Anyone who is seeking a therapist will be doing so because they have been emotionally harmed by an event or events which has become an obstruction in their daily life and is preventing them from healing. This harm is often referred to as trauma.

‘Trauma’ comes to us from the Greek word for ‘wound’ which is the infliction of serious harm. But the Greeks meant this word holistically, that not only the body but also the psyche could be harmed. Psyche was used to describe, breath, life and soul, the forces that animate the body.

What affects the body can affect the psyche, what affects the psyche affects the body. The two are very much intertwined and wounding either one can have a long-term effect on the other.

Any serious wound can drastically restrict or limit our capacity to function and this can be both physically and emotionally. Trauma can leave us stuck in one mode of being, reducing flexibility and mobility. The aim of therapy is to begin restoration of that movement over time, akin to physiotherapy for the mind. 

The definition of your trauma is your own. Trauma can be a single catastrophic act or many small acts perpetrated over years that are unreasonable to bear.  If your experience or experiences have left you stuck in a particular way of being in the world to the point where parts of your life are stuck then this could be considered trauma.

When you experience emotional trauma, your body responds like there’s a physical threat in the room and you go into survival mode. These are typically, fight (attack) or flight (run away), fawn (appease) or freeze (play dead), one of which will offer the best chance of survival (attacking a rampaging elephant is not only unethical and probably not the best way to survive that threat).

Post-trauma there can be elements left unresolved. For some this is the main part of the trauma and for others it can be a sensory reminder of the trauma, a sound or smell, a texture, taste or something you see. It can also be a feeling. When we encounter reminders in our daily life that are similar to the unresolved parts our body responds as though confronted by the original threat which again triggers a survival response.