Trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Trauma, PTSD and complex PTSD can be debilitating and cause significant stress and anxiety with crippling impacts on your thoughts, emotions, memories and body. Trauma counselling works to understand how past experiences affect us now. People may notice a sense of helplessness, avoidance or dreaded sensations triggered by events of the past – sometimes known, sometimes less obvious. Trauma may be mistakenly considered as a ‘big’ or ‘specific event’ however research and clinical studies have improved to understand the complexities. Trauma may be compounding with emotional trauma difficult to navigate.
You can learn helpful strategies to regulate your nervous system by working through a combination of conversation for processing your complex emotions, alongside somatic therapies such as EFT Emotional Freedom Techniques and energy psychology. These are highly effective and easy to learn so you can adapt these skills into your everyday life to manage your responses and physical sensations. Talking helps to clarify and somatic therapy helps to shift the trauma out.
Trauma responses may include:
- Feeling emotionally or physically triggered by particular events, people, places
- Triggered by sounds or smells that remind you of distressing situations
- Unwanted thoughts and reminders of a crisis event
- Dread or fear of future events, often causing avoidance or supression
- Sensations of overwhelm and not feeling in control
- Feeling a nervous, knot in your stomach
- Racing mind, brain fog and poor decision making
- Heart palpitations, rapid heartbeat
- Tightness or discomfort in chest or throat
- Headache, muscle aches and pains
- Sweating, clamming up, shaking
- Nausea and vomiting
- Irritability, snappy and highly emotional responses
It may seem easier to push down or avoid thinking about past trauma, understandably because it’s unpleasant and can feel uncontrollable. However ultimately the underlying issues still remain and impact your mental and physical health. This could also involve attempts to control unwanted feelings by numbing with substances or harmful behaviours.
There is hope and advanced evidence-based techniques that work to alleviate symptoms incredibly effectively. A sensitive therapeutic approach is prioritised through a trauma informed lens with specialist experience supporting victim/survivors of all forms of abuse, traumatic events and complex trauma that has interrupted your nervous system.
Trauma recovery is individualised to your needs at your own pace and you will always remain in control.
