I will not attempt to define all of trauma in this blurb because it is my belief that trauma can not be fully identified through language alone. Trauma as we understand it in the context of therapy are those events that cause unusual psychological and/or physical harm. What is traumatic to one individual may not be to another individual, that means that trauma is relative. This understanding of trauma is why I categorize it with life changes or life transitions, because traumas both big and small create trauma responses, which are the actual pieces of the puzzle we work with in therapy. While we can not change the traumatic or unexpected things that happen to us in life we can choose how we respond.
When dealing with change, whether it is a sudden change or a gradual change, the important thing to remember is that the situation is an interaction between ourselves and our environment. Neither our environment nor our selves in any given situation is isolated. In treating responses to trauma or life transitions we begin with laying out context. How the environment and others in the environment are interacting with you, and then how you are in turn interacting with it/them. Working step by step to flesh out and better understand and accept what "is" and how it could be different allows us to approach change. Discomfort is an unavoidable part of change, and by working together to embrace that discomfort, and analyze it we can come together to improve our relationship with trauma and difficulty.