Trauma
What is trauma?
Trauma can take many forms and can happen to anyone, so I take a trauma informed, phased approach with most clients. Traumatic events from childhood may seem minor but their impact can be stored and reveal itself in many ways. More serious traumatic events may have been put aside and not fully processed. I collaborate with you to go at a safe pace that works for you.
Symptoms of trauma include anxiety, depression, low self esteem, shame, anger, self-blame, isolation, self harm, hypervigilance and relationship difficulties. You may have a diagnosis of PTSD and the impact of trauma is often associated with physical issues, such as fibromyalgia. I can work with you to relieve the symptoms of trauma and rebuild a new version of you who is no longer defined by what happened to you.
It is natural to fear that seeking counselling for a particular trauma may make it worse as you want to put it behind you, not talk about it. However, the work done in counselling is more focused on helping you to understand how past events still impact you now and learning how to cope with and reduce symptoms. It is not necessary for you to remember or disclose what happened to you and I will never make you talk about anything you don’t want to.
Working with trauma is often about understanding your personal survival mechanisms. Our survival responses, such as fight, flight, freeze and flop, are controlled by quite primitive automatic reactions. They can be triggered in situations where you are actually quite safe and sometimes they don’t turn off as they should.
Fight or flight can feel like anxiety, restlessness or physical symptoms of tension as our body keeps releasing chemicals to prepare us for fight or flight. Freeze or flop can feel like depression, numbness or exhaustion as our body tries to shut down and hide from a perceived threat. We may sometimes fawn or friend to deal with the threat and this can be expressed as people pleasing and prioritising other people over yourself.
In counselling, we can use your conscious thoughts and behavioural choices to relieve the unwelcome symptoms of this natural response to threat. I will help you to understand your individual response and find ways that help you to relieve the symptoms. The survival system is vital for keeping you safe when actually threatened but it can need help to switch it off when there is no present threat.
