HOMEPAGE > TRAUMA

TRAUMA

Briefly, trauma is an experience of being in a terrifying situation, in which you may have felt helpless and fearful and this may also involve threat to yourself or you witnessing someone else's life being threatened.  In this situation, your body works hard to help you cope physiologically, emotionally and psychologically, however how your body processes this complex experience will depend on a number factors.  The experience of trauma may be followed by development of highly unpleasant post traumatic symptoms which may persist days, months and years after the incident and it may include unpleasant thoughts or feelings and in particular fear, shame and guilt, nightmares, anger and illusions of being in the moment again and dissociations, in which sometimes you may feel as though time has stopped and everything seems to be a dream or surreal. 

Examples of trauma:

• Child sexual abuse
• Crashes
• Natural disasters
• Domestic violence
• Bullying
• War trauma

The good news is that you don't have to bear these unpleasant dark memories on your own because these symptoms can be addressed and controlled through counselling or psychotherapy and you can gain your sense of control again.  

Although I do appreciate that some clients may not be ready for psychotherapy as they protect themselves by pushing away the thoughts and images relating to trauma, I would like to point out that I had positive psychotherapy outcomes with a particular client group.  I noticed that those clients who were courageous and openly faced the traumatic memories, were able to address, resolve and recover from some of the unpleasant symptoms and regain the self-control again.  If you would like to book an appointment please email me, Leona, at: lsears@westminsterpsychotherapy.co.uk or text/call Leona on 07 505 124 933.  Confidentiality guaranteed and no personal data is kept electronically.