Trauma Counselling Services in Perth
Reconnect with your ‘Self’ with trauma counselling
Most people attend counselling for trauma when they feel disconnected from themselves as a result of feeling numb or emotionally vacant when they’ve learned to shut themselves off as a survival mechanism.
Attachment trauma can be the result of not having your emotional needs met, feelings of abandonment, or abuse. When the feelings are so painful, they become split off from the Self, causing these feelings to be frozen in time. These feelings can be triggered in adult relationships which can cause you to react to a threat that no longer exists.
Those who block out traumatic abuse, to protect themselves from the pain caused by significant others, can internalise they are worthless or feel somehow the abuse was their fault. The anger gets pushed down, often turned towards themselves.
Many who have been traumatised:
- Feel hypervigilant about something bad happening and looking for threats in order to protect themselves so they feel safe.
- Feel numb or depressed, by defending against the painful feelings.
- Feel unsafe in relationships, fear closeness and intimacy, as a trigger to past sexual abuse. Difficulty trusting intimate partners to not hurt them or abuse them, feeling appropriated.
- Difficulty setting boundaries, protecting oneself, expressing oneself, avoiding conflict.
- Some resort to self-defeating behaviours, such as self-harm or suicide, to escape or rid themselves of the feeling of self-loathing.
- Some remain shutoff, disconnected and feel not affected by it, or cannot remember what happened, blanked out.
- Some minimise their experience so they don’t feel it, but the pain stays locked away until triggered. All of a sudden one recalls the torture or suffering from memories, flash backs or nightmares.
Triggering events or traumatic associations can bring them right back to what they were experiencing during the abuse, since their body responds as if they were back in the traumatic event, by responding to fight or flight.
Treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
In the case of trauma, when these painful experiences are blocked out, individuals may show signs of post-traumatic stress symptoms, with nightmares, flash backs, numbing, dissociation, hyper-vigilance hyper-arousal, symptoms of depression or anxiety issues. Nancy Carbone allows her clients to feel safe, so they can bring up areas of pain when they feel ready to do so. Often some therapy is required to build ego strength, before going into traumatic memories, so the client does not become re-traumatised. As a counsellor for traumatised individuals, Nancy is able to carefully track the client’s feelings, at their own pace, which safely allows them to process their experiences, in a way that is containing for them.
Whilst counselling those who suffered traumatic events or abuse, Nancy understands it is a defence to avoid the trauma and notices it, but is aware that a client cannot be pushed into talking about it. As a counsellor for traumatic injuries Nancy reconizes that the ‘self ‘ needs to feel strong enough to manage the feelings, so therapy is a slow and gradual process that weakens the defensive layers, so the feelings can be gradually processed at the clients pace.
Trauma Counselling for childhood abuse.
Individuals may encounter past childhood trauma or hurts. Many develop coping strategies to put these experiences out of their conscious awareness. Trauma counselling or psychotherapy stays with where the client is at, acknowledging how painful these feelings are.
Some relationships trigger the original trauma. Some clients may come to see that current relationship difficulties allow them to re-experience earlier pain, which becomes felt with their partner. Some get re-traumatised by sexual relationships, feeling unsafe with closeness or intimacy, affecting their relationships. Sometimes the individual associates their fears to the current situation or person, forgetting where it may have originated from.
Other times they end up with partners where they re-create the abuse, putting up with abusive situations because they feel too afraid to protect themselves, assert their rights or set appropriate boundaries.
In these situations the individual may not trust relationships, counselling for relationships can also be useful.
How trauma or PTSD counselling can help you overcome past painful experiences
In counselling those who have experienced trauma, once individuals locate where their feelings derive from, they are better able to respond in certain situations. They are able to see if they are triggered to a traumatic event, when the current situation is not dangerous, but reminds them of an associated flashback or memory.
For those who experienced trauma or abuse, it is natural to feel apprehensive about counselling, since trusting others may not be easy. Nancy will let you take control of the pace and guide you through the process within your comfortable limits.
Contact Counselling in Perth for our Trauma Counselling Services
Please Call: 0449 861 147 or use the quick consultation form.
For trauma counselling in Melbourne contact our Melbourne counselling service