Trauma can be caused by anything intensely fearful, like witnessing or being involved in an accident, bullying or harassment at work or school, or being a victim of crime. If the fear stays with you and is not resolved, you can feel like you are stuck in a loop, returning constantly to the feelings of fear. I can work with you by providing a safe place to explore the fear and process it in a positive way.

I have worked with people who have survived physical, emotional and sexual abuse. I work gently to explore how this experience remains with you, so that you can process your feelings and continue a healthy survival. What happened is a part of your life experience and may be giving you symptoms of PTSD, like flashbacks, sleep disturbance, shame, panic, anxiety and feeling that you are a bad person. Gentleness is important so that you are not re-traumatised. I will always check with you when you are beginning to feel overwhelmed and it may be time to pull back to something safer for now.

I may advise you to do some physical therapy alongside the counselling. I like Van Der Kolk’s book, The Body Keeps the Score, which tells us how fearful experiences are stored physically and how exercise can help the mind and body to process the trauma.