From Pain To Purpose: 5 Ways To Cope In The Wake Of Trauma

"Could it happen here? It's a question a lot of people ask in the wake of a traumatic event."

"Even if you're not directly connected to the events in El Paso, Gilroy or Dayton, chances are you've felt the weight of them."

"'People do feel traumatized,' says family therapist Jonathan Vickburg, of Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles. The idea that an act of violence could happen anywhere makes us anxious. People may think twice about attending a music festival or walking into a WalMart."

"But, there are strategies to counter the fear — and move forward."

"Rian Finney, 16, knows the feeling of vulnerability all too well. He's never witnessed a mass shooting, but he's grown up surrounded by violence."

"As a young kid in west Baltimore, he'd fall asleep to the sound of fireworks — or at least that's what he thought. Then, one day his parents told him he was hearing gunshots."

"It was just shock, that those [shootings were] happening right outside my house," Finney says. Living amid violence began to take its toll, especially in moments when he felt threatened. "I just felt this sense of, like, fear and anxiety going through my entire body," he says.