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Trauma PsychoTherapy

Trauma Therapy

Many people who come to trauma therapy have already worked incredibly hard to understand themselves. They may have seen several counsellors, psychotherapists or accessed NHS services. Whilst these experiences may have been helpful, many people are left feeling that the core wounding remains largely untouched.

You may understand why you feel the way you do, yet still find yourself experiencing anxiety, emotional overwhelm, shame, dissociation, relationship difficulties or a persistent sense of feeling stuck. This is because trauma is not simply something we think about. It is often held within the nervous system, body and patterns of relating to ourselves and others. There are many people also who do not understand why they feel how they do, and feel desperate to find out.

Understanding can be an important part of healing, but insight alone is not always enough to bring lasting change.

This is where trauma therapy can be different. Rather than working only with symptoms or helping you make sense of your experiences intellectually, trauma therapy aims to work with the deeper emotional and physiological impact of your experiences. Whether this involves Eye-Movement, Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) therapy, or trauma-informed psychotherapy, the goal is to process experiences safely, at a pace that your nervous system can tolerate. This allows you to live life freely, without being held back by the past.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to trauma therapy. Different people need different things at different stages of their journey. Part of our work together is understanding what feels right for you, what feels safe enough, and what approach best fits your difficulties, strengths and preferences.

Much of my work is informed by the three-phase model of trauma treatment:

Developing safety, stability and internal resources.
Processing traumatic experiences and unresolved wounds.
Integration and moving forward with greater freedom and choice. Cooperation of dissociated parts of self also fits into the phase.

In reality, this process is rarely linear. We often move between these phases as therapy unfolds. Particularly when working with complex trauma, attachment difficulties or dissociation, I believe it is important to move slowly enough that the work remains manageable rather than overwhelming.

In my experience, waiting for someone to become perfectly stabilized before beginning any trauma processing is not always realistic. Often, carefully paced processing in small, manageable chunks helps people become more stable, laying the foundations for deeper therapeutic work over time. However, the initial stabilization work is needed before starting processing.

Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) and Eye-Movement, Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy (EMDR).

EMDR and Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) are two trauma processing therapies that I integrate into my work where desired by the client.

EMDR is widely recognised as an effective treatment for PTSD and trauma, helping people process traumatic memories so they become less emotionally overwhelming and less intrusive in everyday life. Reprocessing experiences so they no longer repeat and symptoms dissipate.

Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) is a newer body-based trauma therapy that works with the brain’s and nervous system’s earliest orienting responses to shock, threat and attachment disruption. Many people find it particularly helpful when trauma feels difficult to reach through talking alone. Clearing trauma at the deep level often reaches core aloneness pain and shock underlying many presentations.

Both EMDR and DBR aim to clear the trauma and attachment wounding so there a no symptoms left to manage.

I don’t tend to think in terms of simply “doing EMDR” or “doing DBR”. Rather, I integrate these approaches into a broader psychotherapeutic process. This allows us to understand and process not only the traumatic events themselves, but also the attachment patterns, beliefs, protective strategies and relational experiences that have developed around them and gives deeper insight which is crucial to the healing process and minimizes blocking.

If you’re interested in learning more about these approaches, you can explore my dedicated pages on EMDR Therapy and Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR), where I explain each in more detail.

Symptoms of trauma typically fall into three main categories:

Intrusion

(When the past intrudes on the present): nightmares, emotional, physical and visual flashbacks, visualising/sensing aspects of past events in current situations.

Hypervigilance

(Being on high alert): changes in heart rate and breathing patterns, remaining fearful of future traumatic experiences, becoming easily agitated, startled or angry, sleeplessness, muscle tension-aches and pains.

Constriction

The numbing, blocking or avoiding of emotion. Detachment from mind and body.

People who have suffered trauma often experience emotional symptoms, such as:

Attention/Focus issues

Difficulties regulating emotion

Dissociative symptoms

Depression

Flashbacks and nightmares

Feeling hopeless

Anxiety

Addiction

Chronic Pain and Fatigue

Confusion

Shame and low self-worth

Working with Parts of Self

Many trauma-informed approaches recognise that we all have different parts of ourselves. Some parts may carry fear, shame, grief or vulnerability, whilst other parts have developed to protect us from those painful experiences.

Where appropriate, therapy may involve gently working with these different parts of yourself. My experience has been that trauma therapy is often more effective when we can understand and work with the whole internal system, rather than focusing only on reducing symptoms. This helps create greater cooperation between parts of yourself, allowing healing to emerge more naturally over time and reduction internal conflicts which can keep patterns going for years.

Trauma Therapy for PTSD, Complex PTSD and Dissociation

I work with people experiencing a wide range of trauma-related difficulties, including PTSD, Complex PTSD (CPTSD), BPD/EUPD, Dissociation, attachment trauma and the long-term effects of overwhelming life experiences.

Whilst many people understandably come to therapy hoping their symptoms will reduce, my aim is not simply to help you manage those symptoms more effectively. Wherever possible, I want to help address the underlying wounds that continue to give rise to them.

This work takes time. Trauma therapy is rarely a quick fix, particularly when difficulties have developed over many years. However, many people find that as deeper wounds begin to heal, life gradually becomes less about surviving and managing symptoms, and more about living with greater freedom, connection and choice.

More Known Causes of Trauma:

Lesser Known Causes of Trauma

*there are many other experiences that can add to these lists.

Is Trauma Therapy Right For Me?

People seek trauma therapy for many different reasons. You do not need to have experienced a single catastrophic event to benefit from trauma-focused work. Sometimes trauma develops following one overwhelming experience. At other times, it can arise through repeated experiences such as childhood neglect, emotional abuse, attachment difficulties or growing up in an environment where you never truly felt safe.

You might recognise some of the following:

You often feel on edge, anxious or unable to relax. Often carrying a lot of tension in the body.
You find yourself emotionally overwhelmed, or emotionally numb.
You struggle with shame, self-criticism or never feeling “good enough.”
You experience dissociation or feel disconnected from yourself or others.
Your personality or sense of self has divided into parts of self which are more or less autonomous and individualized and have a more or less sense of being “not me”.
You avoid certain memories, situations or emotions because they feel too overwhelming.
Relationships feel difficult, and you notice the same patterns repeating.
You feel stuck despite years of trying to understand yourself.
You find yourself surviving rather than really living.
Experiencing pain in the body or fatigued.

If any of this feels familiar, trauma therapy may provide an opportunity to understand your experiences more deeply, develop greater stability, and begin processing the underlying wounds that continue to affect your life today.

Every person’s story is different. Part of my role is to understand yours and work alongside you to find an approach that feels safe, collaborative and appropriate for where you are now.

Whilst trauma can have profound and lasting effects, it does not have to define the rest of your life. Many people find that as therapy progresses they begin to feel safer in themselves, less driven by old patterns, more emotionally connected and more able to respond to life in the present rather than from past experiences. Healing does not mean forgetting what happened or even forgiving. It means those experiences no longer have to control your life in the way they once did.

If you’re wondering whether trauma therapy is right for you, I offer a free 20-minute telephone consultation where we can discuss what you’re experiencing, answer any questions you may have, and think together about whether we’d be a good fit to work together.

Craig Coventry Counselling