Trauma therapy
“Transform your wounds into wisdom” ~ Oprah Winfrey
Do you appear sorted and successful on the outside while feeling completely different inside? You’re not alone. And you’re not broken beyond repair.
Most of my clients seem “high functioning” to others. They’re ready to reduce the gap between how they appear and how they truly feel.
Online and telephone trauma therapy is available across Ireland and the UK. In person trauma therapy (indoor and outdoor, nature-based sessions) is available in Westport, Co Mayo, Ireland.
You have survived. That is enough. With support, you can potentially discover post-traumatic growth ~ becoming stronger, wiser and more whole than you imagined possible.
This gentle approach can lead to post-traumatic growth
“I feel like I can handle whatever might come my way. Once again, I can’t thank you enough for all that you have done for me and with me through this really hard time. There were times when I could only see the darkness but you’ve helped me change my life.”
A, Essex
“I was looking for an alternative to counselling after reaching a rather low point in my life. Since I have started more regular trauma-sensitive yoga therapy sessions, there seems to be a huge change in me (others have noticed it also). I feel that my confidence has grown and my outlook on life has improved greatly.”
D, Essex, UK
“I am a completely different person, happier, healthier, both mentally and physically.”
Emma McIntyre-Major, UK
Who this is for
Many of my clients are adult survivors of childhood sexual and other abuse. Others have survived trauma as adults. Perhaps a single event, perhaps something more complex. Many struggle with what’s sometimes (often unhelpfully – your nervous system still feels it) called “little t trauma.”
There’s growing understanding around post traumatic stress (PTSD) and developmental trauma/complex PTSD (C-PTSD), but telling yourself your trauma doesn’t matter because what you survived “wasn’t as bad as _____” makes things worse.
Your trauma matters.
You deserve support.
Whether you’ve survived Big T or little t trauma, often compounded by ADHD and AuDHD (autism and ADHD), it can feel scary reaching out. But you’ve come this far. That part of you reading this wants to work toward healing. Whether you choose to work with me or someone else, you’ve got this.
How I work with trauma
My approach is collaborative, gentle, and effective. You choose the direction we take and the tools you experiment with.
The Foundation: Safety and Regulation
You have survived. You are safe now.
I (with the help of the rescue cats) will help you understand how your body and brain have responded naturally to abnormal events. Together, we’ll:
- Get to know your unique nervous system. You’ll learn how to learn from it and, when appropriate (not always! Regulation can be overrated!) to regulate it
- Discover resources within you that you may not realise are there
- Remember things that have worked for you in the past
- Honor the parts of you that are already more resilient than you know
A somatic and transpersonal approach:
Somatic work includes working with your body and breath to help you regulate your nervous system. Helping you to feel better. More grounded. More present.
Transpersonal work brings a gentle but powerful spiritual element into healing, connecting you with the part of you that’s so much more than what you’ve survived.
Together, these approaches help you:
- Feel safer in your body
- Increase your capacity to be present
- Learn self-regulation tools you can use anytime
- Process what you’re ready to process, at your pace
What makes this work different
Trauma recovery isn’t all sunshine and rainbows but it doesn’t have to be as painful as you might imagine. It’s certainly not as painful as I imagined when I started my own healing journey.
The Feel. Love. Heal. framework incorporates:
- Traditional talk therapy (including psychosynthesis counselling)
- Trauma-informed yoga and mindfulness
- EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques)
- NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming)
- Coaching tools
- And more, depending on what resonates with you
I love sharing the tools that have helped (and continue to help) me with people like you. The benefits of this wide range of effective, transformative and gentle tools sometimes feels magical.
What to expect
“What if trauma therapy makes me feel worse?”
It’s natural to worry that talking about what’s felt unspeakable might set you back.
The truth? This work focuses on helping you regulate your nervous system and connect with resources. We move at your pace, working with whatever you’re ready to work with.
I recommend blocking time after sessions (maybe an hour, a few hours or even a day) to journal, reflect, nap or spend time with trusted loved ones so you can co-regulate. By learning to treat yourself with compassion and care, you’ll notice positive results sooner.
Session frequency
For most people, weekly sessions for the first several months works best. After a while, some clients move to fortnightly and then every three weeks or month.
For some, Single Session Therapy is enough for now. A chance to go just deep enough, learn some self-care tools and come back if and when you choose.
Beyond client work: Support for professionals
Supervision for Trauma Therapists
As counsellors and therapists, we can’t take others where we haven’t been ourselves. Our experience of surviving our own underworlds means we can offer deeper presence for others’ healing.
But sometimes we’re triggered. Maybe we’re more tearful, irritated, or angry than usual. When this happens, we need support too.
I offer integrative clinical supervision for trauma therapists (ongoing or ad hoc) supporting you in resourcing yourself and healing at deeper levels.
Support for other helping professionals
Maybe you’re not a trauma therapist but you hear difficult stories and worry about vicarious trauma? You might be a coach, yoga teacher, hairdresser, massage therapist, teacher, social worker, manager or parent.
Sometimes these stories make you forget how far you’ve come and feel like you’re right back there.
We can work together to help you:
- Connect with your resourcefulness
- Use your experience to better support others
- Maintain hard-earned boundaries and wellbeing
- Embody your own healing so you can be that guiding light for others
The Persephone archetype: Queen of the night
In Greek mythology, the goddess Persephone was abducted to the Underworld. When she (thanks to her mother, the goddess Demeter) was finally released, the pomegranate seeds she had eaten meant she had to return for part of every year.
Persephone transformed from a girl into the Queen of the Night. As she became more familiar with the darkness and depths, she became a powerful guide for others.
People with a strong Persephone archetype can turn pain, rage, sorrow, and trauma into light. Connecting with your inner Queen (or King) of the Night and helping others find their way out of darkness. This doesn’t come from repressing your past but from owning it.
Our experience of becoming stronger at the broken places enables us to hold sacred healing space more powerfully than if we hadn’t explored our own depths. We become like Kintsugi, the Japanese broken ceramics repaired with gold, more valuable for having been broken.
Remember: Persephone couldn’t stay in the Underworld year-round and still be that light for others. Self-care is crucial or we risk burnout. (And in the myth, it was her mother’s tenacity that got her out at all. You don’t have to do it alone. None of us do anything alone).
Resources to support your trauma recovery and healing
The Sole to Soul Circle
Join the community for deeper dives into each week’s podcast theme. Free subscribers get extra support and paid members have full access to the growing Exclusive Membership Benefits area.
The book
365 Ways to Feel Better: Self-care Ideas for Embodied Wellbeing offers a trauma-sensitive approach to each tool, incorporating many of the methods I use in my work.
More free resources
You might also love Polyvagal Purrs / Rescue Cattitude: A Polyvagal-informed approach to trauma recovery, AuDHD and ADHD
Ready to begin?
Are you ready to process and heal your trauma in a more gentle way than you might have imagined possible?
Contact me to book your free telephone consultation
Learn more about one-to-one work
Would you like my support in your trauma recovery?
While all episodes are trauma sensitive, some are more specifically about trauma including: