As an educational psychologist taking up a therapeutic role in schools following a traumatic event I have struggled to make sense of what happens. This paper is structured around three metaphors that are informed by psychoanalytic thinking, which work both at the individual level and the systemic level. These metaphors have helped me objectify the emotional reactions that tend to overwhelm a school's human resources at a time of trauma. There appears to be a distinctive difference between the reactions of those affected by murder and suicide compared to accidental death. The aims of this paper are twofold: to reflect on the meaning and implications of these metaphors at the whole school level by gaining insights from the psychoanalytic literature and from my own experience, and to explore the implications for educational psychology (EP) practice.