Trauma & PTSD Counselling

Name: Safe Place Therapy
Price range: $$

Trauma counselling:
how can it help?

Trauma counselling helps you understand traumatic events and what coping mechanisms you used to get through.

These coping mechanisms may have been helpful at the time but are now unhelpful.

For example, you used alcohol to try and numb the feelings but are now becoming reliant on it and drinking too much.

Our work is on a case-by-case basis and focused on client safety at all times.

Through therapy, we can help you process feelings and emotions that have come up either during or after a traumatic event.

What is trauma?

Trauma can involve a single event or incident like a rape, being physically assaulted, being robbed, a car accident, witnessing a robbery or assault or rape, or being involved in a natural disaster. Trauma can also be repeated over a long period of time like child sexual assault, childhood neglect or abuse.

Working through trauma counselling can be slow but it is so important for it to be done in a safe way that does not cause you to feel more overwhelmed and less able to cope.

Everyone’s reactions to traumatic experiences are different

The Australian Psychological Society (APS) says that everyone’s reactions to traumatic experiences are different. Most people recover with the help and support of friends and family and do not experience any negative long-term problems.

However, some people experience difficulties directly after the traumatic event or much later. When someone is psychologically traumatised, it means that their mind is affected as a result of a distressing event. Often people become overwhelmed and unable to cope or are unable to integrate the emotions involved in the experience.

How can trauma be treated?

There are a number of psychological treatments that have been found effective for trauma, such as; EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing), Somatic Experiencing, biofeedback, Somatic Therapy, Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT) as well as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).

In certain cases medication such as antidepressants are used in combination with psychological approaches.

In Trauma Counselling it is important to develop positive coping strategies instead of negative coping strategies. Some of the things that are helpful to develop in counselling are psychoeducation which is the process of understanding how trauma works and becoming educated in how your brain and emotions work.

Emotional regulation, which consists of identifying when you are heightened and being able to use grounding thoughts and strategies to help calm yourself..
Cognitive processing which is over time transforming negative perceptions and beliefs into positive ones about self, others and the environment.
Trauma processing which can involve things like systematic desensitization, response activation and counter-conditioning and others.

It’s important for the counsellor in trauma counselling to focus on particular strategies that are going to be effective for you.

Finding the right support for trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can feel difficult. Help is here, just reach out for it. At Safe Place Therapy our trauma and PTSD treatment is effective. We are here to help you.