What is trauma dumping, the toxic equivalent of oversharing?

It’s common for good friends to tell each other about pretty much everything going on in their lives. Within healthy friendships, it’s a way of bonding and supporting one another, especially when one of the friends is struggling. But sometimes this goes drastically overboard, and someone shares something really personal and traumatic without prior warning or getting permission. That kind of unsolicited oversharing has been labelled trauma dumping. Bear in mind trauma dumping is not a clinical term. It caught on online, after a woman, apparently a therapist, posted a video on Tiktok deriding one of her patients. She used the caption “When a client wants to trauma dump first session”.

Wait a minute, aren’t therapists supposed to be there to listen to your problems? What are the negative consequences of trauma dumping? What’s the best way to deal with trauma dumping? ⁠In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions !⁠

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A podcast written and realised by Joseph Chance.

First Broadcast: 4/8/2022

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