How to Work with Experiences of Trauma

Trauma is an experience that is emotionally painful, distressful, or shocking, and which may result in lasting mental and physical effects.

Trauma occurs when an event is so stressful that we cannot manage the sensations, feelings and responses in any of the normal ways. When this happens, we are left with unresolved fear, pain, anxiety and disturbance. The word “trauma” comes from Latin, meaning “wound.”

Trauma may occur though direct experience or through second-hand experiences such as observing an accident or hearing accounts of violence. It is essentially a normal response to an extreme event that

• Overwhelms your ability to use normal coping mechanisms to adapt to a situation

•     Disrupts your frame of reference (beliefs about yourself and the world)

•     Can make it hard to connect to your emotions and your body sensations.

In his recent documentary :The wisdom of Trauma. Dr Gabor Maté speaks about how trauma often gets stored in the body in a maladaptive way when we are not able to speak about the scary, terrifying event that occurred when it happened to us. Therefore leaving it encapsulated in our mind and body.

Over time, these unresolved responses show up as generalised anxiety, sleep disorders, irrational fears and phobias, physical symptoms, depression, and relationship problems.

Soul Centred Psychotherapy works to develop a more conscious, manageable and creative relationship with your internal processes. This can enable you to reconnect to your sensations, emotions, behaviour and meaning. Using the Energy psychology techniques (Tapping, Bi lateral Eye Movement Stimulation Processing, Relaxation and Mindfulness ) in session as part of the trauma protocol we can assist and help alleviate suffering from Traumatic events and experiences.

In Soul Centred psychotherapy, we are alert to trauma as a common variable in the human experience. This may involve developmental trauma around early experiences of abandonment or parental neglect, or parental violence or abuse, or illness and accidents in childhood. It can also involve adult life experiences that are overwhelming and disrupting, such as accidents, illness and medical treatment, loss of a loved one, abusive relationships or work environments.