TRAUMA

Experiencing traumatic events can lead to the development of panic attacks, flashbacks, intrusive thoughts or images, anxiety, nightmares, hypervigilance, low self-esteem, depression, obsessive behaviour, self-harm, social isolation, and a variety of other symptoms. Consequently, people often find themselves in need of assistance in the aftermath of trauma, be it weeks, months, years, or sometimes decades later. I offer specialist support for people who have been through traumatic experiences, and I have carried out extensive research specifically around birth trauma.

When you experience something traumatic, the part of your brain involved in processing emotion and creating memory briefly suspends its work, effectively shutting down. Afterwards, when the brain reactivates, the experience is filed away as a memory, with all those intense and unprocessed emotions attached. Normally, over time, the memory would move into the past, along with the upsetting emotions, and you’d have a sense of time passing when you thought about the event. However, often with trauma, it's as though the filing cabinet hasn't quite closed properly and the memory is not fully filed away in the past. Whenever the memory is triggered, all of those unprocessed emotions come flying out with it, sometimes making it feel like it’s happening in the present. The same part of the brain is suspended again, making it impossible to rationally process the memory and the emotions with it. This might happen again and again.

The Rewind Technique uses guided relaxation to approach the memory in a different way, without activating your emotional system. It is then possible, in this state of deep relaxation, to detach the intense emotions from the event, enabling you to fully process it into your memory. The memory does not disappear. It is possible to remember as much as before, but as something in the past, without feeling the negative emotions in such an intense way. This technique can be used to help process a single event or long-term trauma. It is often all people need to see huge changes in their everyday lives and experience enormous relief.

For birth trauma and one-off traumatic events, I offer the Rewind Package, where the technique is carried out in a single session, with one preparatory session beforehand and a review session a few weeks after. For long-term trauma or abuse, we would often spend more time on the everyday symptoms you may be experiencing, to develop confidence in your stability before carrying out the technique. Whether the trauma was a single event or took place over a number of years, sometimes people want to explore the circumstances further, especially where associated thoughts and feelings, or subsequent behaviours, have become difficult for them. Further sessions are available to gently consider any issues together, highlighting problem areas, in the past or the present, and looking for ways to move positively forward.