trauma & abuse

trauma & abuse

Some experiences in life can be so profound they shatter your whole view of the world. It can be hard to see anything clearly amongst the fragments – you don’t know what’s real and what’s not, nor whether you can trust anyone or yourself. Whether you’ve experienced specific, isolated incidents, or a more gradual build up of things, going through trauma and abuse can show you too much of the worst of life, that you can’t then unsee.

Time and space in therapy can help you gradually work through all of the physical and psychological symptoms of trauma – you might feel a lot of effects in your body, as well as triggers, dissociation etc. You can then gradually piece things together and create a new and clear view of the world and yourself, a new narrative of all you’ve been through. Psychodynamic therapy can be particularly helpful here because it pays attention to the less conscious aspects of trauma. Sometimes someone may understand their experiences on one level, yet still find themselves repeating old, unhelpful patterns in relationships, or being compelled to repeat familiar self-sabotaging or self-destructive behaviours, even though they know they want different. These can all be signs of unconscious conflicts at play underneath.