What is trauma informed counselling?
Trauma informed counselling is a way of working with clients who have experienced a traumatic history, either in childhood or as an adult. This sometimes results in a diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or complex trauma. There is some argument that this can be confused with ADHD or mental health disorders like bi-polar disorder/borderline personality disorder. This blog will concentrate on complex trauma and PTSD.
Back in the distant past, when psychiatry, psychology and counselling was in its infancy a guy called Pierre Janet, a French physician and psychologist, noted that there were a range of symptoms that are apparent and common amongst many adults who have experienced traumatic histories.
Janet noted that:
“There is no madness which in man, cannot be transformed into reality” AND “Traumas produce their disintegrating effects in proportion to their intensity, duration and repetition.” (1909)
Sadly, at the time of Janet the culture around mental health considered it to be more of an illness, so more physiological (medical) than psychological (psychiatric medical treatments over talking therapies/psychoeducation). The researchers strove to find the magic pill or treatment that would cure many of our psychological ills.
Much was made of trepanning (surgical intervention) and ECT (electroconvulsive therapy) a form of electric stimulation invented in the 1930s. Janet’s work was therefore overlooked until the 1990s when Judith Herman revisited it and showed that there was a lot in Janet’s work that was sound and usable in the modern day (1992/2015) and so popularised his theories in America.
And probably the biggest surprise was that the theories worked then, and they still work now.
Although in the box below, which outlines the three stages, the stages of trauma recovery are suggested as ‘treatment aims’, as a non-medical person, I would say ‘therapy aims’.
During stage one, I would explore and facilitate with you, the client, ways to help change the way your brain interprets some reactions you may have in the present day. So, for instance, why is it you always check and double check the space you’re in? When you’re sitting in a coffee shop/pub you prefer to sit (or stand) with your back to the wall so you can see what is going on (who is coming in/going out) or perhaps you have nightmares or flashbacks to something that happened, and you don’t know what to do about them. These are symptoms of trauma, and combined with others, like sleeplessness, irritation and anxiety, they can make life difficult. The stabilisation & safety stage works with these symptoms to help you understand what is going on in your body and mind.
You may have heard of the fight, flight, freeze and flop (or fawn) reaction that we experience and can be shown by watching a deer being hunted and caught by a lion or hyena. We have those reactions in our reptilian brain (the earliest part of our brain to develop). It is this reaction that is stimulated by our sense of feeling unsafe – usually experienced as a panic attack and not knowing what caused it.
Stage one work takes about 8 to 10 weeks and is very effective at reducing symptoms and increasing tolerance of people, places and things around you.
A good trauma informed counsellor will work with you to find ways of grounding and relaxing in your body, which in turn helps it to feel like a safe enough place to be. These techniques can then be used to manage triggers and memories that may come up for you both in the counselling room and at other times.
As you can see from the description box above, there are three stages in all. I can of course work in all three stages, however, if you have limited funds and may be waiting for low cost, free or nhs counselling stage one work can help you better tolerate the wait time.
MT Counselling 