Trauma & PTSD
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can develop after experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event. Symptoms can include flashbacks, nightmares, feeling on edge, emotional numbness, and avoiding potential triggers.
When traumatic experiences happen repeatedly, especially in childhood, this is often described as Complex PTSD (C-PTSD). We are also increasingly aware that non-life-threatening experiences can still produce trauma symptoms. For example, ongoing emotional neglect, bullying, or discrimination.
What does trauma feel like?
Symptoms of trauma include:
- Flashbacks and nightmares
- Avoidance of triggering situations
- Constantly being on edge (hypervigilance)
- Difficulty trusting other people
- Difficulty concentrating or sleeping
- Emotional numbness
- Feeling detached from yourself (dissociation)
- Addictive behaviours such as drug and alcohol use
Many people who have experienced trauma can remember incidents as if they just happened, even though they may have taken place years or decades in the past. Trauma can have a wide-ranging impact, often making it harder to build and maintain relationships or feel emotionally close to others.
Big T and small t trauma
Historically, PTSD has been defined by experiencing life-threatening events. Being in a car crash or being sexually assaulted would be typical examples. These are what we now call "Big T" trauma events.
Today, we also recognise "small t" trauma: experiences that may not be life-threatening but can still have a lasting emotional impact, such as childhood neglect, verbal abuse, or feeling unseen and unsupported as a neurodivergent person.
Can trauma be treated?
Trauma is highly treatable. However, it takes longer to address than other psychological problems and generally requires long-term therapy. Because trauma affects the nervous system, therapy often needs to proceed gently and at your own pace.
Trauma can also impact our ability to trust other people. If you have experienced abuse or events that are difficult or impossible to talk about, it is completely understandable that you may not want to be fully open with your therapist. Your therapist will work carefully to help you feel safe, understood, and in control of the process.
Therapy can proceed in several ways. Clients looking for short-term relief may wish to focus on managing the symptoms of trauma. Although this does not address the underlying issue, it can make things feel more manageable and can be achieved in a shorter timeframe.
For clients looking to resolve the underlying trauma, the aim of therapy is to reprocess the difficult experiences. This might involve talking about what happened in carefully managed chunks, or using gradual exposure to thinking about the events so that we no longer avoid them.
How we treat trauma
All of our therapists work in a trauma-informed way and will work at a pace that is comfortable for you. We offer personalised therapy, so you will be able to choose whether you want to focus on symptom management, trauma reprocessing, or both.
If you choose to work with a psychotherapist, you will benefit from a combination of Relational Psychotherapy and trauma-informed Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to help you feel safe and understood, while giving you practical tools to heal.
For clients who would like to work with a psychologist, you will benefit from additional experience working with trauma, including integration of Sensorimotor and Emotion-Focused Therapy techniques.