Trauma Counselling 

What is Trauma?

A traumatic experience is any experience that leads to symptoms of trauma. These symptoms are caused by what happens in the brain and body when we are under intense stress, and how that affects our memories. Traumatic experiences also challenge our worldview – they teach us something about the world, other people, or ourselves that is hard to accept and difficult to come to terms with.

Traumatic experiences are not limited to the “obvious” ones, like a hijacking or witnessing a murder. Any experience that is overwhelming and leaves us struggling to come to terms with it can be traumatic. 

Traumatic memories are different from non-traumatic, autobiographical memories. When a memory has been fully processed, we can remember how we felt and what we experienced without feeling the same feelings and experiencing the same sensations over and over. Traumatic memories are not fully processed, so when we are reminded of them, we are triggered into feeling the same feelings and sensations we had at the time (flashbacks).

We also find our attention drawn to the traumatic events, making it impossible to “let go”, even while we desperately want to. Trauma leaves us stuck in the past.

Research has shown that neurdivergent people are more likely to suffer from traumatic events, and more likely to suffer from trauma symptoms after events not commonly associated with trauma, than their neurotypical peers. Other factors that can make a person more susceptible to trauma are: 

  • Current life stress and/or a recent loss.
  • History of unrelated trauma or experiencing a similar event before.
  • Lack of social support.
  • Lack of healthy coping skills. 

How Do We Address Trauma?

I use targeted trauma processing techniques (TIR and Unblocking) that enable you to process a traumatic memory into an autobiographical one. While the memory will never be pleasant, fully processing it will allow you to get to a point where it doesn’t claim your attention and you can remember it without getting triggered. Any physical symptoms caused by psychological trauma will also be relieved.

People often report feeling much lighter, feeling like themselves again, and being able to do and enjoy things they have not been able to since before the experience.

Single-Incident vs Long-Term Trauma

Traumatic experiences fall into two broad categories - Individual traumatic events (like a car accident, assault, ICU stay, or being betrayed) and long-term, repeated trauma (such as abuse).

Individual Traumatic Incidents
If you would like to process a specific traumatic experience, this can be addressed in approximately 3 – 6 sessions that focus only on the events and their impact. We do not need to delve into your childhood or other life circumstances. The techniques I use give you the space to work through what happened and to come to your own conclusions, in line with your own world view and values.

Long term trauma
If you have suffered long-term trauma, the process takes a bit longer. We may use a variety of approaches to increase your resilience and improve your emotional regulation skills to help you get to a point where you can work through the trauma. We will go at whatever pace you need, and I will never push you to talk about anything you are not ready to discuss.

Some of the modalities we might use:

  • Internal Family Systems and Parts work
  • Transactional Analysis
  • Applied Metapsychology
  • Body-based techniques for regulating the nervous system