Trauma therapy on Sydney’s Northern Beaches
in Frenchs Forest & online
I aim to create a safe space for you where you can:
come to terms with your past
reduce its effect on the present
find the best way forward.
What is trauma?
Trauma is a response to a deeply distressing or disturbing event that overwhelms your ability to cope. It can leave you feeling helpless, emotionally dysregulated, or disconnected from yourself or others. Trauma doesn’t have to be caused by a single major even. It can also result from ongoing, less visible experiences like emotional neglect, living in an unpredictable environment, or repeated microaggressions.
Trauma affects each person differently. What feels traumatic to one person may not feel that way to another. Your experience is valid, even if others don’t understand it.
What is PTSD?
PTSD stands for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. It’s a mental health condition that can develop after experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event. PTSD is characterized by symptoms such as:
Intrusive memories, flashbacks, or nightmares
Avoidance of reminders of the trauma
Negative changes in mood or beliefs about yourself or the world
Feeling constantly on edge or easily startled (hypervigilance)
These symptoms can significantly impact your daily life, relationships, and sense of safety.
What Is Complex PTSD?
Complex PTSD (C-PTSD) is a type of post-traumatic stress that can develop after long-term or repeated exposure to trauma, especially during childhood or in situations where escape wasn’t possible, such as chronic abuse, neglect, captivity, or coercive relationships.
In addition to the symptoms of PTSD, Complex PTSD often includes:
Deep-seated shame or guilt
Difficulty regulating emotions
Persistent feelings of worthlessness or emptiness
Struggles in relationships, including trust and intimacy
Does everyone get PTSD?
No. Not everyone who experiences trauma will develop PTSD. People respond to trauma in different ways, and many factors can influence whether PTSD develops, including:
The nature and duration of the trauma
Support systems available at the time
Personal history, including earlier life experiences
Genetics and nervous system sensitivity
Some people may have a strong reaction at first but gradually heal over time. Others may feel fine initially and develop symptoms later. Whether or not you meet full criteria for PTSD, your suffering is real and healing is possible.
How I treat trauma
When you first come to see me, I spend the first session or two getting a sense of who you are and what is really going on for you. I listen to your present struggles, your background, and any traumatic experiences. I draw from a range of evidence-based therapeutic approaches, always keeping your preferences, needs, and pacing at the heart of our work together.
Depending on what is most helpful for you, our work may include the following:
Building safety and stability
Trauma can leave your nervous system feeling overwhelmed, constantly on alert, or easily triggered. Before exploring difficult experiences, it is often important to develop ways of feeling more grounded, present, and emotionally steady.
Together, we develop practical strategies to help you regulate difficult emotions, calm your nervous system, manage distress when it arises, and strengthen your ability to cope with life's challenges. As your sense of safety grows, it often becomes easier to process difficult experiences without feeling overwhelmed.
Reconnecting with yourself through the body
Trauma can create a sense of disconnection—from our body, our emotions, our needs, and sometimes from other people as well. Many people describe feeling numb, cut off from themselves, or unsure of what they are really feeling.
I use Focusing, a gentle yet powerful way of listening to the body's felt sense of a situation. It helps shift how trauma is held in the body and supports the integration of traumatic experiences. Trauma is often stored not as a clear story, but as fragments of memory held through the senses: a particular smell, a sound, a body sensation, or an image.
Focusing offers a way to meet those places with curiosity and kindness, and to gently bring those pieces together, so they feel less confusing, less overwhelming, and more like part of a whole story you can hold and make sense of.
In a Focusing session, I will invite you to slow down and listen inward, paying attention to what is known as the felt sense—a vague bodily awareness that includes everything you feel and know about an issue. We stay with that felt sense, giving it space and allowing it to unfold at its own pace.
This can be especially helpful in trauma work because:
It does not require re-telling your trauma story.
You remain in control of what you explore and how deeply you go.
It helps create a sense of inner safety and trust in your body.
It often leads to subtle but meaningful shifts in how trauma is held.
Focusing can bring relief, clarity, and a sense of something inside softening or releasing. Over time, this process supports healing not by pushing or analysing, but by listening deeply to the wisdom your body already holds.
Processing distressing memories with EMDR
When particular memories continue to feel especially distressing or seem to remain "stuck", I may also use EMDR.
EMDR is designed to help people process traumatic memories so they become less emotionally overwhelming. Rather than erasing memories, it helps reduce the distress they carry, allowing them to be experienced as something that happened in the past rather than something that still feels present.
Trauma can also leave people with painful beliefs about themselves, such as "I'm not safe," "I'm not good enough," or "It was my fault." EMDR can help these beliefs shift towards more balanced and compassionate ones, allowing you to see yourself and your experiences in a different light.
EMDR is only introduced when it feels appropriate and when you feel ready. We always work at a pace that feels safe and manageable for you.
Still unsure?
I offer a free 15-minute call so you can ask questions and get a sense of how I work.
