Aggregated Traumatization: A Vicious Loop of Dysfunction and Dysregulation

September 28, 2025

Abstract
Aggregated traumatization can be understood as a vicious loop of dysfunction and dysregulation arising from multiple converging factors such as epigenetic predisposition, failed attachment, a traumatized social environment, and the chronic experience of various institutionalized traumatizing agents. This complex interplay destabilizes not only individuals but also their families and communities, perpetuating distress across interconnected systems. Drawing on the analogy of walking continuously on broken glass, aggregated traumatization illustrates how old wounds are never fully addressed before new ones occur, making these sources of pain difficult or even impossible to identify.

The presentation also examines numerous cases where intergenerational trauma compounds these layers of injury with unprocessed fear, conditioned responses, and epigenetic shifts passed from one generation to the next. Such transmission may predispose a child to interpret ordinary stressors as life-threatening, especially if their caregiver also suffers from unresolved trauma. Retraumatization further intensifies this cycle, whether the triggers were experienced personally or inherited.

Social and systemic inequities also exacerbate aggregated traumatization. Chronic exposure to discrimination, oppression, or poverty heightens psychological distress and constrains the resources available for recovery. Over time, self-regulation may feel so foreign that feelings of powerlessness, despair, or disconnection from life’s meaning develop. These patterns can contribute to what some authors term “Aggregated Traumatization Syndrome” (AGTS), wherein various clinical diagnoses mask a deeper, unified issue of pervasive dysregulation.
Clinically, recognizing aggregated traumatization is an important topic to devising interventions that address these intertwined factors, rather than focusing solely on discrete traumatic incidents or attributed only to the household. By adopting this broader lens, clinicians and community advocates can better appreciate the origins of entrenched symptoms and craft holistic strategies aimed at healing both individuals and the systems in which they live.

Potential to Distress: Yes

Target Audience

Intermediate

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of this session participants will be able to: 

  • Analyze how the different factors that contribute to the loop of aggregated traumatization
  • Eexplain how repeated exposures to traumatizing agents compound dysregulation and intensify symptoms over time, leading to a set of symptoms that differ from those listed under C-PTSD
  • Discuss the role of intergenerational trauma transmission—both learned and potentially epigenetic—in perpetuating unresolved fear and distress within families and communities 
  • Apply methods for identifying retraumatization triggers, illustrating how they reactivate old wounds and deepen existing dysfunction in individuals and groups
  • Plan interventions that address multiple levels of adversity (biological, familial, and systemic) to disrupt the chronic accumulation of traumatizing factors and foster healing
Course summary
Available credit: 
  • 1.50 APA
    The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
  • 1.50 ASWB ACE
    The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD), #1744, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 08/20/2024 – 08/20/2027. Social workers completing this course receive 1.50 continuing education credits.
  • 1.50 ISSTD Certificate Program
    This program is eligible for 1.50 credits in the ISSTD Certificate Program. No certificate of completion is generated for this type of credit.
Course opens: 
07/01/2025
Course expires: 
12/31/2050
Event starts: 
09/28/2025 - 12:00pm EDT
Event ends: 
09/28/2025 - 1:30pm EDT
Part of: 
Minding the Gaps: Listening for the Unspoken and Seeing the Unseen - Day Two
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Antonieta Contreras, LCSW-R
Antonieta Contreras, a former banker and business consultant, is a Gestalt-trained psychotherapist who graduated as a social worker from NYU in 2011. Following her experience in the Psyche ER of a city hospital and working with highly traumatized individuals in agencies, she pursued specialization in Trauma Studies from the Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapies (ICP) and Human Sexuality from NYU School of Medicine. In her New York City private practice, Antonieta integrates various trauma treatment modalities, holding certifications as a Board Certified Neurofeedback clinician and EMDR Approved Consultant. She is proficient in techniques such as AEDP, Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy & Integration, IFS, EFT, Imago, Brainspotting, hypnosis, among others which she integrates with the contemplative techniques she learned during her time in India and from Tibetan Buddhist traditions. Actively engaged in the field, Antonieta holds positions as a Board member and Treasurer of the New York Association of Trauma Therapists (NYCATT), and is a member of organizations including ISSTD, IRNA, and NYSSCSW. She has delivered presentations on trauma at clinics, hospitals, and agencies, and international conferences. Additionally, Antonieta has amassed a significant following of readers and followers for her articles and insights on trauma shared online. Besides her work as a clinician, she is a consultant, supervisor, and former faculty and co-director of the ICP Trauma Studies Program. She is the author of the award winning book Traumatization and Its Aftermath (Routledge, 2023). Currently, Antonieta is finalizing her forthcoming work, How Deep is the Wound.

Available Credit

  • 1.50 APA
    The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
  • 1.50 ASWB ACE
    The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD), #1744, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 08/20/2024 – 08/20/2027. Social workers completing this course receive 1.50 continuing education credits.
  • 1.50 ISSTD Certificate Program
    This program is eligible for 1.50 credits in the ISSTD Certificate Program. No certificate of completion is generated for this type of credit.
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