Glossary of Terms

A state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It occurs when you feel overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and unable to meet constant demands.

A pattern of controlling behaviors that create an unequal power dynamic in a relationship. These behaviors give the perpetrator power over their partner, making it difficult for them to leave. It can include financial abuse, isolation, and psychological manipulation.

The legal and ethical obligation of an organization to ensure the safety, well-being, and health of their employees. This includes protecting them from both physical hazards and psychosocial risks.

A specific type of manipulation where the manipulator is trying to get someone else (or a group of people) to question their own reality, memory or perceptions. It is often used in coercive control dynamics.

The interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.

A shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking. In psychologically safe teams, team members feel accepted and respected, and feel they can speak up without fear of negative consequences.

Factors in the design or management of work that increase the risk of work-related stress and can lead to psychological or physical harm. Examples include high workloads, tight deadlines, lack of control, and poor workplace relationships.

A term used to describe the interconnected, aggregate patterns of risk within an organization. Rather than looking at isolated incidents, a risk constellation analyzes how multiple factors (e.g., poor leadership, high workload, low autonomy) combine to create systemic danger.

An approach to service delivery that is directed by a thorough understanding of the profound neurological, biological, psychological, and social effects trauma has on an individual. It emphasizes physical, psychological, and emotional safety.

The emotional residue of exposure that counselors, medical professionals, or HR personnel have from working with people as they are hearing their trauma stories and become witnesses to the pain, fear, and terror that trauma survivors have endured.