There is so much going on in the world now. It’s hard watching the news, in fact I am more likely to just quickly check a news ap than I am to watch the news in real time. Many people I speak to are unable to watch the news at all because they struggle to think of the...
Post Traumatic Stress
Interpreting Dreams
In the last of my series on dreaming we look at common images and symbols in dream interpretation. I love working with the unconscious and find dreams fascinating. We can think of them as metaphors for what might be going on in the dreamer’s life and/or the...
Nightmares and Night terrors
It seems difficult for people to talk about their nightmares. Even if the person has told me during their assessment that they suffer from nightmares, I often find people don’t talk about them in any detail until we have been working together for a while. Maybe by...
Types of dreams
Types of Dreams Every dream is as unique as the dreamer, but there are specific types of dreamsthat most commonly find their way into my consulting room. These are daydreams, vivid dreams, recurring dreams, lucid dreams, nightmares and night terrors. This month, I...
Dream Journaling
How To Remember Your Dreams I often work with people who dream frequently and are interested in their dreams. Many suffer from nightmares and night terrors which they remember vividly. I will be exploring these in a later post. But a lot of people don’t remember...
Dreaming
Photography by Gregory Pappas on UnsplashPsychotherapy and Dreams During an initial consultation with a potential client, I often ask about their dreams. Do they dream regularly? Do they have significant dreams from childhood? Do they have recurring dreams? This is...
Time for a Mindset Spring Clean
March is a hopeful month. Officially the first month of spring with emerging colour, bulbs bravely shooting through the ground and trees starting to sprout buds. A couple of years ago in the UK we had a mini heatwave in March. With the unpredictability of the climate,...
Cyber Bullying
Cyber Bullying When researching this subject, I was shocked to see the number of people who had taken their lives due to cyber bullying and sextortion. Between March 2019 and March 2020 19% or one in five children between the age of 10 and 15 in England and Wales...
Male Influencers
The MeToo movement has been wonderful for women’s rights and furthering awareness of sexual harassment and abuse. I know very few women who haven’t experienced sexual harassment at some point in their life and there is now an ability for women to have a voice, be...
What’s Your Online Persona?
Who Do You Think You Are? How Do You Want To Come Across Online? We all know someone who exaggerates their life online – we see the ‘official’ glitzy positive image they put on social media. For example, posts of holiday snaps look amazing but, when we meet to hear...
Post Traumatic stress
Post Traumatic Stress occurs when we are unable to process the traumatic experience that has happened or more than one trauma has occurred. The latest trauma may evoke previous traumas we have suffered eg the woman that has been attacked may also have been abused by her husband at an earlier time in her life. Each trauma may re-activate more difficult feelings and behaviours
What Is Trauma?
Trauma is something shocking and painful that has happened to us such as: losing someone close in an accident, being made redundant with little or no warning or a medical procedure with unexpected complications. It has physical and psychological affects on us and can happen after one event or several.
Common Causes Of Post Traumatic Stress
- betrayal
- loss
- diagnosis of illness
- abuse
- divorce
- violence
So How Will It Affect Me?
All trauma will throw us off balance for a while: disbelief and numbness is common immediately after the event, then perhaps anger, sadness and eventually acceptance.
We may change our behaviours after a traumatic event to protect ourselves from the pain of further trauma. While these behaviours are useful coping strategies over time they can have a negative impact. For example, a woman who’s been attacked on her journey home may decide never to go out again after dark. We may become trapped and limit our lives considerably.
Symptoms Of Post Traumatic Stress
- numbness
- panic attacks
- nightmares
- flashbacks
- withdrawal and isolation
- depression
- insomnia
- excessive worry
- anxiety
Ways To Alleviate the Affects of Trauma
- Ask others for help. Don’t avoid social contact and suffer alone, even if this feels very difficult. Find a self-help group to join.
- Practice mindfulness meditation and relaxation techniques.
- Exercise, preferably outdoors.
- Learn about post traumatic stress. Babette Rothschild is an expert on trauma recovery and has written several excellent books. Her video introduces her self help programme for survivors of trauma.
Trauma may affect people differently depending on their genetic make up and upbringing. I will talk more about this in my next blog on Neuroscience and Trauma in Childhood.