Trauma
I am passionate and highly trained in supporting people who have experienced trauma. I have a background working in complex needs services, within the NHS. This involved supporting people who have experienced highly distressing events, or repeated childhood trauma and trauma throughout their lives.
Understanding Trauma
Most humans will have experienced trauma at some point in their lives. Trauma is not defined by a particular event, but by how we make sense of an experience, and how it impacts us. Trauma often arises from situations that feel overwhelming, unsafe, or disempowering — and can leave lasting effects on our sense of self, relationships, and our view of the world. These experiences might be obvious and acute (such as violence, abuse, accidents, or loss), or more chronic or accumulative (such as emotional neglect, unmet needs in childhood, stress, bullying, or experiencing an invalidating environment).
Trauma can shape how we respond to the world. We might find ourselves feeling constantly on edge or hypervigilant, shut down or numb, struggling to trust others or build satisfying relationships, avoiding people/places/situations, or caught in patterns of anxiety, shame or self-criticism. Sometimes we also 'relive' past traumatic experiences, including experiencing flasbacks (such as unwanted and intrusive images or sensory experiences), nightmares, or feeling as if we are back in the moment when we experienced the trauma. Trauma can also affect our bodies – through tension, pain, fatigue, sleep difficulties, or feeling disconnected from ourselves physically.
How I Can Help With Trauma
I use a trauma-informed approach, which means that I recognise how past experiences shape the present and help us to understand why you are currently struggling. Rather than asking, “What’s wrong with you?”, I prefer to explore together, “What’s happened to you?”. This will give us both a deeper understanding of your life and how things have come to be as they are, which will guide the plan we develop together, to support you.
Being trauma-informed means I work collaboratively with you to:
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Move at your pace, with no pressure to share anything before you're ready - empowering you to tell your story and make changes in your life
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Build trust by being clear and transparent in my communication
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Prioritise creating a space that feels emotionally and physically safe, grounding, supportive and non-judgemental
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Jointly make sense of the things you have experienced
I draw on a range of evidence-based approaches - including EMDR, CBT, DBT and schema therapy - and adapt my way of working to suit your needs and preferences. Some people prefer a more open, exploratory space; others prefer something structured and focused. We’ll work together to find what feels most helpful.
We usually start with developing skills to cope with distress and the impact of traumatic experiences in the here-and-now. We then move on to process what has happened to you, so that you can make sense of it, and store the memory away in a more coherent, less disturbing way. This will help you to live a life that feels more meaningful and enable you to do the things you care about, that the trauma has possibly prevented you from doing.
I am very used to speaking to people who have experienced a whole range of different types of trauma - from single incidents to repeated trauma. I really appreciate that it can be very daunting to ask for help. I am highly trained to put you at ease and would love to hear from you. Please do reach out if you have any questions or think I may be able to help you.
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