Trauma, PTSD & C-PTSD
When past experiences continue to shape the way you feel and respond.
Trauma isn’t always a single dramatic event.
Sometimes it is - an accident, an assault, a sudden loss. It can also be more cumulative than that. It could be years of feeling unsafe, unseen or undermined. A childhood in which your emotional needs were consistently unmet. Relationships that eroded your sense of self slowly and quietly. Experiences that, at the time, you may not even have recognised as harmful.
What these experiences share is the impact they leave behind. Not just in memory, but in the body and the nervous system. In a heightened state of alert that doesn’t switch off, in responses that may feel out of proportion to what’s happening now, in a persistent sense that the world, or other people, or you yourself, cannot quite be trusted.
How trauma shows up
It might be flashbacks or intrusive thoughts. It might be numbness, disconnection, or a feeling of going through the motions without really being present. It might be the way certain situations, sounds or dynamics trigger a response that feels automatic and overwhelming, as though part of you is still living in a moment that has long since passed.
For many people with complex trauma or C-PTSD, the effects are less acute and more pervasive. A chronic sense of shame, difficulty regulating emotions, patterns of relating that feel impossible to shift, a deep exhaustion that rest doesn’t seem to touch.
Working with trauma
Trauma work requires care, and pace.
The aim isn’t to revisit painful experiences for the sake of it, but to help you process what happened and gradually develop a greater sense of safety in the present.
I work in a trauma-informed way throughout, drawing on approaches that work gently with the body and nervous system alongside talking, including Havening Techniques, EMR and IFS-informed Parts Work. We go at your pace, and you are always in control of what we explore and when.
Other specialisms
Anxiety & overwhelm
When you’re tired of holding everything together.
Patterns, relationships & self-worth
Perfectionism, people-pleasing and recurring patterns that can be difficult to shift.
Getting started
I offer a free 20-minute discovery call, with no obligation — a chance to ask any questions and get a sense of whether I might be the right fit for you.