Trauma doesn’t only mean one kind of event
When people think of trauma, they often picture a single, dramatic incident: an accident, an assault, or something witnessed. Trauma also includes experiences that occurred repeatedly, often over years, such as childhood abuse or neglect, growing up around domestic violence, or other frightening experiences in childhood.
Some people come to us because of a single event. Others come because of things that happened many times, often a long time ago, whose effects have never fully settled.
Both are trauma. Both are treatable. They often require a different kind of understanding, though, because what a single frightening event leaves behind is not always what years of harm leave behind.
What trauma can look like afterwards
You’re unlikely to recognise all of these, and that’s normal. They aren’t a checklist to work through, just some of the more common patterns.
Intrusive memories or flashbacks; nightmares; avoiding reminders of what happened; feeling constantly on edge or easily startled; difficulty trusting people; low mood, numbness, or feeling disconnected; irritability or anger that feels hard to explain.
What trauma treatment is actually like
We use trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy (TF-CBT), including narrative exposure therapy (NET), and eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR). These are the psychological treatments NICE recommends for post-traumatic stress in adults. Which one suits you depends on what happened and what is keeping it going, and we explain that choice before we begin.
We’ll be straightforward with you: it can feel harder before it feels better. Talking about what happened, or noticing patterns that trace back years, often stirs things up in the short term.
Trauma-focused work is paced deliberately. We won’t ask you to relive things faster than you’re ready for, and you stay in control of that pace throughout.
We work at your pace, check in regularly about how it’s landing, and adjust if something isn’t working.
How therapy can be funded
You can pay for therapy yourself, at the fees shown on our fees page, with no package and no minimum commitment.
If you have private medical insurance, our clinicians hold individual recognition with Bupa, AXA and WPA, and can bill them directly once your insurer has authorised treatment.
If the trauma happened in an accident, an assault or at work and you are making a claim, therapy may be funded through that claim. Your solicitor or case manager can refer you directly; see information for referrers.
What you tell us stays private
What you share with your clinician is confidential. There are a small number of exceptions, and we would rather you knew them now than discovered them later: if we believe you or someone else, particularly a child, is at serious risk of harm, we may need to share information with your GP or another service. Your clinician will explain all of this properly before you start.
If this isn’t the right place
We work in three areas, not everything. If what you’re dealing with sits outside them, we’ll tell you at the first conversation and point you toward someone better suited.