What it can feel like
After a frightening experience, it can feel like part of you never left. Memories intrude when you don't want them — as flashbacks, nightmares, or sudden waves of fear triggered by a sound, a smell or a place. You might feel jumpy, irritable, and unable to relax, or find yourself scanning every room for exits.
Many people start arranging their lives around avoiding reminders: taking different routes, skipping events, not talking about it. Sleep often suffers. You might feel distant from people you love, or like the world has become more dangerous than it used to be.
What's happening underneath
Post-traumatic stress develops when a threatening experience doesn't get fully processed as a memory that belongs to the past. Instead, the brain's alarm system stays primed, reacting to reminders as though the danger is happening now. Avoidance makes sense as a way to cope, but it also keeps the memory from being processed.
Many people who go through something traumatic recover without lasting symptoms; others don't, and that isn't a sign of weakness. It has to do with many factors, including what happened, what support was available afterward, and what else was going on in your life at the time.
I don't provide diagnoses. You're welcome to reach out whether or not you've been diagnosed with PTSD.
How therapy can help
We begin by building stability: ways to ground yourself when memories surface, better sleep, and a sense that therapy is a safe place to be. From there, and only when you're ready, we can begin to approach what happened so it can start to feel more like a memory and less like a present threat.
Some structured PTSD treatments — such as Cognitive Processing Therapy, Prolonged Exposure or EMDR — require specialised training. If one of these seems like a better fit for you, I'll be upfront about that and help you find a practitioner who offers it.
Approaches we might draw on
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)Understanding how trauma has shaped your beliefs about safety, trust and yourself, and gently revisiting them.
- Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)Grounding and distress tolerance skills for flashbacks, panic and overwhelming moments.
- Parts WorkRespecting the protective parts that keep you on alert, while helping them feel less alone with the job.
- Narrative TherapyPlacing the traumatic event within the larger story of your life, including how you've survived it.
Want to talk about what you're going through?
A free 20-minute consultation is a chance to share a little about what's going on and ask any questions — with no obligation to continue.