Trauma Worksheets

Trauma refers to any negative event in a child’s life that threatens them physically, mentally, and emotionally. The event doesn’t have to be experienced by the child himself, but rather it can be something they have witnessed, such as parents fighting or violent crime in the community. Other examples of trauma that kids and teens can be exposed to include bullying, losing a loved one, physical or sexual abuse, and complex trauma (which results from multiple and severe traumatic events).

Victims of childhood trauma may develop self-esteem issues, anger issues, a lack of trust in others, and cognitive distortions, among others. The more severe and chronic the trauma, the greater its negative effects on a child or teen. No matter the trauma, help is always available for recovery and healing.

How Can Our Trauma Worksheets Help

Our trauma worksheets help children and teens throughout their course of trauma recovery. From encouraging them to describe their experience and thoughts to teaching them grounding techniques and self-care strategies, these worksheets will reduce their arousal and achieve a sense of normalcy after the trauma.

How to Use Our Trauma Worksheets

Our trauma worksheets and handouts can benefit individuals in the following ways:

• Many of our trauma worksheets are fillable PDF files. This means they can be clicked and typed into directly on a device. This is convenient for distance learning and telehealth services.
• Our trauma worksheets can be used to highlight, or illustrate a specific mental health topic in the therapy room or classroom as part of a therapeutic lesson.
• They provide visual and written engagement to support different modalities of learning, which can enhance traditional talk or play therapy.
• They can be provided as homework to encourage individuals to be thoughtful about the lessons taught in the therapy room, practice the skills taught in the therapy room without the therapist’s support, use the handouts as engaging visual aids to post at home, and reference when they need a reminder to support their mental health, and review with parents, which allows parents and other caregivers an opportunity to support their children in using the skills they are learning.
• When individuals return to the therapy room, the worksheets can be referenced multiple times throughout treatment to support long-term learning.