What I do
I assist to people to address a range of life challenges including PTSD, trauma, stress, anxiety, depression, loneliness, grief, loss, overwhelm, burn-out, addiction, and other mental health concerns.
Together, in an atmosphere of compassion and warmth, a safe environment is created, so you can share your what’s on your mind, look at the challenges in your life, and find new ways to make sense of difficult situations. I use a range of trauma-informed approaches sensitive to the needs of your nervous system that help you understand why you feel, think and act in ways which are distressing and affect your life. It’s important to recognise the conscious and unconscious dynamics that run your life and drive negative or destructive patterns of thought and behaviour, and to learn how to liberate yourself from them.
It’s easy to get stuck in emotional and physiological reactions, and important to learn how to skillfully navigate these situations. Sometimes we need to step back in time to address past wounding in order to make peace with the present moment. It is when we stand at the precipice of our own pain that it’s time to bring in a new way of doing things. This requires self-awareness, courage and consistent effort. And while changing you can be deeply uncomfortable and even messy at times, you ultimately play a vital role in your own therapy and healing process. This empowers you with skills to continually further your own growth.
Healing Trauma
Trauma affects everyone differently. Its common to experience cognitive, emotional, physical or behavioural reactions after a traumatic event. Many people will recover over time and not experience any lasting difficulties. For others, symptoms can last longer and are more severe. They might even develop into a more serious health condition. Our brain is very literal and doesn’t have our ability to rationally gauge what should be traumatic or not. It sometimes stores past experiences in a way that activates primitive emotions such as anger, anxiety, or fear whenever something reminds us of these experiences again, even if they seem insignificant.
Signs that you may be affected by trauma:
- Extreme fear and anxiety
- Intrusive thoughts and memories
- Insomnia, nightmares or flashbacks
- Racing heartbeat and muscle tension
- Being startled easily or feeling jumpy
- Hypersensitive, hypervigilent or on edge
- Poor judgment, inability to make decisions
- Denial, shock or confused thinking
- Anger, guilt, shame, irritability or rage
- Feelings of sadness or hopelessness
- Feeling withdrawn and disconnected
- Self-destructive, risky, avoidant behaviours
- Mood swings and feeling fragile/vulnerable
- Overwhelm, numbness and detachment
What is Trauma-informed Psychotherapy
Trauma-informed therapy is about tailoring interventions in the context of your unique experience of trauma, your triggers and specific needs. It’s about physical and emotional safety, and creating a safe space to explore painful memories and past experiences at your own pace. It empowers you with techniques to calm your activated nervous system, and enables you to better manage stress and anxiety, while building resilience to overcome emotional and psychological challenges.
What are Havening Techniques®
Havening Techniques® is a neuro-biologically based process that allows painful emotions, memories and trauma to be de-linked from past memories. It is a psycho-sensory technique that uses touch to catalyse chemical changes in the brain in order to alter thoughts, moods and behaviours. The approach corrects the way these events are stored in our neurology, so that they have no further emotional impact.
Together, psychotherapy and havening can assist with deactivating an over-active nervous system while clearing trauma from the body and psyche. This enables life challenges to be addressed without the overwhelming emotional reaction.
Are you ready?
How effective psychotherapy is depends on how committed you are, and how much work you are willing to do during and in between sessions. Real change takes time, as new ways of thinking, behaving and even feeling need to be learned. You know you’re ready if the idea of psychotherapy is a little scary, but nowhere near as daunting as the idea of continuing to live your life as it is now. For nothing changes, until you do.
How long will it take?
This is a great question and the answer is complex. It depends on what challenges you bring into the therapy space, what it is you hope to emerge with, as well as how often you attend. Every therapeutic process is unique and therapeutic relationships can vary from a month in length to several years.