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 everyday lives.

This can takes its toll and may result in feeling mentally and/or physically tired, you may experience flashbacks or PTSD, or feel you can never really relax. Perhaps you find yourself overthinking, worrying or catastrophising, and feeling constantly tense. It may be difficult to trust others and ourselves. You may also believe that even if your present situation is difficult, that therapy will make it worse and involve talking about things you would rather not talk about, or that it will make the symptoms worse.

If you have experienced a traumatic event or events, or experienced other trauma such as abandonment, childhood neglect or violence, or domestic abuse, it is important to know that coming for therapy does not mean that the therapy will be focused on those traumatic event or events but rather, the emphasis will be on treating the effects of the trauma in your life right now.

Working with a therapist who has specialist training in working with trauma helps you make sense of what is going on right now and will also provide you with tools that you can utilise to initially manage your current symptom and interrupting old patterns, and then to clearing a pathway and finding your way back to yourself and the person you are beyond the trauma.  

I have 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 or to book an initial consultation, get in touch.

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Sensorimotor Psychotherapy

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Sensorimotor Psychotherapy is an approach that is used to work with trauma and can be particularly helpful when traditional ‘talk therapy’ has not helped to resolve issues. It is a cognitive and dynamic therapy that combines somatic awareness, attachment theory, cognitive and neuroscience.

What can Sensorimotor Psychotherapy help with?

Sensorimotor Psychotherapy can help with trauma and attachment-related issues such as:

• Anxiety
• Having difficulty concentrating due to fear, upsetting thoughts, or unwelcomed physical sensations.
• Post-traumatic stress: abuse, attack, accidents, flashbacks, nightmares.
• Difficulty enjoying life, feeling hopeful, and experiencing pleasure.
• Relationship related wounds: neglect, harsh parenting during childhood, divorce, child-parent separations.
• Persistent and regular negative thoughts about one’s ability to achieve, be successful and deserving.
• Difficulty maintaining a job, a family, friendships and other relationships.
• Feeling detached from one’s self and the world.

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EMDR therapy

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EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) is a proven method and 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).

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.

What can EMDR therapy help with?

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), EMDR is also beneficial in treating other issues such as depression, anxiety and emotional abuse.