STEADY SPACE TO HEAL
Trauma therapy
Support to help you feel safer in your mind and body
Trauma can affect how we think, feel, connect and respond - even when the danger has passed.
What is Trauma Therapy?
Trauma Therapy with Tell Us a Tail uses a holistic approach, working with the brain, the body and the psyche. Trauma doesn't always involve obvious flashbacks or dissociation. Sometimes we can feel a strong adverse reaction to a situation or thought and don't understand why. This can be because of past trauma. We can also develop unhealthy coping habits, things that we do that help us deal with the emotions we have about the trauma, such as eating or drinking too much or too little, using alcohol and/or drugs, viewing sexual material online or behaving in some sexual ways that don't make us feel good in the long term.
Overcoming trauma
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or Complex PTSD (CPTSD) where someone has experienced multiple traumas.
Symptoms of trauma include anxiety, lack of sleep, bad dreams, feeling angry or scared quickly and experiencing flashbacks where you feel a strong memories of the traumatic situation. Sometimes, this can lead to dissociation, where you feel as though you are back in the event and may even talk as though you are reliving it.
Sometimes this can even be vicarious trauma, meaning that you might not have experienced trauma first hand, but you have been around it or someone who has.
You may also experience tiredness, rushes of emotion or pain in the body without an identified medical cause.
Therapy helps the mind, brain and body process the traumatic event/s and teaches the body that it is no longer under threat.
EMDR
What is EMDR?
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing. It is an evidence-based psychotherapy that helps people recover from trauma and other distressing life experiences. It is best known as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and is recognised by both NICE and the World Health Organisation.
When something overwhelming happens, the brain may be unable to process the experience fully. The memory can feel “stuck”, remaining vivid and emotionally intense rather than feeling safely in the past. This may show up as flashbacks, intrusive thoughts or images, anxiety, low mood, nightmares, physical reactions or feeling triggered by reminders of what happened.
EMDR helps the brain reprocess these memories so that they become less distressing and easier to manage. During therapy, you may briefly bring aspects of a memory to mind while using bilateral stimulation—usually guided side-to-side eye movements, alternating sounds or gentle taps. EMDR does not erase the memory or make you forget what happened; the aim is to change how the memory is stored, reducing its emotional intensity and helping it feel like something that happened in the past rather than something that is still happening now.
EMDR can be used to support people affected by:
- PTSD and complex trauma
- Sexual, physical or emotional abuse
- Accidents, violence or frightening medical experiences
- Flashbacks, nightmares and intrusive memories
- Anxiety or depression connected to difficult experiences
- Bereavement and sudden loss
- Bullying, humiliation or other experiences that continue to affect how you feel about yourself
EMDR follows a structured eight-phase process. We will first take time to understand your experiences, build emotional safety and develop ways to manage distress before beginning any memory processing. The pace is tailored to you, particularly if you have experienced repeated or complex trauma.
I am a member of EMDR UK and EMDR Europe
Rewind Therapy
Rewind Therapy can help to reduce involuntary recall by allowing the traumatic memory to be processed and placed under greater control. You can still remember what happened, but the memory may feel less immediate and distressing.
Rewind therapy is a brief intense therapy which helps us to process a memory. Think of traumatic memories like an unwanted guest in your kitchen, you want it to leave through the front door (into the long term memory), but every time you are faced with it, you hate the sight of it and therefore, don't show it the door because that would require you to engage with it. So it sits in the kitchen, where you can see it every now and again when you really don't want to.
Rewind therapy helps usher the guest (memory) out of the front door and into the long term memory where it can be called upon if it's needed but is no longer free to pop up when you enter the kitchen.
A sign that a memory needs processing is when you still see it through your own eyes, rather than in the third person, where you can see yourself.
Sex and intimacy after abuse
Sexual, physical, emotional and psychological abuse can impact sexual functioning and intimacy no matter how recent or historic. I am deeply aware of how triggering a simple touch can be for someone who has experienced abuse. This can cause feelings of guilt, shame and obligation and puts pressure on relationships.
Similarly, people can find themselves frequently seeking new sexual activity or partners in order to feel validated, desirable or loved but ultimately, don't feel good afterwards.
Feeling vulnerable is very hard when you have been through sexual abuse, but I can help you be stronger and redefine your boundaries and find your safe sexual self.
When you're ready to talk, I'm here to listen.
