Healing from the Past & Trauma Recovery
What is trauma?
Trauma is a hot topic and buzzword right now. A lot of people are realising that they may have been traumatised by early life experiences, relational wounds that are intergenerational and/or present throughout their family system, or events have occurred that have been challenging to deal with.
There is a lot of good information available on what trauma is, how it may be presenting across different populations, and how to heal after being traumatised. However, there is also misinformation and confusing information regarding trauma and it’s treatment.
I like to let people to know that trauma is not just a set of symptoms that need to be ‘fixed’, but that trauma is the consequence of our system’s way of protecting ourselves against experiences that are overwhelming. As humans with sensitivities and needs, we are only able to tolerate a certain amount of distress in singular moments or over stretches of time.
When our capacity to experience something is overwhelmed; our system protects itself in a number of ways. For example, by developing resistances to experiencing it again, shutting down completely, or forgetting the experience. What initially protects us becomes the symptoms that people report.
Hence, trauma is a way of naming the experience of no experience, disconnect, being haunted by the past, and/or being terrified of the future in which our system is still trying to protect us, even against threats that may not be there.
We are highly resilient organisms, capable of surviving the most challenging experiences. What is often harder for people having gone through traumatic experiences is learning how to live in the aftermath. How to trust again, reconnect with our authentic self, be grounded in the body when alarm signals are going off all the time that we don’t feel safe in the world?
Often there is a lot of shame that accompanies trauma, depending on the nature and degree of the traumatic experience. I can appreciate the difficulty in opening up to a therapist about such things. Especially when working through the healing process can feel harder than leaving it alone. It is only worthwhile if there is a light at the end of the tunnel; hope that the future can be different to living in disconnection and suffering.
How to work with trauma?
The good news is that trauma is much more well understood than previous generations had access to. While there are many evidence-based ways of working with trauma, the success of any treatment will depend on a strong therapeutic relationship. Part of the healing process of trauma is having it be seen, heard, and tended to with compassion and safety. This is also why it is difficult to heal in isolation; the person who has gone through traumatic experiences often needs to go through the process of opening up about their experiences without being retraumatised.
As someone who has a lot of experience working with traumatised populations and has also grown up around traumatised individuals, I have a deep appreciation and compassion that lends to providing a nuanced and collaborative approach to each person’s unique experience of trauma, rather than a cookie-cutter approach that applies to all clients.
I will want to have an understanding of your experiences but won’t press you to talk about anything that you are not ready to or don’t want to share, I will discuss how I think it would be best to approach the work in a way that you have asay of what you are also comfortable with, and I take the time to make sure that we are pacing the sessions and what we talk about in a way that doesn’t retraumatise.
For example, sometimes it may feel like the best approach is to try to rush the healing process and get rid of the symptoms that are causing distress when what is needed is to pace the sessions in a way that invites a new quality of self experience; slowing down and paying attention differently to what is being experienced.
What this means is that we don’t have to spend too much time going over experiences you may have already tried talking about at length with no resolution, but that new capacities and forms of experiencing, including through the body and felt-experience, are developed through the way that we engage in our sessions. You are of course, also welcome to talk about experiences that require going over to increase awareness and understanding.
The key is finding ways that work for you based on your unique personality and experiences, which will be something that I discuss with you early on. I will always invite you to question and clarify aspects of the therapy that you would like to understand better, and be open and honest with you if I have any reservations about my ability to help you with the issues you bring.
What techniques and approaches do I offer you?
There are many approaches based on what is needed for all sorts of presentations of trauma. I am an integrative therapist who is completing a Masters in the Conversational Model at the University of Sydney. This is a trauma-informed model that works in a relational way that is highly accessible to traumatised people and populations.
The essence of how this model applies to each client is based in utilising the therapeutic relationship as a springboard for fostering relational capacities the client is closed off from due to traumatic experience. This is an evidence based model that is effective for many presentations, but is specifically utilised in the context of trauma based on a deep understanding of the mechanisms of how the traumatic experience has affected the person and therefore how to provide the conditions for healing.
It is important that you know that while I have lived experience in this area and have studied and worked with people for years on these things, that does not make me an expert on you. It does give me the tools to develop an understanding of what is happening for you, but your participation in the therapy is the main ingredient that leads to the possibility of positive change. You are at the center of the therapy, and I am not the authority on your experience. Though I am able to help you through helping you access the parts of yourself and your experience that are difficult to access - your own wisdom and ability to heal that requires the right conditions to thrive, and not just survive.
Who It’s For:
Those who have experienced emotional, physical, or relational trauma
Individuals struggling with trust, safety, or emotional regulation
People who feel "stuck" in patterns shaped by past experiences
What to Expect:
A safe, supportive space to explore your past at your own pace
Tools for emotional regulation, trauma processing, and self-compassion
An approach tailored to your unique experiences and needs