectrum there are more severe moral violations, including morally injurious events that result in moral injury.

What’s considered a morally injurious event?

Morally injurious events can be grouped into two kinds of situations.

Perpetration

Perpetration events occur when you do something that violates your morals by:
- Commission (e.g., doing something that hurts someone else)
- Omission (e.g., not doing something that helps someone else)
- Failing to prevent a perceived immoral act (e.g., not doing something that prevents harm to someone else)
Betrayal

Betrayal events occur when your morals are violated by someone or something you trust, like a family member or close friend or a powerful institution or organization.

What are the symptoms of a moral injury?

A moral injury can result in symptoms across multiple domains of your mental well-being. You may experience:

Emotional changes
- Guilt
- Shame
- Anger
- Hopelessness
- Anxiety
Cognitive changes
- Loss of trust in yourself or others
- Existential crises (e.g., questioning your purpose and/or the meaning of life)
- Spiritual questioning or doubts (e.g., querying your faith in a higher power)
- A difference in the ways you evaluate the integrity of yourself or others
- Feeling like the world is an unsafe or unjust place
Behavioural changes
- Social withdrawal, isolation, or disengagement
- Self-harm
Activities

Create a responsibility pie chart

Use this technique if you experience emotions like guilt, shame, or anger about who to blame for a challenging event or situation.
1. Make a list of all possible factors that contributed to the challenging situation, even if you think they are only one percent responsible.
2. Roughly estimate the percentage of responsibility you can assign to each possible factor.
1. Assign yourself the remaining percentage once you have listed all other factors.
2. Draw a pie chart with each factor claiming its appropriate size of slice.
3. Now that you see the full picture of all contributing factors, is there as much blame left for yourself as you initially thought?
Connect with gratitude

Gratitude can counteract many of the negative emotions we experience. Take five minutes each day to identify three things you feel grateful for.

Writing prompts
1. Process a difficult decision you’ve had to make. Include the internal struggle, your own feelings of responsibility, and how your decision impacted the way you feel about yourself and others.
2. Similar to the responsibility pie chart described above, write a short letter describing the challenging event or situation and all the factors that contributed to it. Pay attention to which factors were in your control and which ones were not.
3. Morally challenging situations can lead to feelings of shame, worthlessness, or a loss of trust in yourself. To challenge some of those feelings, make a list of things you like about yourself. Put simply, what about you makes you feel worthy, valued, and proud?

Social relationships after trauma

This page is for you if:

You feel distant, misunderstood, rejected, or excluded by others
You have difficulty engaging in healthy social interactions and maintaining relationships (e.g., setting boundaries, resolving conflicts)
You have difficulty understanding the motivations, thoughts, and feelings of others
You feel emotionally numb, have low empathy for others, or reduced interest in social interactions

Contents:

Trauma and social relationships
How does trauma affect your social relationships?
Tips for family and friends
Strategies for social relationships after experiencing trauma

Stress and trauma deeply affect our mental well-being and can significantly impact our relationships with others. This can include affecting the way we think, feel, and behave in relationships.

It is very common for people who have experienced trauma to notice changes or challenges in their relationships, including difficulties with:

Intimacy and trust
Sex drive
Communication
Avoiding people, places, or conversations
Attachment (e.g., feeling overdependent, detached, or overprotective of others)

Several kinds of relationships can be impacted after stressful or traumatic experiences. These can include your professional relationships with:

Superiors
Mentees
Teammates and colleagues

As well as relationships outside of work, including:

Partners
Children
Parents and family members
Friends
Pets
Strangers

Trauma can impact your relationships and social life in multiple ways.

Impacts of trauma	Symptoms
Thoughts	How you think about yourself, your body, or your value (e.g., negative self-image)How deserving you feel of love, affection, or praise from othersHow much you feel you can trust and rely on yourself or othersYour beliefs about how safe or fair the world isHow you understand the thoughts and feelings of other peopleYour ability to concentrate during interactions with others or resolve conflict
Feelings	You’re easily startled and hypervigilant, meaning always on edge or worried that something bad will happenIt’s difficult for you to unwind or feel relaxedYou have a loss of interest in the people, places, or activities you used to enjoyYou feel emotionally numb, meaning empty or hollowYou find it difficult to experience sympathy or empathy for other people, even your closest loved onesYou’re easily irritated or impatient, even about things you used to be able to (or think you should be able to) tolerate
Behaviours	You have difficulty sleeping, which can lead to excessive tiredness and fatigueYou have angry outbursts or a “short fuse” with those closest to youYou withdraw socially and isolate yourselfYou avoid people or places that you used to spend time aroundYou have increased conflict with those closest to youYou engage in other (potentially unhelpful) coping strategies, such as self-harm and substance use

If you have experienced trauma and developed one or a combination of these symptoms, you may become caught in a cycle of:

Increased irritability or discomfort around others
Withdrawing, pushing others away, or even noticing others pull away from you
Feeling disconnected, abandoned, and/or unworthy — which may further increase your irritability or discomfort around others

Tips for family and friends

Social support is extremely important to recovery from trauma. You can share these tips with your family and friends.

Help your loved one create routines. Structure and predictable schedules can restore a sense of stability and security to someone who has experienced trauma. Create routines that involve having your loved one help with groceries or housework (e.g., maintaining regular times for meals).
Speak to your loved one about the future and make plans. This can help counteract the common feeling among people who have experienced trauma that their future is limited.
Help your loved one remember their strengths. Encourage them to believe they are capable of recovery. Remind them of their strengths, positive qualities, and successes.
Help your loved one identify and manage triggers. Ask your loved one about helpful things they’ve done in the past to respond to a trigger — as well as whatever things they tried that didn’t help them. Then come up with a joint game plan for how you will respond together in the future.
Ask your loved one directly how you can help. For example, you can ask: “What can I do to help you right now?” Ask if a timeout or change of scenery will be useful.
Be a good listener. Don’t push a person who has experienced trauma to talk about it. If they choose to share, listen without expectations or judgments. Make it clear that you’re interested and that you care, but don’t worry about giving advice. It’s the act of listening attentively — not what you say — that is most helpful to your loved one.
Educate yourself about trauma and posttraumatic stress injury (PTSI). The more you know about trauma’s symptoms, effects, and treatment options, the better equipped you’ll be to help your loved one, understand what they are going through, and keep things in perspective.
Accept (and expect) mixed feelings. As you support your loved one, be prepared for a complicated mix of feelings — including anger or frustration. Remember to tend to your own emotions while supporting your loved one.

Pace yourself

Don’t expect too much from yourself too soon. Take social breaks even when you are feeling good. Allow yourself more downtime — or “you” time — than you typically would.

Identify your triggers

Pay attention to your mind and body. Notice when something feels good or bad. When someone or something upsets you, don’t judge that person or your emotional response. Instead, get curious. Ask yourself if you’re upset about the current moment or if you’re reacting to a reminder of a past stressful situation.

Ask for help

Often, others want to help us, but they don’t know how. Think about the ways those close to you could make you feel cared for and supported. Share this information with them.

Write a letter

Write a letter — which you don’t have to send — to your loved ones expressing your gratitude for their impact on your life. In the first half of the letter, write about the positive ways that they made you feel supported before you experienced trauma. In the second half, describe the ways you would like them to better support you now that you have.

The impact of trauma on cognition and problem solving

This page is for you if:

You have unexpected reactions to reminders of past stressful situations (e.g., feeling afraid if you see someone cough)
Your body instinctively reacts in real-life situations without your explicit thought or intention — for instance, feeling like your body is on high alert for danger when you are out with friends or family
You have increased difficulty understanding or remembering things that people say to you

Contents:

Layers of the brain
Stress and the learning brain
Activities
Writing prompts

Layers of the brain

While the brain is a complex organ, it can be broken down into three layers: survival brain, emotional brain, and learning brain.

Survival brain

This is the oldest part of the brain. It asks the question, “Am I safe?”

The survival layer is responsible for:

Taking in information from your environment
Coordinating reflexive, defensive behaviours during times of threat
Activating your instincts to protect yourself when you don’t have time to think before acting

Emotional brain

This middle layer of the brain is your feeling centre. It can ask the question, “Am I fearful or sad?”

The emotional layer is responsible for:

Emotional learning
Storing memories
Controlling the release of hormones

Because emotions and memories are connected in this way, your brain can be unintentionally trained to respond with big emotions to anything that triggers a particular memory.

If you experienced overwhelming fear, sadness, or shame during a traumatic event, then you may be likelier to keep experiencing those emotions whenever you are reminded of that event, even well after it has passed.

Learning brain

The highest layer of the brain asks the question, “What can I learn from this?”

The learning brain is involved with:

Cognition
Problem solving
Decision making
Attention
Learning new skills
Adapting to your environment

Stress and trauma can keep you in your survival brain. Your body’s energy and attention are instinctually put on the defensive while you try to answer the question, “Am I safe?”

This situation makes it difficult for incoming information to move up towards your learning brain. You might find yourself struggling with cognition and problem solving as you make decisions that guide your behaviours.

Stress can feel like a boulder that you are trying to drag out of a swamp. Its weight can cause you to slip backwards.

The more stress you carry, the easier it is for you to stay in your survival brain. You can remain in a state of increased vigilance and threat detection — far away from the solid environment of your learning brain, where you can think, plan, and solve problems.

Stress and the learning brain

Stress, trauma, and PTSD can negatively impact four core areas of cognition within the learning brain.

Memory

The ability to remember and use information for tasks such as calculation or reasoning
Changes in memory are one of the most common symptoms of PTSD

Cognitive effects of stress	Impacts
Reliving traumatic events through intrusive memories or flashbacks	Some people who have experienced trauma describe intrusive memories as movies that play on repeat in the back of their minds.
Memory loss, gaps, or total amnesia	Forgetting the timeline of a traumatic event or entire portions of a traumatic memory.
Deficits in short-term memory	Forgetting the name of someone you just met or where you parked your car earlier.
Deficits in multitasking or being able to keep multiple thoughts in mind at once	Difficulty holding an address in mind while listening to directions to your destination.

Cognitive flexibility

The ability to hold and switch between different tasks, concepts, or activities and their corresponding behaviours
Trauma makes it difficult to access this function because your resources are consumed by your survival brain

Cognitive effects of stress	Impacts
Reduced ability to acquire and integrate new information at a fast pace	Difficulty understanding the gist of a five-minute phone conversation compared to having the same information in an email you can reread.
Reduced ability to solve problems creatively	Getting “stuck” when solutions are not clear-cut.
Challenged to quickly adjust responses to changing conditions	Feeling unable to carry on with your day if something unplanned comes up.
Increase in impulsive behaviours	Unintentionally expressing frustration when it may not be productive to your situation.

Concentration

The ability to focus and maintain a single thought process while ignoring distractions
People diagnosed with PTSD may struggle to sustain their attention because they are hypervigilant and constantly scanning their surroundings for threats

Cognitive effects of stress	Impacts
Reduced ability to generate, direct, and maintain alertness so you can correctly process information	Difficulty focusing on or extracting important details from conversations with others.
Reduced ability to sustain your attention for prolonged periods of time	Difficulty focusing on reading an article or watching a TV show.
Increase in zoning out	Feeling withdrawn or daydreaming throughout the day, whether at work, home, or out with friends.
Increase in impulsive thinking	Making decisions quickly without thinking through potential outcomes or consequences.

Decision making

The ability to consider multiple factors and use logic and reasoning when making decisions
Good decision making requires several high-level processes (e.g., attention, memory, emotion regulation) that can be impacted by trauma

Cognitive effects of stress	Impacts
Distrusting your sense of right and wrong	Feeling conflicted by what you instinctively want to do versus what is expected of you.
Making decisions based on emotion rather than logic	Letting feelings of guilt result in avoiding making decisions altogether.
Difficulty recalling important information that could aid decision-making	Forgetting about somebody’s offer to help after starting a task on your own.
An inability to evaluate and incorporate all relevant information given a focus on threat detection or safety	Focusing mainly on negative details of a situation when deciding a course of action.

These cognitive changes can be incredibly taxing for those who have experienced trauma. However, it is important to remember that the brain is malleable. We can often recover from cognitive challenges.

Activities

Problem solving

When you have a complex problem, break it into the following chunks to make it more manageable:

First, define the problem
Second, define the goal or goals
Third, brainstorm all possible solutions
Finally, evaluate each solution and select the best one

S.T.O.P.

Practice the S.T.O.P. skill to connect with your learning brain:

S — Stop: Notice when you’re acting from either your survival brain or emotional brain, not your learning brain.
T — Take a step back: It can be hard to make a decision when you’re in the heat of a moment. Give yourself space to properly evaluate what is going on.
O — Observe: Notice what’s going on both around and inside of you.
P — Proceed thoughtfully: Ask yourself questions like, “What do I want from this situation?” or “What are my goals?” or “What choice might make this situation better or worse?” or “What action will allow for success?”

Writing prompts

Think of a challenging situation you recently experienced and describe it from the perspective of each of your brain’s three layers:

Survival brain
Emotional brain
Learning brain

The impact of trauma on the body
This page is for you if:

You experience familiar physical sensations in circumstances that you associate with previously stressful situations

You feel withdrawn or disconnected from your surroundings and like you lack control of your actions or emotions
Contents:

The body’s stress response

The Window of Tolerance

Survival responses

Dissociation

Activities

Writing prompts
The body’s stress response

The human body is designed to respond to stressful situations. Your body’s hormone control centre, called the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, regulates hormones including cortisol.

The HPA axis releases cortisol when a physical or psychological stressor is present to trigger your body’s defensive mechanism. This includes the fight-or-flight response, which acts on multiple systems inside you.

Typically, your body signals the HPA axis to stop releasing cortisol when the stressor is dealt with and your stress response can safely end.

However, chronic or extreme stress can lead to disruptions in the HPA axis that impair your body’s ability to return to a calm state.

Trauma, especially when it is severe or prolonged, can cause your body to remain stuck in defence mode. This results in symptoms like:
- Increased heart rate, blood pressure, hormone levels, and inflammation
- Increased threat detection, including being jumpy, easily startled, or on edge
- Feeling hypervigilant or needing to scan your environment for danger
- Irritability
- Difficulty relaxing or falling asleep
- Shaking or crying
- Feelings of restlessness, tingling, or numbness
The Window of Tolerance

The Window of Tolerance is the optimal zone of arousal in which you can function and cope most effectively. Every person’s window is different.

When you are within your own Window of Tolerance, you can:
- Think more clearly
- Process information better
- Concentrate better
- Make more informed decisions
Chronic stress or trauma can make your window become much narrower, meaning it becomes easier for you to get pushed into a state of over-arousal or under-arousal.

Survival responses

Hyperarousal

Over-arousal, also known as hyperarousal, activates the body’s fight-or-flight response to stress. This involves aggression, shortness of breath, increased heart rate, and increased shakiness or muscle tension.

Hyperaroused responses include:
- Cry for help: When your body detects a threatening situation and instinctively becomes prepared to defend itself
- Fight: When you’re angry or irritated and you engage in impulsive and/or aggressive behaviours
- Flight: When you feel denial or anxiety. This stress may cause you to evade, omit, or sabotage to escape a stressful situation
Hypoarousal

Under-arousal, also known as hypoarousal, can involve feeling numb or withdrawn from your surroundings, feeling detached from your body or environment or as though things around you aren’t real, or feeling not in control of your body’s movements.

Hypoaroused responses include:
- Freeze: This involves feeling emotionally detached or withdrawn from your environment
- Submit: This involves surrendering to the consequences of a stressful situation when your body feels too overwhelmed to fight or flee
Dissociation

Dissociation is a disconnection or detachment between your active mind and your thoughts, memories, feelings, actions, or sense of self. It most often occurs during a state of under-arousal.

Dissociation is a way that your body copes with overwhelming thoughts, feelings, or memories — either by shutting down, “numbing out,” or disconnecting completely from your surroundings.

Its symptoms range from subtle to extreme. They include:
- Disengagement (not paying attention or spacing out)
- Emotional numbing
- Memory disturbances (e.g., gaps)
- Depersonalization (feeling outside of your body or as if it does not belong to you)
- Derealisation (feeling like things around you are unreal or distorted)
- Identity dissociation (feeling like a different person from yourself)
Activities

Square breathing

Connecting to your breath can help you move back inside your Window of Tolerance during times of stress.

Box breathing, also known as four-square breathing, involves inhaling to a count of four, holding air in your lungs for a count of four, exhaling at the same pace, and then holding your lungs empty for a count of four before starting over.

It can help to visualize your breath travelling around the sides of a square while you are breathing.

Grounding 5-4-3-2-1

Use this countdown technique to mindfully take in details of your surroundings. Notice:
- Five things you can see
- Four things you can hear
- Three things you can feel
- Two things you can smell
- One thing you can taste
Try to notice small details that your mind would usually tune out, such as distant sounds or the texture of an ordinary object.

Body scan

The body scan is one of the most effective ways to begin a mindfulness meditation practice. Its purpose is to tune in to your body — i.e., to connect to your physical self — and notice without judgment any sensations you are feeling.
- Sit quietly or lie down
- Start at one end of your body and focus on each body part
- Notice any areas of tension and then try to soften or relax them
- Continue until you have mindfully scanned each part of your body
Writing prompts
1. Make a list of people, places, or things that can push you out of your Window of Tolerance. Try ranking them in order of most impactful to least. Next, write a similar list of the people, places, or things that help bring you back inside your window during times of stress.
2. The next time you notice you are feeling stressed, take a moment to write down what you’re experiencing in your body. Consider each body part. Notice where you feel tension, shakiness, or numbness. Describe the sensations in as much detail as you can.

The impact of trauma on mood and emotions

This page is for you if:

You’ve noticed it is hard to let go of negative emotions, leading to a persistent low mood
You’re stuck in cycles of negative thinking that lead to feelings of hopelessness, guilt, or blame
You find it hard to control fear-based feelings like stress and anxiety and would rather focus on the emotions that keep you calm and relaxed

Contents:

What is mood?
Trauma, posttraumatic stress injury, and emotions
PTSD and depression
Activities
Writing prompts

What is mood?

Mood is a temporary state of mind, or simply how you feel in a given moment.

Moods can feel good, bad, or neutral. They are generally more stable and less intense than emotions. Those tend to be stronger, more specific, and shorter in duration.

Working together, your moods and emotions have a profound impact across your life.

Your moods can influence:

How you think, feel, and behave
Your interest in daily activities
How you develop and maintain relationships
How you make decisions
How you view the world (e.g., positively or negatively)

Trauma, posttraumatic stress injury, and emotions

Several negative emotions are associated with stress, trauma, and PTSI. They include:

Fear and/or anxiety
Sadness and/or depression
Irritability and/or anger
Guilt and/or shame
Hopelessness

These emotions can feel overwhelming, especially after an experience of significant stress or trauma. They can lead to unhelpful changes in your thinking, as well as negative feelings that can impact you, your environment, and others around you.

Negative emotions	Unhelpful changes in thinking	Examples
Guilt or shame	Negative self-talk or doubt	“I am stupid” and/or “I cannot do anything right”
Guilt or shame	Distorted blame	Blaming yourself for things you can’t control
Fear or anger	Difficulty trusting others	Not believing your colleagues, authority figures, or loved ones
	Detachment from or disinterest in others	Difficulty relating to your colleagues, authority figures, or loved ones
	Difficulty managing negative emotions	Unwanted feelings of fear, anger, horror, etc.
Sadness or hopelessness	Exaggerated negative expectations of yourself or the world	“I will never be happy again” and/or “The world is unsafe”
	Decreased participation in activities	Low energy levels and/or motivation. Loss of pleasure in activities you previously enjoyed
	Difficulty experiencing positive emotions	Reduced ability to feel love and happiness leads to feelings of guilt and shame instead

PTSD and depression

PTSD and depression often happen at the same time because of the impacts that stress and trauma can have on mood.

Everyone has low moods or periods of  “feeling blue” from time to time. However, depression is more intense and lasts longer. It has a large negative impact on your life.

Many symptoms of PTSD and depression overlap, including:

Feeling detached from loved ones
Difficulty experiencing positive emotions
Decreased motivation to engage in regularly enjoyed activities

Low mood and the brain

Chemicals in your brain influence how you think, feel, and act. Two important ones that impact your mood are serotonin and dopamine. Negative mood states often occur when these chemicals are released in low levels.

Boosting these brain chemicals can help you shift towards a more positive state of mind. There are several things you can try to help increase your brain’s output of serotonin and dopamine, including:

Physical activity
Goal setting
Eating nutrient-rich foods
Trying something new
Spending time in nature

Incorporating one (or many) of these habits into your daily routines may help improve your mood over time.

Thinking traps

Everybody experiences unhelpful thinking styles, also called thinking traps. These can match (and often worsen) your low mood states.

Thinking traps are especially common for people experiencing depression, anxiety, and PTSI. They have the power to impact how you interpret the world and the conclusions you come to.

Identifying when you’re falling into a thinking trap can be the first step to getting out of it. Increasing your self-awareness can help you escape negative thought cycles and decrease the gloomy mood states that often accompany them.

Some of the most common thinking traps include:

Thinking trap	Definition	Example	Counter thought
Catastrophizing	Expecting the worst-case scenario to happen, no matter how unlikely it might be in reality.	“I’m going to make a fool of myself at the gym. Everyone will laugh at me. I won’t be able to survive the embarrassment.”	“I may feel embarrassed, but others at the gym have probably felt that too. They will not judge me. I can ask someone for help if I need it.”
Mental filtering	Solely focusing on negative events while dismissing positive or neutral information.	“Everyone hated my presentation. A lot of people looked engaged and gave me compliments afterwards, but one person seemed bored with the whole thing.”	“I should be proud that I demonstrated a high capability of doing my job.”
All-or-nothing thinking	Seeing things in extremes or as black-or-white options. There’s either all good or all bad — and nothing in between.	“I planned to eat only healthy foods, but then I had a piece of chocolate cake. Now my diet is ruined!”	“Mistakes happen, but they do not mean I am a failure.”
Labelling	Attaching critical or absolute labels to yourself or others based on behaviours or reactions to a specific situation.	“That went wrong. I’m a failure.”	“I failed that time, but I will learn and do better in the future.”
Magnification and minimization	Magnifying the positive attributes of others while minimizing your own.	“Everyone else is so competent and put together. They do not want to hear about my struggles.”	“I deserve to talk about my struggles. Talking about how I’m feeling may help someone else.”
Shoulding and musting	Placing undue pressure on yourself to meet unrealistic expectations.	“I must pick up as many additional shifts as possible or else I will let my co-workers down.”	“My value as a co-worker is not conditional on picking up additional shifts. I need to take care of myself first so I can be the best version of myself for others.”
Personalization	Assuming personal blame for everything that goes wrong in your life.	“My kid got in trouble at school today because I didn’t spend enough time with him. It happened because I work so much.”	“My child might have made a mistake, but I am not in control of his behaviour and can only talk to him about it.”
Emotional reasoning	Interpreting a situation based on your emotions in the moment.	“I feel really anxious on this plane ride. Something bad is about to happen.”	“Feelings are not facts. I have flown many times before, and nothing bad has ever happened. I can accept my feelings of anxiety without believing something awful will happen.”

Activities

Naming emotions

Often, labelling a negative emotion can help you feel better. Naming an emotion is a skillful technique that requires paying attention to how you feel, understanding what you feel, and using language to communicate it — even if only to yourself.

The next time you notice a strong feeling, pause and label the emotion you are experiencing. Be as specific as possible.

In 1982, Dr. Gloria Willcox created The Feeling Wheel as a tool to help people identify and talk about their emotions. It still works today! You can use it to help assess your own condition.

(For an interactive version of the model, try The Emotion Wheel app by All The Feelz.)

Increase motivation

Use checklists and goal setting to track your short- and long-term accomplishments. Reward yourself for every win, no matter how big or small.

“Scheduled” emotional release

Put a fixed amount of time in your schedule — typically no more than 30 minutes — to check in with your emotions. Let yourself cry or yell privately if you need to.

If you’re experiencing negative emotions, physical exercise can help relieve anxiety by reducing stress and tension in your muscles.

Grounding

Use your senses — sight, taste, touch, smell, and sound — to get out of your feelings and into your body. Cycle through each sense and pick out things you notice using each one (five things you can see, four things you can hear, three things you can feel, etc.). Alternatively, you can do a short activity that engages your senses, like holding ice in your hands or walking barefoot on grass.

Self love

Do one small thing that makes you happy every day to remind yourself that you deserve to feel good.

Writing prompts

Identify your emotions

How have your moods and emotions been impacted by stress and trauma? Consider the feelings of guilt, shame, anger, and fear. What does each one mean to you? When do you encounter these feelings? How do you experience them?

Challenge negative thoughts

Write down the negative thoughts you have about yourself. Using the table above, try to identify any thinking traps you may have fallen into. Then write down why each thought might be untrue.

Introduction to trauma, PTSD, and stigma

This page is for you if:

You’ve been in a distressing situation or situations where you might have felt trapped, out of control, or helpless
Important parts of your life are still affected by that event or events, such as your mood, relationships, and/or work
You’ve felt alone in these feelings and/or wondered if others have felt the same

Contents:

What is trauma?
What are the consequences of trauma?
What is PTSD?
The impact of stigma
Activities
Writing prompts

What is trauma?

Psychological trauma refers to the emotional consequences of living through a highly stressful situation or traumatic event.

There is no strict definition for traumatic events, but they’re usually situations in which you experience strong feelings of distress, fear, loss of control, or being trapped.

Traumatic events can be:

Things that happen to you.
Things you see and/or hear happen to someone else.

They can be one-time events (like an assault) or long-term patterns (like abuse or repeated exposure to danger).

What are the consequences of trauma?

Psychological trauma is just like physical injury: it can result in symptoms that vary in severity, intensity, and duration.

Emotional symptoms	Physical symptoms	Cognitive symptoms	Behavioural symptoms
Numbness and/or detachment Fear and/or anxiety Guilt and/or shame Anger and/or irritability Sadness and/or hopelessness Difficulty experiencing positive emotions	Fatigue and/or exhaustion Nausea, digestive problems, or changes in appetite Difficulty sleeping Increased heart rate, startle response, and/or feeling “on edge” Increased muscle tension	Difficulty concentrating and/or making decisions Intrusive thoughts and/or memories relating to trauma Changes in the way you think about yourself, others, and/or the world Difficulty trusting yourself and/or others	Social withdrawal Disengagement from your typical responsibilities and activities Increase in unhelpful coping strategies, such as avoidance and alcohol or substance use

Although these symptoms can be hard to live with, they are normal responses to traumatic events. When you have a physical injury like a broken ankle, you notice the bruising, swelling, and pain. These indicators, while unpleasant, signal that your body has begun to heal.

Recovering from psychological trauma takes time and effort. When the nature of a traumatic event is particularly severe or long lasting, your symptoms may take longer to heal. You may develop a posttraumatic stress injury (PTSI).

What is PTSD?

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a diagnosable mental health condition that may develop in those who have experienced a traumatic event or events.

Not everyone who goes through trauma will develop PTSD, and there’s no way to know for certain who will. However, these factors can make you more vulnerable:

The traumatic event included a threat to your safety
You experienced intense helplessness and/or fear during the event
You have feelings of guilt, shame, or responsibility about the event and/or its outcomes
More stressful experiences followed the original event
You received inadequate social support after the event

Many people who live through trauma go on to experience posttraumatic stress. You may never get a diagnosis of PTSD. You may continue to function from day to day while enduring some or all of these symptoms:

Nightmares, flashbacks, and/or intrusive memories
Feeling unable to connect with yourself, others, and/or the world around you
Feeling unable to have positive emotions like joy, pleasure, and/or love
High irritability and/or angry outbursts
Increased tension, fear, and/or hypervigilance
Anxiety and/or worry about your future

A note about terms: We use the term posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to refer to the diagnosable mental health condition. We use the term posttraumatic stress injury (PTSI) to refer to the psychological hurt you may experience after a traumatic event.

The impact of stigma

Stigma refers to a societal disapproval or misunderstanding. It can include shaming and/or blaming people who live with a mental illness.

Stigma can be harmful to someone who has experienced trauma, with impacts including:

Feelings of fear or shame
Withdrawal and/or hiding from support systems
Attempts to suppress, ignore, or avoid painful symptoms

Activities

Share your stress with a loved one

It can be hard to bear the weight of your stress on your own. Ask a loved one to take time to listen without having to offer advice or try to solve your problems for you.

Identify your triggers

Make a list of the people, places, situations, and/or memories that you struggle to cope with. This list might include a person who reminds you of someone you’ve lost or a location where your stress gets agitated.

Writing prompts

Letter to a loved one

Write a letter to a loved one (which you may or may not send) about the traumatic event you experienced and how it has impacted you since.

Next, pretend you are the person receiving that letter and write a reply to yourself. Respond how you would if someone you love had been through the event instead of you.

Listing

Write down the unhelpful thoughts you’ve had about yourself since the traumatic event. Next, for each item on the list, write one or two pieces of counter evidence. For example, if one of your unhelpful thoughts is “I’m not good enough,” then write down two ways or times when you’ve felt useful or important to counter it.

The “big four” helpful actions to take

💚 Goal setting	💚 Visualization	💚 Self-talk	💚 Tactical breathing
Specific: your behaviour Measurable: see progress Attainable: challenging and realistic Relevant: want it or need it Time-bound: set finish time	Be calm and relaxed Use all senses See positive mental images Keep it simple Use movement	Become aware of self-talk Stop the negative messages Replace with positive Practice thought stopping: “I can do this”; “I am trained and ready”; “I will focus on what I can do”	Rule of four: Inhale to count of four; exhale for count of four; practice for four minutes Breathe into the diaphragm

If you are concerned about signs of poor or declining mental health in yourself or a buddy, get it checked out.

Resources include:

Buddies
Mental health team
Chaplains
Leaders/supervisors
Crisis or help lines
Community mental health services
Family doctor

ASPR: Disaster Behavioral Help

Contact	aspr.hhs.gov/behavioral-health
Information	Resources and guidance for stress management after disasters from the Administration for Strategic Preparedness & Response (ASPR).
Location	International: 🇺🇸 United States
Type of resource	Resource hub
Type of support	Psychosocial emergency preparedness
Target demographic	Health care providers and public safety personnel
Serves adults (18+)	Yes
Serves children (0–12)	—
Serves youth (13–17)	—
Serves families	—
Language(s) spoken	🍁 English

SAMSHA: A guide to managing stress for disaster responders and first responders

Contact	store.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/pep22-01-01-003.pdf
Information	A downloadable booklet about stress management published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
Location	International: 🇺🇸 United States
Type of resource	Online service
Type of support	Psychosocial emergency preparedness
Target demographic	Public safety personnel
Serves adults (18+)	Yes
Serves children (0–12)	—
Serves youth (13–17)	—
Serves families	—
Language(s) spoken	🍁 English

CDC: Emergency preparedness and response

Contact	emergency.cdc.gov/coping
Information	From the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), mental health information to prepare for and recover from a disaster.
Location	International: 🇺🇸 United States
Type of resource	Online service
Type of support	Psychosocial emergency preparedness
Target demographic	General population
Serves adults (18+)	Yes
Serves children (0–12)	Yes
Serves youth (13–17)	—
Serves families	—
Language(s) spoken	🍁 English, 🇪🇸 Spanish

SAMHSA: Warning signs and risk factors for emotional distress

Contact	samhsa.gov/find-help/disaster-distress-helpline/warning-signs-risk-factors
Information	Coping tips for traumatic events and disasters from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
Location	International: 🇺🇸 United States
Type of resource	Online service
Type of support	Psychosocial emergency preparedness
Target demographic	General population
Serves adults (18+)	Yes
Serves children (0–12)	—
Serves youth (13–17)	—
Serves families	—
Language(s) spoken	🍁 English

Skills for Psychological Recovery (SPR) Manual

Contact	ptsd.va.gov/professional/treat/type/s kills_psych_recovery_manual.asp
Information	SPR aims to help survivors gain skills to manage distress and cope with post-disaster stress.
Location	International: 🇺🇸 United States
Type of resource	Online service
Type of support	Psychosocial emergency preparedness
Target demographic	Mental health providers
Serves adults (18+)	Yes
Serves children (0–12)	—
Serves youth (13–17)	—
Serves families	—
Language(s) spoken	🍁 English

KidsHealth: Coping with a natural disaster

Contact	kidshealth.org.nz/coping-natural-disaster
Information	Information for parents on how to help their children recover after natural disasters.
Location	International: 🇳🇿 New Zealand
Type of resource	Online service
Type of support	Psychosocial emergency preparedness
Target demographic	General population
Serves adults (18+)	—
Serves children (0–12)	Yes
Serves youth (13–17)	—
Serves families	—
Language(s) spoken	🍁 English

All Sorts: Tips for coping after a natural disaster

Contact	allsorts.org.nz/tips-for-coping-after-a-natural-disaster
Information	Resources, information, and tips for coping with natural disasters.
Location	International: 🇳🇿 New Zealand
Type of resource	Online service
Type of support	Psychosocial emergency preparedness
Target demographic	General population
Serves adults (18+)	Yes
Serves children (0–12)	—
Serves youth (13–17)	—
Serves families	—
Language(s) spoken	🍁 English

Get Ready: Mental Wellbeing

Contact	getready.govt.nz/emergency/mental-wellbeing
Information	Mental health tools and resources for before and after disaster.
Location	International: 🇳🇿 New Zealand
Type of resource	Resource hub
Type of support	Psychosocial emergency preparedness
Target demographic	General population
Serves adults (18+)	Yes
Serves children (0–12)	—
Serves youth (13–17)	—
Serves families	—
Language(s) spoken	🇸🇦 Arabic, Easy read, 🍁 English, 🇼🇸 Gagana Samoa, 🇮🇳 Hindi, 🇯🇵 Japanese, 🇹🇴 Lea Faka-Tonga, 🤟 New Zealand Sign Language, 🇮🇳 Punjabi, 🇨🇰 Reo Kuki Airani, 🇨🇳 Simplified Chinese, 🇪🇸 Spanish, 🇵🇭 Tagalog, 🇳🇿 Te Reo Māori, 🇨🇳 Traditional Chinese, 🇳🇺 Vagahau Niue

Black Dog Institute: National Emergency Worker Support Service

Contact	blackdoginstitute.org.au/education-services/national-emergency-worker-support-service/
Information	Free mental health check, providing insights and recommendations to support PSP.
Location	International: 🇦🇺 Australia
Type of resource	Online service
Type of support	Wellness support
Target demographic	Public safety personnel
Serves adults (18+)	Yes
Serves children (0–12)	—
Serves youth (13–17)	—
Serves families	—
Language(s) spoken	🍁 English

Phoenix Australia: Responder Assist

Contact	phoenixaustralia.org/responder-assist
Information	Mental health information, resources, and training for emergency workers and those who support them.
Location	International: 🇦🇺 Australia
Type of resource	Online service
Type of support	Wellness support
Target demographic	Public safety personnel and their families
Serves adults (18+)	Yes
Serves children (0–12)	—
Serves youth (13–17)	—
Serves families	Yes
Language(s) spoken	🍁 English

PAHO: Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergencies

Contact	paho.org/en/topics/mental-health-and-psychosocial-support-emergencies-mhpss
Information	From Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), a plan of action for mental health and psychosocial support during emergencies.
Location	International: Americas
Type of resource	Information
Type of support	Psychosocial emergency preparedness
Target demographic	Governments, non-governmental organizations, civil society groups
Serves adults (18+)	This resource is for mental health systems. It is not a resource for individuals.
Serves children (0–12)	—
Serves youth (13–17)	—
Serves families	—
Languages spoken	🍁 English, 🇪🇸 Spanish

Headspace: Natural Disaster Mental Health

Contact	headspace.org.au/our-impact/campaigns/mental-health-after-natural-disaster
Information	Mental health information for during and after a flood or bushfire.
Location	International: 🇦🇺 Australia
Type of resource	Online service
Type of support	Psychosocial emergency preparedness
Target demographic	General population
Serves adults (18+)	Yes
Serves children (0–12)	Yes
Serves youth (13–17)	Yes
Serves families	Yes
Language(s) spoken	🍁 English

Australian Psychological Society

Contact	psychology.org.au/for-the-public/psychology-topics/disasters
Information	Information for preparing for disasters and for looking after mental health and well-being after experiencing a natural disaster.
Location	International: 🇦🇺 Australia
Type of resource	Online service
Type of support	Wellness support
Target demographic	General population
Serves adults (18+)	Yes
Serves children (0–12)	—
Serves youth (13–17)	—
Serves families	—
Language(s) spoken	🍁 English

Beyond Blue: Natural Disasters

Contact	beyondblue.org.au/mental-health/natural-disasters
Information	Mental health information for those who have experienced a natural disaster.
Location	International: 🇦🇺 Australia
Type of resource	Online service
Type of support	Wellness support
Target demographic	General population
Serves adults (18+)	Yes
Serves children (0–12)	—
Serves youth (13–17)	—
Serves families	—
Language(s) spoken	🍁 English

Australian Red Cross

Contact	redcross.org.au/emergencies
Information	Provides tips for coping with a crisis, including looking after yourself and returning home.
Location	International: 🇦🇺 Australia
Type of resource	Online service
Type of support	Wellness support
Target demographic	General population
Serves adults (18+)	Yes
Serves children (0–12)	—
Serves youth (13–17)	—
Serves families	—
Language(s) spoken	🍁 English

Responses to trauma

An abstract painting with swirling green, yellow, and blue colours, creating a dreamlike and ethereal atmosphere

What is psychological trauma?

Psychological trauma refers to lasting emotional impacts of living through or learning about a distressing event. These events, known as traumatic events, can be singular (e.g., assault), or repetitive (e.g., abuse), and while some people are more likely to experience a traumatic event, these may happen to anyone, regardless of profession or background.

Importantly, if you are having trouble managing your emotions, reactions, or day-to-day life following traumatic events, please seek support.

Common impacts following a traumatic event include:

Muscle tension	Low mood
Feeling “out of control” of your actions or emotions	Increased irritability or anger
Memory difficulties (e.g., gaps, loss)	Disinterest in activities you used to enjoy
Short term memory challenges (e.g., forgetting where you parked your car)	New difficulties controlling negative patterns of thinking (e.g., feeling hopeless)
Difficulty with concentration and decision making	Increased intensity or frequency of fear responses (e.g., more easily startled)
Changes in how you think about yourself, other people or the world around you	Recurring thoughts, memories, or dreams about the traumatic event
Difficulties with sleep (e.g., falling asleep, staying asleep, waking up in the middle of the night)	Withdrawing or disconnection from your surroundings

Other impacts of psychological trauma that aren’t talked about as often include:

Dissociation, which is a way to “numb out” when things get overwhelming, through disconnection from our surroundings, and can occur either through depersonalization or derealization.

Depersonalization: feeling as though your body does not belong to you, or as though you are “outside” of your body

Derealization: feeling as though things around you are unreal or strange (e.g., as though you’re in a movie)

Guilt, which are feelings of having done something “bad” or “wrong” following the traumatic event. Often, these feelings may show up as thinking about past events and thinking that you or someone else “could have” or “should have” done something differently. Sometimes people may even feel guilty that they survived an event that another person did not. This is known as survivor guilt, and can lead to feelings of negativity about ourselves, or even thoughts about whether we “deserved” to survive compared to those who lost their lives.

Shame is the feeling that part of me is “wrong” or “broken”, and can be a very challenging emotion to navigate following traumatic events. These events may make us feel like the way we reacted means something bigger about who we are as people, or even as though the traumatic event that happened was someone their fault. Shame is a negative feedback loop that can stop us from wanting to seek help because we may feel like we do not “deserve” to live a stable, healthy life.

Moral injury is a type of stress response that occurs after a morally distressing experience, where we feel that our own deeply held morals have been violated in some way. Symptoms can include psychological, social, behavioural, and spiritual changes that might impact how we see ourselves or other people.

A chart titled “Moral stressors and outcomes” depicts a triangular area divided into sections based on event frequency (y-axis, labeled from rare to constant) and degree of psychological, social, and spiritual harm and impairment (x-axis, labeled from very little to extreme). The chart also includes population prevalence (labeled from high to low on the right side of the triangle). The triangular space is divided into four labeled zones: “Moral frustration” at the bottom-left, “Moral distress” to its right, “Moral stressors” above these areas, and “Morally injurious events” at the top-right

Moral stressors and our associated moral reactions exist on a spectrum. Moral challenges may prompt feelings of moral frustration but do not lead to any lasting impairment, such as worries about “the state of the world.” Moral distress brings up moral emotions and cause short term increases in distress levels. Experiences such as being lied to or stolen from might induce moral distress, but they are unlikely to leave lasting impacts. On the far end of this spectrum are morally injurious events, which cause moral injury.

Vicarious traumatization, also called secondary traumatization, is something that can be especially challenging for individuals who work or volunteer in public safety, military, and healthcare settings, due to their more frequent exposure to victims of traumatic events and violent acts. This can occur when we hear about or witness events that have occurred but do not have direct impacts on us as individuals. The symptoms that occur following vicarious trauma are similar to that of experiencing a traumatic event personally.

Having trouble coping with my behaviours, emotions, or social changes following a traumatic event? This may be a normal reaction to witnessing, experiencing or hearing about traumatic situations that people go through. However, if this is causing you a lot of distress or getting in the way of how you would like to live your life, it may be important to seek support.

Supports can include:

Peer support
Talking with family or friends
Religious or spiritual leaders
Mental health professionals

Self-driven activities that may help reduce distress include:

Identifying people, places or situations that trigger your stress responses in order to increase your awareness and cope ahead
Labeling your emotions as you notice them rather than avoiding them
Boxed breathing
Progressive muscle relaxation
Setting boundaries with other people and with yourself

Glossary
Adapted from the Canadian Institute of Public Safety and Training’s (CIPSRT) Glossary of Terms 3.0

Citation: Heber A, Testa V, Groll D, Ritchie K, Tam-Seto L, Mulligan A, Sullo E, Schick A, Bose E, Jabbari Y, Lopes J, Carleton RN. Glossary of terms: A shared understanding of the common terms used to describe psychological trauma, version 3.0. Health Promot Chronic Dis Prev Can. 2023;43(10/11). doi.org/10.24095/hpcdp.43.10/11.09

Please see also CIPSRT’s list of frequently asked questions about mental health.
Acute stress disorder (ASD)
- A collection of feelings, behaviours, and experiences that can occur in the first month after a person is exposed to a potentially psychologically traumatic event (e.g. actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence). The exposure can occur in many ways. For more information about exposures that may lead to ASD, see potentially psychologically traumatic event (PPTE).
Clinical anxiety
- Describes anxiety symptoms severe enough to require formal medical or mental health treatment.
- Symptoms can include intense worry, nervousness, restlessness, rapid heart rate, muscle tension, irritability, trouble concentrating, and feelings of worry or dread, or physical changes such as increased blood pressure.
Clinical depression
- Describes symptoms of a major depressive episode that requires formal medical treatment.
- A major depressive episode typically lasts for a period of several weeks. Symptoms include feeling sad or numb, low mood, lack of interest in usual activities or relationships, difficulty concentrating, poor sleep, feelings of hopelessness, and sometimes, suicidal thoughts.
Complex posttraumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD)
- A type of posttraumatic stress disorder that results from experiencing repeated, severe psychologically traumatic events.
- People with C-PTSD have a profound loss or absence of a sense of identity and difficulty controlling their emotions. They are often involved in unstable relationships as adults, and often have patterns of impulsive choices, feelings of emotional instability, and behavioural problems. Sometimes they experience chronic unhappiness, suicidal thoughts, and suicide attempts.
Complex trauma
- A psychological injury that results from severe types of potentially psychologically traumatic events (PPTEs).
- Often used to refer to complex posttraumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD).
Counselling
- A form of talk therapy where a counsellor sits down with a client to help them work through their issues in a safe, confidential environment. Counselling can take many forms, ranging from in-person to online to telephone sessions.
Crisis
- An overwhelming event, which can include divorce, violence, the passing of a loved one, the discovery of a serious illness, or a major disaster. Can be used interchangeably with critical incident or potentially psychologically traumatic event (PPTE).
Crisis support
- A short-term management technique designed to reduce potential permanent damage to an individual affected by a crisis.
Critical incident
- Describes a potentially psychologically traumatic event (PPTE) that evokes unusually strong emotional reactions. Can be used interchangeably with crisis or potentially psychologically traumatic event (PPTE).
Gender-based violence
- Refers to any type of harmful behaviour against a person or group of people because of their sex, gender, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
Intersectionality
- Recognizes the multiple aspects of an individual’s identity that influence their experiences. Identity factors include ethnicity, religion, age, physical and cognitive ability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status.
Interpersonal violence
- The harmful physical and psychological behaviour by a person or group of people toward another person. It is a type of potentially psychologically traumatic event (PPTE) and can contribute to mental health conditions in either the person causing the harm or the person who is harmed.
Mental health
- Mental refers to thoughts, feelings, emotions, and related brain functioning.
- Mental health exists on a continuum from poor to good. In good mental health, a person:
  
  understands themselves and their abilities
  
  copes well with normal stress
  
  experiences good feelings from their interactions and relationships with others
  
  is able to work or function well in their usual activities, and
  
  contributes to their family and/or community.
Mental health injury/psychological injury
- May be used as different names for a mental health condition, including a mental disorder, especially when the condition is caused by exposure to one or more potentially psychologically traumatic events.
- The word “injury” is used when describing mental disorders or conditions to try to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness.
Mental illness
- Refers to emotions, behaviours, and difficulties in thinking that affect a person’s ability to clearly understand the real world and what is happening to them and around them. These emotions, behaviours, and difficulties are generally the signs and symptoms of the mental illness. The signs and symptoms of a mental illness can range from mild to severe.
- Mental illness is often accompanied by distress and decreased functioning in social, occupational, or other activities of daily life.
Moral injury/moral distress
- During potentially psychologically traumatic events (PPTEs) or other unusually stressful situations, people may carry out, witness, or fail to prevent events that go against their moral beliefs and expectations.
- A moral injury can occur in response to doing something or witnessing behaviours or acts that go against a person’s values and moral beliefs. Events that cause moral injury can be:
  
  acts of commission (what someone has done)acts of omission (what someone has failed to do), or
  
  acts of betrayal.
Navigation tool
- A website with general mental health advice and information on local mental health services, supports and programs.
Peer support
- A supportive, recovery-oriented relationship between individuals who have had or have the same experience, that is, they have a shared lived or living experience. It can offer social, emotional, spiritual, and instrumental support to promote a person’s well-being and path to recovery from mental health problems.
- Peer support can be delivered one-to-one or by a group, and some peer support is a combination of both.
Posttraumatic growth (PTG)
- The positive personal changes that may result from a person’s struggle to manage the consequences of being exposed to one or more potentially psychologically traumatic events. PTG can include a new appreciation for life and future possibilities, a newfound sense of personal strength, improved relationships with others (e.g. a new focus on helping others), and spiritual or existential change.
Posttraumatic stress (PTS)
- Refers to stress resulting from exposure to one or more potentially psychologically traumatic events (PPTEs).
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- The collection of feelings, behaviours, and experiences that can occur after a person is exposed to a potentially psychologically traumatic event (PPTE). The exposure can occur in many ways. For details of exposures that may be associated with a PTSD diagnosis, see potentially psychologically traumatic event (PPTE).
- PTSD reactions can include:
  
  immediate feelings of terror, panic, anxiety, rage, or sickness when exposed to a sound, sight, or smell that is a reminder of the event
  
  vivid and intrusive memories of the event, which can sometimes feel as if the event is happening again (“flashbacks”)
  
  nightmares and disturbed sleep
  
  not remembering the event (amnesia), or feeling emotionally numb
  
  avoiding places, people, or circumstances that are reminders of the event
  
  being hyperalert to threat or danger, and
  
  feeling that things are unreal or that you are living in a dream (depersonalization or derealization).
Potentially psychologically traumatic event (PPTE)
- A stressful event that has caused psychological trauma and has the potential to cause PTSD and other trauma-related mental health conditions. This term is more precise than terms like critical incident or crisis.
- Typical examples of potentially psychologically traumatic events (PPTE) include:
  
  adverse childhood experiences
  
  motor vehicle accidents
  
  sexual assault and other types of violence
  
  unexpected violent or accidental death of a loved one or threatened death of a loved one, and
  
  threat of or actual severe physical injury, experiencing military combat, natural disasters, or exposure to human remains.
Psychological first aid (PFA)
- An immediate way to help people after a disaster or traumatic event. PFA aims to provide support to reduce initial distress and promote resilience. By addressing basic needs such as safety, comfort, and emotional connection, PFA helps reduce the risk of long-term mental/emotional harm.
Recovery
- The personalized journey to a way of living that allows a person with a physical or mental health condition to have positive mental health and good well-being.
Resilience
- The long-term physical and mental determination that people draw on to deal with ongoing adversity. It is a quality that an individual may naturally possess or develop through work and life experiences.
Secondary traumatic stress
- Describes a mental health condition that results from indirect exposure to one or more potentially psychologically traumatic events (PPTEs). Such indirect exposure is also known as vicarious trauma.
Social support
- The extent to which you feel yourself supported by others. People have social support networks of different sizes. Social support also includes various groups or networks, including people from work, family, and friends from different parts of a person’s life.
Stigma
- A set of highly negative ideas and beliefs that society has about something. To be stigmatized means to be symbolically marked as a disgrace. Mental illnesses are among the most highly stigmatized conditions in society. When a health condition is stigmatized, the person experiences not only the symptoms of the condition itself, but also the social rejection, disapproval, and the shame that the stigmatization creates.
- There are four types of mental health stigma:
  
  Structural stigma is when organizational policies and practices are unfair to people with mental disorders.
  
  Public or interpersonal stigma is when the public think or act negatively toward people with a mental disorder.
  
  Self-stigma occurs when people with a mental disorder believe the negative public views and apply these views to themselves.
  
  Stigma-by-association is when those close to or related to the stigmatized group (such as family, friends, or mental health providers) are also stigmatized.
Trauma
- Something that causes physical, emotional, spiritual, or psychological harm.
- A person’s experience during an event that is so distressing to them that it overwhelms them emotionally; psychological trauma can be the cause of mental disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder.
Vicarious trauma
- Refers to psychological trauma that can occur in people who are indirectly exposed to a potentially psychologically traumatic event (PPTE). Also known as secondary traumatic stress.
Well-being
- Can be defined using a broad framework that includes seven interacting domains:
  
  employment or meaningful purpose
  
  financial security
  
  health
  
  life skills and preparedness
  
  social integration
  
  housing and physical environment, and
  
  cultural and social environment.
Wellness
- There is no consensus on a definition, but some definitions of wellness overlap with definitions of well-being.
- Defined by the First Nations Mental Wellness Continuum Framework (FNMWCF) as a balance of the mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional. In this framework, mental wellness is enriched when a person has purpose, hope for their future, a sense of belonging, and a sense of meaning.
Wellness support
- Health services, programs, or activities that focus on the promotion or maintenance of good health. These supports are designed to improve well-being while reducing pain, stress, and anxiety.
Moral injury & posttraumatic stress
What is moral injury?

Moral injury is the potential outcome of witnessing an event that goes against ones moral beliefs, or participating in the act oneself. Moral injury can also be caused by feeling betrayed by someone you trusted, like a coworker, supervisor, or workplace.

It often results in intense feelings of guilt, shame, disgust, and anger.
What is posttraumatic stress?

Posttraumatic stress (PTS) is a response to traumatic events that one has personally experienced, has learned about happening to a loved one, or has been exposed to. This could include actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence.

PTS symptoms can include:

Reliving the event repeatedly in your mind

Having nightmares

Avoiding family and friends

Having trouble sleeping

Losing interest in enjoyable activities

Avoiding places and people that remind you of the event

Some people with PTS also experience dissociation. This means that they feel disconnected from themselves, or feel like things happening around them are unreal or unfamiliar.

Though most people who experience a traumatic event will have a strong reaction, many will recover over time. Experiencing trauma doesn’t mean you will develop PTS.
What can I do to take care of myself?
Coping strategies can help you manage stress and assist with healing. It can be hard to find the energy to engage in them, so having a few go-to tools can be very helpful. Here are some you can begin to use right away:
- Set and keep routines that help with work-life balance. Focus on a healthy diet, enough sleep, exercise, and time with friends and family.
- Set small goals for yourself. These will give you a sense of accomplishment, and signal that you are taking care of yourself.
- Practice deep breathing. Inhale for four counts, exhale for four counts, practice for four minutes. Deep breathing sends oxygen to the brain and helps relax the body.
- Positive self-talk. Redirect negative thoughts by reframing them.
- Visualization. Pay attention to all senses and visualize positive images. For example, imagine the sounds, smells, and sights of a calming scene.
- Self-care. Go for a walk, engage with your religion/spirituality, journal, read a book, take a nap or bath, listen to music. Do something that feels good!
- Self-compassion. Show yourself the same kindness you would to a friend who is struggling. Find guided self-compassion exercises here.
- Mental Health Continuum Model. The mental health self-assessment tool helps identify your current mental health status and provides relevant resources.

9-8-8: Suicide Crisis Helpline

Contact	Call or text: 9-8-8 Online: 988.ca
Information	“You deserve to be heard. We’re here to listen. A safe space to talk, 24 hours a day, every day of the year.”
Location	National
Type of resource	Telephone (call or text), online service
Type of support	Crisis support
Target population	General population
Serves adults (18+)	Yes
Serves children (0–12)	—
Serves youth (13–17)	—
Serves families	—
Language(s) spoken	🍁 English, ⚜️ French

Privacy policy (unabridged)
Last updated: July 30, 2024

Link to privacy policy (abridged)

This Privacy Policy describes Our policies and procedures on the collection, use, and disclosure of Your information when You use the Service and tells You about Your privacy rights and how the law protects You.

We use Your Personal data to provide and improve the Service. By using the Service, You agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Interpretation and Definitions

Interpretation

The words of which the initial letter is capitalized have meanings defined under the following conditions. The following definitions shall have the same meaning regardless of whether they appear in singular or in plural.

Definitions

For the purposes of this Privacy Policy:
- Account means a unique account created for You to access our Service or parts of our Service.
- Affiliate means an entity that controls, is controlled by or is under common control with a party, where “control” means ownership of 50% or more of the shares, equity interest or other securities entitled to vote for election of directors or other managing authority.
- Business, for the purpose of CCPA/CPRA, refers to the Company as the legal entity that collects Consumers’ personal information and determines the purposes and means of the processing of Consumers’ personal information, or on behalf of which such information is collected and that alone, or jointly with others, determines the purposes and means of the processing of consumers’ personal information, that does business in the State of California.
- CCPA and/or CPRA refers to California Consumer Privacy Act (the “CCPA”) as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (the “CPRA”).
- Company (referred to as either “the Company”, “We”, “Us” or “Our” in this Agreement) refers to The Trauma & Recovery Research Unit, McMaster University, 100 West 5th Street Hamilton, ON, L9C 0E3, Canada. For the purpose of the GDPR, the Company is the Data Controller.
- Consumer, for the purpose of the CCPA/CPRA, means a natural person who is a California resident. A resident, as defined in the law, includes (1) every individual who is in the USA for other than a temporary or transitory purpose, and (2) every individual who is domiciled in the USA who is outside the USA for a temporary or transitory purpose.
- Cookies are small files that are placed on Your computer, mobile device or any other device by a website, containing the details of Your browsing history on that website among its many uses.
- Country refers to: Ontario, Canada
- Data Controller, for the purposes of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), refers to the Company as the legal person which alone or jointly with others determines the purposes and means of the processing of Personal Data.
- Device means any device that can access the Service such as a computer, a cellphone or a digital tablet.
- GDPR refers to EU General Data Protection Regulation.
- Personal Data is any information that relates to an identified or identifiable individual.
  - For the purposes of GDPR, Personal Data means any information relating to You such as a name, an identification number, location data, online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity.
  - For the purposes of the CCPA/CPRA, Personal Data means any information that identifies, relates to, describes or is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with You.
- Service refers to the Website.
- Service Provider means any natural or legal person who processes the data on behalf of the Company. It refers to third-party companies or individuals employed by the Company to facilitate the Service, to provide the Service on behalf of the Company, to perform services related to the Service or to assist the Company in analyzing how the Service is used. For the purpose of the GDPR, Service Providers are considered Data Processors.
- Usage Data refers to data collected automatically, either generated by the use of the Service or from the Service infrastructure itself (for example, the duration of a page visit).
- Website refers to Canadian Emergency Response Psychosocial Support Network, accessible from canemerg-urgencecan.com
- You means the individual accessing or using the Service, or the company, or other legal entity on behalf of which such individual is accessing or using the Service, as applicable. Under GDPR, You can be referred to as the Data Subject or as the User as you are the individual using the Service.
Collecting and Using Your Personal Data

Types of Data Collected

Personal Data

While using Our Service, We may ask You to provide Us with certain personally identifiable information that can be used to contact or identify You. Personally identifiable information may include, but is not limited to:
- Usage Data
Usage Data

Usage Data is collected automatically when using the Service.

Usage Data may include information such as Your Device’s Internet Protocol address (e.g. IP address), browser type, browser version, the pages of our Service that You visit, the time and date of Your visit, the time spent on those pages, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.

When You access the Service by or through a mobile device, We may collect certain information automatically, including, but not limited to, the type of mobile device You use, Your mobile device unique ID, the IP address of Your mobile device, Your mobile operating system, the type of mobile Internet browser You use, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.

We may also collect information that Your browser sends whenever You visit our Service or when You access the Service by or through a mobile device.

Tracking Technologies and Cookies

We use Cookies and similar tracking technologies to track the activity on Our Service and store certain information. Tracking technologies used are beacons, tags, and scripts to collect and track information and to improve and analyze Our Service. The technologies We use may include:
- Cookies or Browser Cookies. A cookie is a small file placed on Your Device. You can instruct Your browser to refuse all Cookies or to indicate when a Cookie is being sent. However, if You do not accept Cookies, You may not be able to use some parts of our Service. Unless you have adjusted Your browser setting so that it will refuse Cookies, our Service may use Cookies.
- Web Beacons. Certain sections of our Service and our emails may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that permit the Company, for example, to count users who have visited those pages or opened an email and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of a certain section and verifying system and server integrity).
Cookies can be “Persistent” or “Session” Cookies. Persistent Cookies remain on Your personal computer or mobile device when You go offline, while Session Cookies are deleted as soon as You close Your web browser. You can learn more about cookies on TermsFeed website article.

We use both Session and Persistent Cookies for the purposes set out below:
- Necessary / Essential Cookies
  - Type: Session Cookies
  - Administered by: Us
  - Purpose: These Cookies are essential to provide You with services available through the Website and to enable You to use some of its features. They help to authenticate users and prevent fraudulent use of user accounts. Without these Cookies, the services that You have asked for cannot be provided, and We only use these Cookies to provide You with those services.
- Cookies Policy / Notice Acceptance Cookies
  - Type: Persistent Cookies
  - Administered by: Us
  - Purpose: These Cookies identify if users have accepted the use of cookies on the Website.
- Functionality Cookies
  - Type: Persistent Cookies
  - Administered by: Us
  - Purpose: These Cookies allow us to remember choices You make when You use the Website, such as remembering your login details or language preference. The purpose of these Cookies is to provide You with a more personal experience and to avoid You having to re-enter your preferences every time You use the Website.
- Tracking and Performance Cookies
  - Type: Persistent Cookies
  - Administered by: Third-Parties
  - Purpose: These Cookies are used to track information about traffic to the Website and how users use the Website. The information gathered via these Cookies may directly or indirectly identify you as an individual visitor. This is because the information collected is typically linked to a pseudonymous identifier associated with the device you use to access the Website. We may also use these Cookies to test new pages, features or new functionality of the Website to see how our users react to them.
For more information about the cookies we use and your choices regarding cookies, please visit our Cookies Policy or the Cookies section of our Privacy Policy.

Use of Your Personal Data

The Company may use Personal Data for the following purposes:
- To provide and maintain our Service, including to monitor the usage of our Service.
- To manage Your Account: to manage Your registration as a user of the Service. The Personal Data You provide can give You access to different functionalities of the Service that are available to You as a registered user.
- For the performance of a contract: the development, compliance and undertaking of the purchase contract for the products, items or services You have purchased or of any other contract with Us through the Service.
- To contact You: To contact You by email, telephone calls, SMS, or other equivalent forms of electronic communication, such as a mobile application’s push notifications regarding updates or informative communications related to the functionalities, products or contracted services, including the security updates, when necessary or reasonable for their implementation.
- To provide You with news, special offers and general information about other goods, services and events which we offer that are similar to those that you have already purchased or enquired about unless You have opted not to receive such information.
- To manage Your requests: To attend and manage Your requests to Us.
- For business transfers: We may use Your information to evaluate or conduct a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of Our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which Personal Data held by Us about our Service users is among the assets transferred.
- For other purposes: We may use Your information for other purposes, such as data analysis, identifying usage trends, determining the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns and to evaluate and improve our Service, products, services, marketing and your experience.
We may share Your personal information in the following situations:
- With Service Providers: We may share Your personal information with Service Providers to monitor and analyze the use of our Service, to contact You.
- For business transfers: We may share or transfer Your personal information in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of Company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of Our business to another company.
- With Affiliates: We may share Your information with Our affiliates, in which case we will require those affiliates to honor this Privacy Policy. Affiliates include Our parent company and any other subsidiaries, joint venture partners or other companies that We control or that are under common control with Us.
- With business partners: We may share Your information with Our business partners to offer You certain products, services or promotions.
- With other users: when You share personal information or otherwise interact in the public areas with other users, such information may be viewed by all users and may be publicly distributed outside.
- With Your consent: We may disclose Your personal information for any other purpose with Your consent.
Retention of Your Personal Data

The Company will retain Your Personal Data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. We will retain and use Your Personal Data to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations (for example, if we are required to retain your data to comply with applicable laws), resolve disputes, and enforce our legal agreements and policies.

The Company will also retain Usage Data for internal analysis purposes. Usage Data is generally retained for a shorter period of time, except when this data is used to strengthen the security or to improve the functionality of Our Service, or We are legally obligated to retain this data for longer time periods.

Transfer of Your Personal Data

Your information, including Personal Data, is processed at the Company’s operating offices and in any other places where the parties involved in the processing are located. It means that this information may be transferred to — and maintained on — computers located outside of Your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ than those from Your jurisdiction.

Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by Your submission of such information represents Your agreement to that transfer.

The Company will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that Your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and no transfer of Your Personal Data will take place to an organization or a country unless there are adequate controls in place including the security of Your data and other personal information.

Delete Your Personal Data

You have the right to delete or request that We assist in deleting the Personal Data that We have collected about You.

Our Service may give You the ability to delete certain information about You from within the Service.

You may update, amend, or delete Your information at any time by signing in to Your Account, if you have one, and visiting the account settings section that allows you to manage Your personal information. You may also contact Us to request access to, correct, or delete any personal information that You have provided to Us.

Please note, however, that We may need to retain certain information when we have a legal obligation or lawful basis to do so.

Disclosure of Your Personal Data

Business Transactions

If the Company is involved in a merger, acquisition or asset sale, Your Personal Data may be transferred. We will provide notice before Your Personal Data is transferred and becomes subject to a different Privacy Policy.

Law enforcement

Under certain circumstances, the Company may be required to disclose Your Personal Data if required to do so by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities (e.g. a court or a government agency).

Other legal requirements

The Company may disclose Your Personal Data in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to:
- Comply with a legal obligation
- Protect and defend the rights or property of the Company
- Prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the Service
- Protect the personal safety of Users of the Service or the public
- Protect against legal liability
Security of Your Personal Data

The security of Your Personal Data is important to Us, but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While We strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect Your Personal Data, We cannot guarantee its absolute security.

Detailed Information on the Processing of Your Personal Data

The Service Providers We use may have access to Your Personal Data. These third-party vendors collect, store, use, process and transfer information about Your activity on Our Service in accordance with their Privacy Policies.

Analytics

We may use third-party Service providers to monitor and analyze the use of our Service.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. Google uses the data collected to track and monitor the use of our Service. This data is shared with other Google services. Google may use the collected data to contextualize and personalize the ads of its own advertising network.

You can opt-out of having made your activity on the Service available to Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. The add-on prevents the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js, analytics.js and dc.js) from sharing information with Google Analytics about visits activity.

For more information on the privacy practices of Google, please visit the Google Privacy & Terms web page: policies.google.com/privacy

Email Marketing

We may use Your Personal Data to contact You with newsletters, marketing or promotional materials and other information that may be of interest to You. You may opt-out of receiving any, or all, of these communications from Us by following the unsubscribe link or instructions provided in any email We send or by contacting Us.

We may use Email Marketing Service Providers to manage and send emails to You.

Mailchimp

Mailchimp is an email marketing sending service provided by The Rocket Science Group LLC.

For more information on the privacy practices of Mailchimp, please visit their Privacy policy: mailchimp.com/legal/privacy

Usage, Performance, and Miscellaneous

We may use third-party Service Providers to provide better improvement of our Service.

LearnDash

Their Privacy Policy can be viewed at learndash.com/privacy-policy

Polylang Pro

Their Privacy Policy can be viewed at polylang.pro/privacy-policy

Site Kit

Their Privacy Policy can be viewed at policies.google.com/terms

GDPR Privacy

Legal Basis for Processing Personal Data under GDPR

We may process Personal Data under the following conditions:
- Consent: You have given Your consent for processing Personal Data for one or more specific purposes.
- Performance of a contract: Provision of Personal Data is necessary for the performance of an agreement with You and/or for any pre-contractual obligations thereof.
- Legal obligations: Processing Personal Data is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the Company is subject.
- Vital interests: Processing Personal Data is necessary in order to protect Your vital interests or of another natural person.
- Public interests: Processing Personal Data is related to a task that is carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the Company.
- Legitimate interests: Processing Personal Data is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the Company.
In any case, the Company will gladly help to clarify the specific legal basis that applies to the processing, and in particular whether the provision of Personal Data is a statutory or contractual requirement, or a requirement necessary to enter into a contract.

Your Rights under the GDPR

The Company undertakes to respect the confidentiality of Your Personal Data and to guarantee You can exercise Your rights.

You have the right under this Privacy Policy, and by law if You are within the EU, to:
- Request access to Your Personal Data. The right to access, update or delete the information We have on You. Whenever made possible, you can access, update or request deletion of Your Personal Data directly within Your account settings section. If you are unable to perform these actions yourself, please contact Us to assist You. This also enables You to receive a copy of the Personal Data We hold about You.
- Request correction of the Personal Data that We hold about You. You have the right to have any incomplete or inaccurate information We hold about You corrected.
- Object to processing of Your Personal Data. This right exists where We are relying on a legitimate interest as the legal basis for Our processing and there is something about Your particular situation, which makes You want to object to our processing of Your Personal Data on this ground. You also have the right to object where We are processing Your Personal Data for direct marketing purposes.
- Request erasure of Your Personal Data. You have the right to ask Us to delete or remove Personal Data when there is no good reason for Us to continue processing it.
- Request the transfer of Your Personal Data. We will provide to You, or to a third-party You have chosen, Your Personal Data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Please note that this right only applies to automated information which You initially provided consent for Us to use or where We used the information to perform a contract with You.
- Withdraw Your consent. You have the right to withdraw Your consent on using your Personal Data. If You withdraw Your consent, We may not be able to provide You with access to certain specific functionalities of the Service.
Exercising of Your GDPR Data Protection Rights

You may exercise Your rights of access, rectification, cancellation and opposition by contacting Us. Please note that we may ask You to verify Your identity before responding to such requests. If You make a request, We will try our best to respond to You as soon as possible.

You have the right to complain to a Data Protection Authority about Our collection and use of Your Personal Data. For more information, if You are in the European Economic Area (EEA), please contact Your local data protection authority in the EEA.

CCPA/CPRA Privacy Notice

This privacy notice section for California residents supplements the information contained in Our Privacy Policy and it applies solely to all visitors, users, and others who reside in the State of California.

Categories of Personal Information Collected

We collect information that identifies, relates to, describes, references, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular Consumer or Device. The following is a list of categories of personal information which we may collect or may have been collected from California residents within the last twelve (12) months.

Please note that the categories and examples provided in the list below are those defined in the CCPA/CPRA. This does not mean that all examples of that category of personal information were in fact collected by Us, but reflects our good faith belief to the best of Our knowledge that some of that information from the applicable category may be and may have been collected. For example, certain categories of personal information would only be collected if You provided such personal information directly to Us.

Category A: Identifiers.
- Examples: A real name, alias, postal address, unique personal identifier, online identifier, Internet Protocol address, email address, account name, driver’s license number, passport number, or other similar identifiers.
- Collected: Yes.
Category B: Personal information categories listed in the California Customer Records statute (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.80(e)).
- Examples: A name, signature, Social Security number, physical characteristics or description, address, telephone number, passport number, driver’s license or state identification card number, insurance policy number, education, employment, employment history, bank account number, credit card number, debit card number, or any other financial information, medical information, or health insurance information. Some personal information included in this category may overlap with other categories.
- Collected: Yes.
Category C: Protected classification characteristics under California or federal law.
- Examples: Age (40 years or older), race, colour, ancestry, national origin, citizenship, religion or creed, marital status, medical condition, physical or mental disability, sex (including gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy or childbirth and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, veteran or military status, genetic information (including familial genetic information).
- Collected: No.
Category D: Commercial information.
- Examples: Records and history of products or services purchased or considered.
- Collected: No.
Category E: Biometric information.
- Examples: Genetic, physiological, behavioural, and biological characteristics, or activity patterns used to extract a template or other identifier or identifying information, such as, fingerprints, faceprints, and voiceprints, iris or retina scans, keystroke, gait, or other physical patterns, and sleep, health, or exercise data.
- Collected: No.
Category F: Internet or other similar network activity.
- Examples: Interaction with our Service or advertisement.
- Collected: Yes.
Category G: Geolocation data.
- Examples: Approximate physical location.
- Collected: No.
Category H: Sensory data.
- Examples: Audio, electronic, visual, thermal, olfactory, or similar information.
- Collected: No.
Category I: Professional or employment-related information.
- Examples: Current or past job history or performance evaluations.
- Collected: No.
Category J: Non-public education information (per the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (20 U.S.C. Section 1232g, 34 C.F.R. Part 99)).
- Examples: Education records directly related to a student maintained by an educational institution or party acting on its behalf, such as grades, transcripts, class lists, student schedules, student identification codes, student financial information, or student disciplinary records.
- Collected: No.
Category K: Inferences drawn from other personal information.
- Examples: Profile reflecting a person’s preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behaviour, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes.
- Collected: No.
Category L: Sensitive personal information.
- Examples: Account login and password information, geolocation data.
- Collected: Yes.
Under CCPA/CPRA, personal information does not include:
- Publicly available information from government records
- Deidentified or aggregated consumer information
- Information excluded from the CCPA/CPRA’s scope, such as:
  - Health or medical information covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (CMIA) or clinical trial data
  - Personal Information covered by certain sector-specific privacy laws, including the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FRCA), the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) or California Financial Information Privacy Act (FIPA), and the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act of 1994
Sources of Personal Information

We obtain the categories of personal information listed above from the following categories of sources:
- Directly from You. For example, from the forms You complete on our Service, preferences You express or provide through our Service.
- Indirectly from You. For example, from observing Your activity on our Service.
- Automatically from You. For example, through cookies We or our Service Providers set on Your Device as You navigate through our Service.
- From Service Providers. For example, third-party vendors to monitor and analyze the use of our Service, or other third-party vendors that We use to provide the Service to You.
Use of Personal Information

We may use or disclose personal information We collect for “business purposes” or “commercial purposes” (as defined under the CCPA/CPRA), which may include the following examples:
- To operate our Service and provide You with Our Service.
- To provide You with support and to respond to Your inquiries, including to investigate and address Your concerns and monitor and improve our Service.
- To fulfill or meet the reason You provided the information. For example, if You share Your contact information to ask a question about our Service, We will use that personal information to respond to Your inquiry.
- To respond to law enforcement requests and as required by applicable law, court order, or governmental regulations.
- As described to You when collecting Your personal information or as otherwise set forth in the CCPA/CPRA.
- For internal administrative and auditing purposes.
- To detect security incidents and protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent or illegal activity, including, when necessary, to prosecute those responsible for such activities.
- Other one-time uses.
Please note that the examples provided above are illustrative and not intended to be exhaustive. For more details on how we use this information, please refer to the “Use of Your Personal Data” section.

If We decide to collect additional categories of personal information or use the personal information We collected for materially different, unrelated, or incompatible purposes We will update this Privacy Policy.

Disclosure of Personal Information

We may use or disclose and may have used or disclosed in the last twelve (12) months the following categories of personal information for business or commercial purposes:
- Category A: Identifiers
- Category B: Personal information categories listed in the California Customer Records statute (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.80(e))
- Category F: Internet or other similar network activity
Please note that the categories listed above are those defined in the CCPA/CPRA. This does not mean that all examples of that category of personal information were in fact disclosed, but reflects our good faith belief to the best of our knowledge that some of that information from the applicable category may be and may have been disclosed.

When We disclose personal information for a business purpose or a commercial purpose, We enter a contract that describes the purpose and requires the recipient to both keep that personal information confidential and not use it for any purpose except performing the contract.

Share of Personal Information

We may share, and have shared in the last twelve (12) months, Your personal information identified in the above categories with the following categories of third parties:
- Service Providers
- Our affiliates
- Our business partners
Third party vendors to whom You or Your agents authorize Us to disclose Your personal information in connection with products or services We provide to You

Sale of Personal Information

As defined in the CCPA/CPRA, “sell” and “sale” mean selling, renting, releasing, disclosing, disseminating, making available, transferring, or otherwise communicating orally, in writing, or by electronic or other means, a Consumer’s personal information by the Business to a third party for valuable consideration. This means that We may have received some kind of benefit in return for sharing personal information, but not necessarily a monetary benefit.

We do not sell personal information as the term sell is commonly understood. We do allow Service Providers to use Your personal information for the business purposes described in Our Privacy Policy, for activities such as advertising, marketing, and analytics, and these may be deemed a sale under CCPA/CPRA.

We may sell and may have sold in the last twelve (12) months the following categories of personal information:
- Category A: Identifiers
- Category B: Personal information categories listed in the California Customer Records statute (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.80(e))
- Category F: Internet or other similar network activity
Please note that the categories listed above are those defined in the CCPA/CPRA. This does not mean that all examples of that category of personal information were in fact sold, but reflects our good faith belief to the best of Our knowledge that some of that information from the applicable category may be and may have been shared for value in return.

Sale of Personal Information of Minors Under 16 Years of Age

We do not knowingly collect personal information from minors under the age of 16 through our Service, although certain third party websites that we link to may do so. These third-party websites have their own terms of use and privacy policies and We encourage parents and legal guardians to monitor their children’s Internet usage and instruct their children to never provide information on other websites without their permission.

We do not sell the personal information of Consumers We actually know are less than 16 years of age, unless We receive affirmative authorization (the “right to opt-in”) from either the Consumer who is between 13 and 16 years of age, or the parent or guardian of a Consumer less than 13 years of age. Consumers who opt-in to the sale of personal information may opt-out of future sales at any time. To exercise the right to opt-out, You (or Your authorized representative) may submit a request to Us by contacting Us.

If You have reason to believe that a child under the age of 13 (or 16) has provided Us with personal information, please contact Us with sufficient detail to enable Us to delete that information.

Your Rights under the CCPA/CPRA

The CCPA/CPRA provides California residents with specific rights regarding their personal information. If You are a resident of California, You have the following rights:
- The right to notice. You have the right to be notified which categories of Personal Data are being collected and the purposes for which the Personal Data is being used.
- The right to know/access. Under CCPA/CPRA, You have the right to request that We disclose information to You about Our collection, use, sale, disclosure for business purposes and share of personal information. Once We receive and confirm Your request, We will disclose to You:
  - The categories of sources for the personal information We collected about You
  - Our business or commercial purposes for collecting or selling that personal information
  - The categories of third parties with whom We share that personal information
  - The specific pieces of personal information We collected about You
  - If we sold Your personal information or disclosed Your personal information for a business purpose, We will disclose to You:
    
    The categories of personal information categories sold
    
    The categories of personal information categories disclosed
- The right to say no to the sale or sharing of Personal Data (opt-out). You have the right to direct Us to not sell Your personal information. To submit an opt-out request, please see the “Do Not Sell My Personal Information” section or contact Us.
- The right to correct Personal Data. You have the right to correct or rectify any any inaccurate personal information about You that We collected. Once We receive and confirm Your request, We will use commercially reasonable efforts to correct (and direct our Service Providers to correct) Your personal information, unless an exception applies.
- The right to limit use and disclosure of sensitive Personal Data. You have the right to request to limit the use or disclosure of certain sensitive personal information We collected about You, unless an exception applies. To submit, please see the “Limit the Use or Disclosure of My Sensitive Personal Information” section or contact Us.
- The right to delete Personal Data. You have the right to request the deletion of Your Personal Data under certain circumstances, subject to certain exceptions. Once We receive and confirm Your request, We will delete (and direct Our Service Providers to delete) Your personal information from our records, unless an exception applies. We may deny Your deletion request if retaining the information is necessary for Us or Our Service Providers to:
  - Complete the transaction for which We collected the personal information, provide a good or service that You requested, take actions reasonably anticipated within the context of our ongoing business relationship with You, or otherwise perform our contract with You.
  - Detect security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, or prosecute those responsible for such activities.
  - Debug products to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality.
  - Exercise free speech, ensure the right of another consumer to exercise their free speech rights, or exercise another right provided for by law.
  - Comply with the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (Cal. Penal Code § 1546 et. seq.).
  - Engage in public or peer-reviewed scientific, historical, or statistical research in the public interest that adheres to all other applicable ethics and privacy laws, when the information’s deletion may likely render impossible or seriously impair the research’s achievement, if You previously provided informed consent.
  - Enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with consumer expectations based on Your relationship with Us.
  - Comply with a legal obligation.
  - Make other internal and lawful uses of that information that are compatible with the context in which You provided it.
- The right not to be discriminated against. You have the right not to be discriminated against for exercising any of Your consumer’s rights, including by:
  - Denying goods or services to You
  - Charging different prices or rates for goods or services, including the use of discounts or other benefits or imposing penalties
  - Providing a different level or quality of goods or services to You
  - Suggesting that You will receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level or quality of goods or services
Exercising Your CCPA/CPRA Data Protection Rights

Please see the “Do Not Sell My Personal Information” section and “Limit the Use or Disclosure of My Sensitive Personal Information” section for more information on how to opt out and limit the use of sensitive information collected.

Additionally, in order to exercise any of Your rights under the CCPA/CPRA, and if You are a California resident, You can contact Us:
- By email: mckinres@mcmaster.ca
Only You, or a person registered with the California Secretary of State that You authorize to act on Your behalf, may make a verifiable request related to Your personal information.

Your request to Us must:
- Provide sufficient information that allows Us to reasonably verify You are the person about whom We collected personal information or an authorized representative
- Describe Your request with sufficient detail that allows Us to properly understand, evaluate, and respond to it
We cannot respond to Your request or provide You with the required information if We cannot:
- Verify Your identity or authority to make the request
- And confirm that the personal information relates to You
We will disclose and deliver the required information free of charge within 45 days of receiving Your verifiable request. The time period to provide the required information may be extended once by an additional 45 days when reasonably necessary and with prior notice.

Any disclosures We provide will only cover the 12-month period preceding the verifiable request’s receipt.

For data portability requests, We will select a format to provide Your personal information that is readily usable and should allow You to transmit the information from one entity to another entity without hindrance.

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

As defined in the CCPA/CPRA, “sell” and “sale” mean selling, renting, releasing, disclosing, disseminating, making available, transferring, or otherwise communicating orally, in writing, or by electronic or other means, a Consumer’s personal information by the Business to a third party for valuable consideration. This means that We may have received some kind of benefit in return for sharing personal information, but not necessarily a monetary benefit.

We do not sell personal information as the term sell is commonly understood. We do allow Service Providers to use Your personal information for the business purposes described in Our Privacy Policy, for activities such as advertising, marketing, and analytics, and these may be deemed a sale under CCPA/CPRA.

You have the right to opt-out of the sale of Your personal information. Once We receive and confirm a verifiable consumer request from You, we will stop selling Your personal information. To exercise Your right to opt-out, please contact Us.

The Service Providers we partner with (for example, our analytics or advertising partners) may use technology on the Service that sells personal information as defined by the CCPA/CPRA law. If you wish to opt out of the use of Your personal information for interest-based advertising purposes and these potential sales as defined under CCPA/CPRA law, you may do so by following the instructions below.

Please note that any opt out is specific to the browser You use. You may need to opt out on every browser that You use.

Website

If applicable, click “Privacy Preferences”, “Update Privacy Preferences” or “Do Not Sell My Personal Information” buttons listed on the Service to review your privacy preferences and opt out of cookies and other technologies that We may use. Please note that You will need to opt out from each browser that You use to access the Service.

Additionally, You can opt out of receiving ads that are personalized as served by our Service Providers by following our instructions presented on the Service:
- The NAI’s opt-out platform: networkadvertising.org/choices
- The EDAA’s opt-out platform: youronlinechoices.com
- The DAA’s opt-out platform: optout.aboutads.info
The opt out will place a cookie on Your computer that is unique to the browser You use to opt out. If you change browsers or delete the cookies saved by your browser, You will need to opt out again.

Mobile Devices

Your mobile device may give You the ability to opt out of the use of information about the apps You use in order to serve You ads that are targeted to Your interests:
- “Opt out of Interest-Based Ads” or “Opt out of Ads Personalization” on Android devices
- “Limit Ad Tracking” on iOS devices
You can also stop the collection of location information from Your mobile device by changing the preferences on Your mobile device.

Limit the Use or Disclosure of My Sensitive Personal Information

If You are a California resident, You have the right to limit the use and disclosure of Your sensitive personal information to that use which is necessary to perform the services or provide the goods reasonably expected by an average Consumer who requests such services or goods.

We collect, use and disclose sensitive personal information in ways that are necessary to provide the Service. For more information on how We use Your personal information, please see the “Use of Your Personal Data” section or contact us.

Children’s Privacy

Our Service does not address anyone under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 13. If You are a parent or guardian and You are aware that Your child has provided Us with Personal Data, please contact Us. If We become aware that We have collected Personal Data from anyone under the age of 13 without verification of parental consent, We take steps to remove that information from Our servers.

If We need to rely on consent as a legal basis for processing Your information and Your country requires consent from a parent, We may require Your parent’s consent before We collect and use that information.

Links to Other Websites

Our Service may contain links to other websites that are not operated by Us. If You click on a third party link, You will be directed to that third party’s site. We strongly advise You to review the Privacy Policy of every site You visit.

We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies or practices of any third party sites or services.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update Our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify You of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page.

We will let You know via email and/or a prominent notice on Our Service, prior to the change becoming effective and update the “Last updated” date at the top of this Privacy Policy.

You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, You can contact us:
- By email: mckinres@mcmaster.ca
Privacy policy (abridged)
Last updated: July 30, 2024

Link to privacy policy (unabridged)

This Privacy Policy describes our policies and procedures on the collection, use, and disclosure of your information when you use our resources, and tells you about your privacy rights.

We use some data to provide and improve our services. By using the services (this website and the content), you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Interpretation and definitions
- Business, for the purpose of CCPA/CPRA, refers to the Company as the legal entity that collects Consumers’ personal information and determines the purposes and means of the processing of Consumers’ personal information, or on behalf of which such information is collected and that alone, or jointly with others, determines the purposes and means of the processing of consumers’ personal information, that does business in the State of California.
- CCPA/CPRA refers to California Consumer Privacy Act (the “CCPA”) as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (the “CPRA”).
- GDPR refers to EU General Data Protection Regulation.
  - Please note: We choose to abide by these laws from California and Europe because they are the most strict. We follow them to ensure that we are handling your information responsibly.
- Company (referred to as either “the Company”, “We”, “Us” or “Our” in this Agreement) refers to The Trauma & Recovery Research Unit, McMaster University, 100 West 5th Street Hamilton, ON, L9C 0E3, Canada.
- Project refers to Canadian Emergency Response Psychosocial Support Network, which has been created by McMaster University Faculty of Health Sciences, specifically the Trauma & Recovery Research Unit.
- Personal Data is any information that relates to an identified or identifiable individual.
- Service refers to this website.
- Usage Data refers to data collected automatically, either generated by the use of the Service or from the Service infrastructure itself (for example, the duration of a page visit).
Collecting and using Your Personal Data

Types of Data collected

Usage Data

Usage Data is collected automatically when using the Service.

Usage Data may include information such as Your Device’s Internet Protocol address (e.g., IP address), browser type, browser version, the pages of our Service that You visit, the time and date of Your visit, the time spent on those pages, unique device identifiers, and other diagnostic data.

When You access the Service by or through a mobile device, We may collect certain information automatically, including, but not limited to, the type of mobile device You use, Your mobile device unique ID, the IP address of Your mobile device, Your mobile operating system, the type of mobile Internet browser You use, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.

We may also collect information that Your browser sends whenever You visit our Service or when You access the Service by or through a mobile device.

Tracking technologies and Cookies

We use Cookies and similar tracking technologies to track the activity on Our Service and store certain information. Tracking technologies used are beacons, tags, and scripts to collect and track information and to improve and analyze Our Service. The technologies We use may include:
- Cookies or Browser Cookies. A cookie is a small file placed on Your Device. You can instruct Your browser to refuse all Cookies or to indicate when a Cookie is being sent. However, if You do not accept Cookies, You may not be able to use some parts of our Service. Unless you have adjusted Your browser setting so that it will refuse Cookies, our Service may use Cookies.
- Web Beacons. Certain sections of our Service and our emails may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that permit the Company, for example, to count users who have visited those pages or opened an email and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of a certain section and verifying system and server integrity).
Detailed information on the processing of Your Usage Data

The Service Providers We use may have access to your usage data. These third-party vendors collect, store, use, process, and transfer information about your activity on our website in accordance with their own Privacy Policies.

Analytics

We may use third-party Service providers to monitor and analyze the use of our Service.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. Google uses the data collected to track and monitor the use of our Service. This data is shared with other Google services. Google may use the collected data to contextualize and personalize the ads of its own advertising network.

You can opt-out of having made your activity on the Service available to Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. The add-on prevents the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js, analytics.js and dc.js) from sharing information with Google Analytics about visits activity.

For more information on the privacy practices of Google, please visit the Google Privacy & Terms web page: policies.google.com/privacy

Email Marketing

We may use Your Personal Data to contact You with newsletters, marketing or promotional materials and other information that may be of interest to You. You may opt-out of receiving any, or all, of these communications from Us by following the unsubscribe link or instructions provided in any email We send or by contacting Us.

We may use Email Marketing Service Providers to manage and send emails to You.

Mailchimp

Mailchimp is an email marketing sending service provided by The Rocket Science Group LLC.

For more information on the privacy practices of Mailchimp, please visit their Privacy policy: mailchimp.com/legal/privacy

Usage, performance, and miscellaneous

We may use third-party Service Providers to provide better improvement of our Service.

Polylang

Their Privacy Policy can be viewed at polylang.pro/privacy-policy

Site Kit

Their Privacy Policy can be viewed at policies.google.com/terms

Your GDPR privacy rights

The Company undertakes to respect the confidentiality of Your Personal Data and to guarantee You can exercise Your rights.

You have the right under this Privacy Policy, and by law if You are within the EU, to:
- Request access to Your Personal Data. The right to access, update or delete the information We have on You. Whenever made possible, you can access, update or request deletion of Your Personal Data directly within Your account settings section. If you are unable to perform these actions yourself, please contact Us to assist You. This also enables You to receive a copy of the Personal Data We hold about You.
- Request correction of the Personal Data that We hold about You. You have the right to have any incomplete or inaccurate information We hold about You corrected.
- Object to processing of Your Personal Data. This right exists where We are relying on a legitimate interest as the legal basis for Our processing and there is something about Your particular situation, which makes You want to object to our processing of Your Personal Data on this ground. You also have the right to object where We are processing Your Personal Data for direct marketing purposes.
- Request erasure of Your Personal Data. You have the right to ask Us to delete or remove Personal Data when there is no good reason for Us to continue processing it.
- Request the transfer of Your Personal Data. We will provide to You, or to a third-party You have chosen, Your Personal Data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Please note that this right only applies to automated information which You initially provided consent for Us to use or where We used the information to perform a contract with You.
- Withdraw Your consent. You have the right to withdraw Your consent on using your Personal Data. If You withdraw Your consent, We may not be able to provide You with access to certain specific functionalities of the Service.
Your California privacy rights

The CCPA/CPRA provides California residents with specific rights regarding their personal information. If You are a resident of California, You have the following rights:
- The right to notice. You have the right to be notified which categories of Personal Data are being collected and the purposes for which the Personal Data is being used.
- The right to know/access. Under CCPA/CPRA, You have the right to request that We disclose information to You about Our collection, use, sale, disclosure for business purposes and share of personal information.
- The right to say no to the sale or sharing of Personal Data (opt-out). You have the right to direct Us to not sell Your personal information. To submit an opt-out request, please see the “Do Not Sell My Personal Information” section or contact Us.
- The right to correct Personal Data. You have the right to correct or rectify any inaccurate personal information about You that We collected. Once We receive and confirm Your request, We will use commercially reasonable efforts to correct (and direct our Service Providers to correct) Your personal information, unless an exception applies.
- The right to limit use and disclosure of sensitive Personal Data. You have the right to request to limit the use or disclosure of certain sensitive personal information We collected about You, unless an exception applies. To submit, please see the “Limit the Use or Disclosure of My Sensitive Personal Information” section or contact Us.
- The right to delete Personal Data. You have the right to request the deletion of Your Personal Data under certain circumstances, subject to certain exceptions. Once We receive and confirm Your request, We will delete (and direct Our Service Providers to delete) Your personal information from our records, unless an exception applies.
- The right not to be discriminated against. You have the right not to be discriminated against for exercising any of Your consumer’s rights, including by:
  - Denying goods or services to You
  - Charging different prices or rates for goods or services, including the use of discounts or other benefits or imposing penalties
  - Providing a different level or quality of goods or services to You
  - Suggesting that You will receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level or quality of goods or services
In order to exercise any of Your rights under the CCPA/CPRA, and if You are a California resident, You can contact Us by email using mckinres@mcmaster.ca.

Links to other websites

Our Service may contain links to other websites that are not operated by Us. If You click on a third-party link, You will be directed to that third party’s site. We strongly advise You to review the Privacy Policy of every site You visit.

We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third party sites or services.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We will let You know via email and/or a prominent notice on Our Service, prior to the change becoming effective, and we will update the “Last updated” date at the top of this Privacy Policy.

You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.

Contact us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, You can contact us by email using mckinres@mcmaster.ca.

Make Things Well

How can I build social connections after trauma?

Example of a social connections map

Understanding moral challenges

Types of potentially psychologically traumatic experiences

Examples of potentially psychologically traumatic experiences

Signs of moral injury

What can help?

Resources

Can you bring your whole self to work?

How do different cultures experience mental health?

Activities

Connect

Identify your hats

Writing prompt

Sleep

Nutrition

Movement

Activities

Progressive muscle relaxation

Practice sleep hygiene

Writing prompt

What is moral injury?

What’s considered a morally injurious event?

Perpetration

Betrayal

What are the symptoms of a moral injury?

Emotional changes

Cognitive changes

Behavioural changes

Activities

Create a responsibility pie chart

Connect with gratitude

Writing prompts

Trauma and social relationships

How does trauma affect your social relationships?

Tips for family and friends

Strategies for social relationships after experiencing trauma

Pace yourself

Identify your triggers

Ask for help

Write a letter

Layers of the brain

Survival brain

Emotional brain

Learning brain

Stress and the learning brain

Memory

Cognitive flexibility

Concentration

Decision making

Activities

Problem solving

S.T.O.P.

Writing prompts

The body’s stress response

The Window of Tolerance

Survival responses

Hyperarousal

Hypoarousal

Dissociation

Activities

Square breathing

Grounding 5-4-3-2-1

Body scan

Writing prompts

What is mood?

Trauma, posttraumatic stress injury, and emotions

PTSD and depression

Low mood and the brain

Thinking traps

Activities

Naming emotions

Increase motivation

“Scheduled” emotional release

Grounding

Self love

Writing prompts

Identify your emotions

Challenge negative thoughts