Imagine if you could have trauma therapy that didn't involve just talking about your traumatic experiences.

I work to help you to process and cope with the impacts of your experiences.

This encompasses cognition, emotions and – crucially – the body.

Here’s an outline of how I work at each level:

Cognitive level

Using cognition to make sense of trauma responses and why they occur, is a powerful way of normalising them and separating them from your personality.

You might have many problems that you don't realise are linked to your experience. With complex trauma in particular, these can go far beyond flashbacks.

I use psychoeducation to help develop awareness and understanding of how you might respond to trauma in different ways.

Emotional level

Experiencing trauma increases the need to feel safe and I promote this by providing tools to help you stay in control your emotions, so that you’re able to process trauma while staying in the present.

Once emotions become more tolerable, it becomes possible to work at processing them. In cases of post traumatic stress, flashbacks are often experienced. These represent unprocessed emotions and memories.

E.g. In childhood trauma there’s a significant attachment wound, which can impact on adult relationships.  To move forwards, it’s necessary to go backwards and process some of the experiences and emotions around this.

I use different ways of working including using creative methods to help access and work through emotions, memories, and experiences.

Somatic level

The mind and body are very connected. And trauma responses are felt physically (as well as emotionally) because of nervous system dysregulation. E.g. when you feel unsafe, you might feel your heart racing or feel sick to your stomach.

This can lead to you feeling 'out of control'. Does this resonate?

To help you develop awareness of this connection I work to help you regulate your nervous system and traumatic responses.

For instance, I help you to notice the connection by drawing your attention to what might be happening physically and how you might know this e.g. what is happening physically? And where do you feel it?

We can then use different tools including breathing and moving in the session. You won’t be on your own I’ll practice them with you!

In processing trauma, safe connection with others can help with regulation. The safe and compassionate therapeutic relationship I offer, can provide a different experience of relationships.

So, what did you learn? Hopefully that my approach to trauma work encompasses cognition, emotions and physical experience 😊.  Not all therapists would work in this holistic way. But it's crucial because trauma affects all three of these aspects.

To read more about how I work with trauma, check out my other blogs:

How connecting to our bodies can help to resolve anxiety

How movement helps to release trauma from the body

I hope that you found this content helpful. If you feel ready to take the next step and would like to work on healing by engaging mind, body, and emotions please visit my website to check out my services or book a call with me below.