I specialise in working with childhood and adult trauma and PTSD. While the events of the past might be behind you, they can still have far-reaching and long-lasting effects on who you are today.
At my Colchester practice, I offer therapy for PTSD and trauma treatment in a confidential, secure and non-judgmental environment. I always work at your pace, and aim to ensure that you leave every session feeling better than you came in.
Between sessions I am available on the phone and by email, to help you with anything that comes up for you related to our PTSD and trauma therapy.
On this page you can learn more about trauma and PTSD and how I treat the disorder.
Trauma therapy and PTSD treatment in Colchester
Everything that we experience in childhood affects the adult that we become. As a child, our developing brain is absorbing information from around us – every sight, sound and sense we are exposed to – and making a map of what the world looks like, as well as our place within it.
Our parents, teachers and peers all have a huge impact on how that map gets put together, and the identity we develop based upon that.
It stands to reason that the more supported, loved and accepted a child feels, the more secure they will grow and the safer the world will seem to them to explore as adults.
Whereas trauma, abuse and lack of love will lead our brain to develop the belief that the world is not a safe place for us to express ourselves freely.
While abuse and extreme childhood trauma is widely understood to have a long-lasting impact, it is also the case that relatively trivial trauma can affect us into our adult years. This includes being laughed at, shouted at for getting something wrong or breaking something, playground bullying, embarrassment and shame.
Anything that causes us a significant emotional response in childhood can be lodged in the brain as a trauma.
Trauma therapy and PTSD treatment in Colchester
Traumatic events that take place in adulthood can cause significant changes in the human brain that radically alter our experience of life.
Workplace bullying, shock news, physical and emotional attacks, witnessing or being involved in vehicle accidents, abusive relationships, grief and many other situations can all be defined as trauma.
The brain is constantly assessing whether we are living in a safe environment. Any events that cause it to fear for our survival can lead to dramatic changes in the decisions it makes for us.
As our brains are not generally concerned with whether we are happy or fulfilled – only that we survive – the decisions it makes for us following trauma in adulthood can lead to a decrease in our quality of life. Perhaps we stop socialising, or quit our jobs. Perhaps the outside world becomes a place to fear, and the world grows smaller and smaller around us.
If a traumatic event in your adult life is causing you continued suffering, get in touch to see how I might be able to help.
Trauma therapy and PTSD treatment in Colchester
As with all my clients, you will be treated as an individual as there is no one-size-fits-all therapy for trauma.
In our first session, we will sensitively and confidentially explore the history of your trauma. In some instances, you may find it difficult to discuss details and specific memories. That is absolutely fine, we go at your pace. In this session we also look at what is motivating you to resolve the effects of the trauma at this point in your life, and what your future would look like free from those effects.
Over the course of the subsequent sessions I will use a variety of techniques to reduce the emotional response to the trauma, so that it can become something in the past that no longer has power over you.
This is achieved through a combination (where appropriate) of traditional hypnosis, EMDR/EMI eye movement therapy (used by the British Army to resolve PTSD in soldiers returning from war zones), Rewind Therapy, NLP, EFT (known as tapping) and other healing modalities.
Some of these techniques are ‘content free’, which means that you do not need to talk about what has happened to you if you do not feel comfortable doing so.
The therapy reduces the level of emotional distress you feel while thinking about what has happened to you, utilises the neuroscience concept of neuroplasticity to update the brain’s interpretation of events so that they can be considered from different perspectives, and teaches your brain to believe things can be different.
Trauma therapy and PTSD treatment in Colchester
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vjwardmail@gmail.com2018-04-10 22:35:302018-06-28 10:30:55The Impact of Childhood Trauma on Adult SuccessYour first step is to send me a message via the contact form on this site, by email to info@victoriawardhypnotherapy.com or call/text 07813 251 152
You can say as much or as little as you’d like, as we will arrange a convenient time to speak on the phone so that you can tell me a little about what you would like help with, ask any questions that you have, and I can explain the practicalities of working together.
This first contact is a brilliant way for us to get to know each other a little, so that you can be sure that I am the therapist you would like to work with, and I can be sure that my approach is going to be a good fit for you.
Trauma can often be difficult to talk about, so you don’t need to go into detail here if you’re not comfortable doing so. We take this all at your pace, and every interaction is done in complete confidence without any judgement.
Trauma therapy and PTSD treatment in Colchester
If we decide to work with each other, then we’ll set up the initial face-to-face consultation at my comfortable practice in Lexden, Colchester, Essex. It is a non-clinical environment, where you can be comfortable to speak in confidence and be heard without judgement. It is a supportive environment, conducive to healing.
Most of this session will be spent sensitively exploring your trauma and PTSD at a pace that is comfortable to you. You can tell me as much or as little in this session, as there is much work that can be done content-free until you feel more able to discuss what has happened to you.
We will explore the events that have led up to you coming to see me and the impact it has on your life. We will also look at your motivation for changing, and begin to create the image of the you you will become once you are free from the effects of trauma.
Depending on the time, we may then start with a gentle introductory technique, that could be a simple relaxation hypnosis, or one of the tools that I have to work directly with the emotions that arise when you think about the traumatic memories.
The initial session last approximately 1.5 hours
Trauma therapy and PTSD treatment in Colchester
I have a broad toolbox of techniques that I have learned over the years of continuing my professional development. Here I will explain the main tools in a little more detail.
Eye Movement Therapy (such as Eye Movement Desensitizing and Reprocessing EMDR and Eye Movement Integration) are used by the British Army to treat PTSD in soldiers returning from war zones. It is a gentle process that involves you following my finger with your eyes in a series of patterns designed to release trauma stored in the brain.
[news] World Health Organisation Recommend EMDR for PTSD
As we progress through a series of the movements, you will be asked to either focus on the feelings that arise in your body when you think about the trauma, or the images that you see in your mind. As with everything, this is done at your pace to a level that you feel comfortable with.
This technique amazes me with how quickly an emotional response can be reduced. Things that once seemed impossible to talk about can quickly become (in a matter of minutes some times) a simple story from the past that no longer causes that uncomfortable, uncontrollable emotional surge.
More information about EMDR/EMI here
The Rewind technique originates from the field of Neuro-Linguistic Programming. It works on the neuroscience principles of ‘Neuroplasticity’ and ‘Reconsolidation Theory’. This is the idea that our brains are constantly capable of change. That they are ‘plastic’ and malleable.
Neuroscientists have shown that our memories are not a fixed, accurate recording of events. Rather, they are flexible and can change over time, depending on our perspective of events and information we learn at a later date.
Every time we recall a memory, it has the potential to go back into storage changed. Often, when we recall a traumatic memory, we talk about the negative impact or it, how terrible it was. This means that if can be stored with added layers of negative emotion.
The Rewind Technique allows us to recall a memory, and send it back to the memory banks dramatically altered. We can change the memory so that it is less traumatic visually, audibly and in meaning.
This means that when the brain refers back to the traumatic event in order to plan a path of action in the present to keep us safe in the future, it no longer sees the event as life-threatening and has a reduced response to it.
Trauma therapy and PTSD treatment in Colchester
Timeline Therapy is a classic hypnotherapy technique. During a timeline session, you will be gently guided back to the event of the trauma to watch it from a safe distance. This allows us to consider alternative perspectives that may not have been considered at the time.
For instance, a child will not be able to understand the actions of adults at the time a trauma may have occurred. With Timeline Therapy, you are able to observe and understand the event from an adult perspective, so that new learnings can be integrated into the subconscious.
Very often, trauma experienced in childhood is confusing to the child, as their brain has not yet developed the capability to understand what is going on. This can often result in feelings of shame and worthlessness. Timeline Therapy can help you to see how something was not your fault, or that what your brain understood at the time was a mistake.
EFT involves tapping on specific parts of your face and hand while working through the thoughts, symptoms and emotions linked to your trauma. It is designed to interrupt unconscious patterns of thought, and emotional energy. It is closely related to acupressure and acupuncture.
Tapping is a brilliant technique to learn, so that you have easy access to an immediate tool that you can use should you be experiencing anxiety and fear related to your PTSD.
I used traditional eyes-closed hypnosis to consolidate the work that we do in session, and to reprogram your unconscious brain to make the changes that we agree on together.
I also use eyes-closed hypnosis to create the mental blueprint of the you that you want to become, free from trauma. Your brain cannot differentiate between something that is vividly imagined and something that is real. By rehearsing this new version of you, the new feelings, thoughts and behaviours that you desire can begin to be something that your brain works towards believing in reality.
If at any point you are no comfortable with working eyes-closed, this work can be done using MP3 recordings for you to listen to at home.
More information on Cognitive Hypnotherapy can be found here along with common fears and misconceptions about hypnosis.
Trauma therapy and PTSD treatment in Colchester
