Trauma therapy

Living with the experience of trauma can be deeply isolating, impacting every aspect of your life. Trauma-informed care focuses on understanding how trauma affects the brain, body, and our relationships. It's about building a therapeutic process that accounts for this from the ground up, aiming to re-establish a sense of safety and bodily coherence by helping you learn to regulate your nervous system.

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My approach to trauma treatment is built on several evidence-based methods, grounded in research and clinically proven practice. I use a combination of:

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• Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT): This structured and well-proven method helps you process traumatic memories and develop new coping strategies. We'll work to gradually approach and restructure thoughts and feelings connected to the trauma, and manage anxiety and avoidance behaviors. TF-CBT is especially effective in reducing symptoms of PTSD.

• Narrative Therapy: Traumatic experiences can fragment our story of ourselves and the world. Narrative therapy helps you reclaim your own narrative, give voice to what has happened, and find new ways to understand and integrate your experiences. The focus is on strengthening your identity beyond the trauma and highlighting your inherent resilience. It's about rewriting the past in a way that gives you more control over your future.

• Janina Fisher's Trauma Treatment Model (Trauma-Informed Stabilization Treatment): This model is particularly helpful for understanding and working with complex trauma and dissociative states. Fisher's approach focuses on stabilizing and integrating different parts of the self that may have fragmented due to trauma. By understanding how our various "self-states" act and react, we can work towards greater inner coherence and calm. The method emphasizes building resources and skills for affect regulation before processing traumatic memories.

 

When is Trauma Therapy a suitable intervention?

 

This type of treatment is particularly appropriate if you're experiencing:

• Symptoms of PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), such as intrusive memories, nightmares, avoidance, negative shifts in thoughts and mood, or hyperarousal.

• The effects of complex trauma (C-PTSD), often resulting from prolonged or repeated exposure to trauma, especially during childhood.

• Dissociative symptoms, like feelings of unreality or being "detached" from yourself or your surroundings.

• Difficulties with affect regulation (managing strong emotions like anger, shame, or fear).

• A feeling of being "stuck" in the past, where traumatic events control your life in the present.

• Problems with trust and relationships due to past trauma.

• A need to understand and process memories of difficult or frightening events in a safe and controlled way.