Trauma rewires how you relate to yourself and others. It can make you smaller, more accommodating, less likely to trust your own knowing. Whether it's explicit trauma, events with names and dates, or developmental trauma (when certain childhood needs were consistently not met), the residue is the same: a nervous system that treats the present as if it were the past.
Safety first, always
Good trauma work is sequenced. We begin with stabilisation (grounding skills, resources, a felt sense of safety in your own body) before we go anywhere near processing. You'll never be pushed to relive anything to prove you're working hard enough. The work restores agency; it doesn't take more of it away.
How we work on it
I use trauma-informed Cognitive Behavioural Therapy alongside schema-informed approaches, DBT-informed skills for regulation and distress tolerance, and body-based techniques, tailored to you rather than run as a protocol. We work on the intrusions and the vigilance, but also on what trauma taught you about yourself: the beliefs about being too much, not enough, or only valuable when useful. And we practise the new patterns in real time: boundaries set in session, not just discussed in theory.
Questions people ask
Do I have to retell everything that happened?
No. Trauma therapy is not forced retelling. We work at a pace your nervous system can actually use, and stabilisation, feeling safe and resourced, always comes before processing. You stay in control of what we approach and when.
Does online therapy work for trauma?
The research says yes: outcomes for trauma-focused therapy delivered online are comparable to in-person care. Some clients find being in their own space actually helps. We build in grounding practices for the sessions themselves, so the work stays safe.
What if I'm not sure it counts as trauma?
That question is itself very common in this work. Trauma isn't only the dramatic, obvious events; it's also developmental: childhood needs (safety, attunement, being allowed to need anything at all) that were consistently unmet, at the age when your sense of self was still being built. If it's shaping your present, it counts enough to look at.
Clinical experience in private residential recovery centres, including Geneva and Marbella. A limited number of clients, so every person gets continuous, unhurried care.