ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how a traumatic experience brings about a survival response. It addresses how does traumatic stress arise in clients? The chapter also addresses what is meant by survival in case of trauma? It explains how can the trauma-work method contribute to reducing traumatic stress and restoring one's strength? Trauma relief focuses on taking first care of clients who have experienced an exceptional and striking event. Very often war situations cause transgenerational traumatization, that is long-term damage for second, third and further generations to come after those who have witnessed the terrors of war. The chapter also describes many loss-related defence mechanisms such as numbness, denial, searching, bargaining and dissociation. Dissociation is the most direct and practically automatic defence mechanism against the extremely threatening and overwhelming nature of a shocking loss experience. The trauma-work method may provide mental relief by normalizing and reconstructing as a social worker 'the normal reactions to traumatic incidents'.
