“The past affects the present even without our being aware of it.”
Francine Shapiro
Working with trauma in therapy
What is trauma?
The word trauma comes from the Greek word meaning ‘wound’ and when left untreated, traumatic events and early trauma can have a huge impact on our day-to-day life.
We may experience frequent anxiety, avoid situations which we think may lead to conflict (but which also mean we never feel we have a voice or are allowed to say ‘no’), we may struggle in relationships or feel generally unsafe in the world.
We may have come to believe that we are ‘too much’ or that we are ‘too sensitive’. We worry what others think of us and on top of this, we criticise ourselves (and maybe others as well) and tell ourselves we should just ‘get on with it’, which leads to us hiding how we are feeling for fear of ‘burdening’ others.
This takes its toll on us and can result in us feeling mentally and/or physically tired where everything feels like an effort. Our levels of vitality and ability to enjoy – or maybe manage – life suffer and we feel stuck and unable to change, which then only reinforces our beliefs.
Therapy for trauma
Therapy for trauma is not focused on a traumatic event or events but focuses on treating the effects of the trauma in your life right now.
Working with a therapist who has specialist training in working with trauma gives us the combination of understanding and the right tools to interrupt old patterns and clear a pathway leading us toward a more meaningful and rewarding life.
I am trained in a variety of techniques specifically focused on working with trauma, including EMDR and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy. For more information about my approach to working with trauma, contact me to find out more.
EMDR therapy
What is EMDR?
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) has proven to be an effective treatment for PTSD and other trauma. EMDR is an evidence-based approach and is recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). EMDR is a therapy that is used to help people recover from distressing events and the problems arising from those events such as flashbacks, upsetting thoughts or images, depression or anxiety. Although EMDR was initially developed to treat Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) but EMDR can, and is increasingly used, to treat other issues such as depression, anxiety, emotional abuse.
How does EMDR work?
When a distressing or traumatic event occurs, we may feel overwhelmed and in turn, our brains are unable to fully process what is happening. When this happens the memory of the event can becomes ‘stuck’ in the brain and we then re-experience the event in full force whenever the memory comes to mind. EMDR aims to ‘unstick’ the memory so that is can be reprocessed so that it is no longer experienced in the same way.