Trauma
Psychological trauma can impact on our experience of the world around us, our relationships and our sense of self in the world. It is the normal reaction to abnormal events which occurs as a result of a deeply distressing or disturbing event which is characterised by an individual becoming 'stuck' in terms of their inner experience in what I describe as "trauma time'.
Trauma is often the result of an overwhelming amount of 'toxic stress' that exceeds one's ability to cope or integrate the emotions involved with that experience.
My experience of working with trauma disorders
I have worked supporting those with reactions to traumatic stress since 1991 (member of Prison service critical incident debriefing team e.g. hostage situations, following suicides and serious injury / assaults). Latterly for the last 15 years I have dedicated much of my clinical work to the treatment of trauma and dissociative disorders and was the reason for my creating the Centres for the treatment of Attachment, Trauma and Dissociation.
I have completed various trainings applicable to my work as a trauma therapist such as EMDR, TF-CBT, and over 20 trainings related to the treatment of complex trauma e.g. ISSTD Basic, Intermediate, Advance and Child psychotherapy trainings.
What is trauma?
My work seeks to help those with what is sometimes termed as Type 1 Traumatic experiences: single events such as road traffic accidents, work related events such as working in a bank and experiencing and armed robbery to front line staff experiencing critical incidents such as police, ambulance service and prison staff etc.
My other trauma work relates to Type 2 trauma: which are multiple or repeated experiences such as childhood sexual abuse, repeated traumatic experiences in war and conflicts, organised abuse.