Trauma-Informed
Taking a trauma-informed approach in therapy means that we recognise, understand and work towards healing the influence of trauma in your life.
Trauma results from an event or series of events which were experienced as overwhelming, harmful and/or life threatening. Trauma-focused therapists are increasingly working with a broader definition of trauma, whereby trauma can arise from:
- Too much – a person experiences ‘too much’ at any one time and/or for their developmental stage, which overwhelms the brain and body.
- Too little – a person experiences ‘too little’ safety, protection, comfort and support in their relationships and/or in response to overwhelming experiences.
- Too much too soon – a person experiences ‘too much too soon’ when they are exposed to experiences which are inappropriate and/or overwhelming for their developmental stage.
Often, people will experience a combination of ‘too much’, ‘too little’ and ‘too much too soon’ which contributes to their experience of trauma. These experiences have a profound effect on our brains, bodies, sense of self, relationships and place in the world.
We can work therapeutically with both formal diagnostic descriptions of trauma (for example, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or Complex PTSD (CPTSD) as well as your lived experience of trauma, without a formal diagnostic label. Regardless of whether you have received a formal diagnostic label relating to trauma, my approach is to understand ‘what has happened to you’, rather than ‘what is wrong with you’ and work towards healing in a safe, relational way.
