Trauma Counselling

If you’re struggling with emotional or psychological trauma, booking a session for trauma counselling in Melbourne could be the first step towards healing and reclaiming your well-being. The effects of trauma can be far-reaching, impacting mental, emotional, and even physical well-being, often leading to symptoms like anxiety, depression, and sleep disturbances.

How Do You Know If You Are Experiencing Trauma?

Experiencing a distressing event is incredibly difficult, and its impact is unique to each individual. While not everyone develops long-lasting trauma, it’s crucial to seek support if you’re facing ongoing challenges in its aftermath. Here are some common signs that may indicate you’re experiencing trauma:

• Intrusive Memories:
• • Flashbacks that make you feel like you’re reliving the event
  • Nightmares that center around the traumatic experience
  • Recurring, distressing thoughts and images that you can’t control

• Avoidance:
• • Actively avoiding people, places, situations, or even thoughts/feelings related to the trauma
  • Making significant changes to your routines to avoid anything that may trigger memories or flashbacks

• Negative Mood Changes:
• • Persistent sadness, hopelessness, or feelings of numbness
  • Frequent or ongoing fear, anger, or irritability
  • Experiencing a sense of detachment from others or your own emotions

• Hyperarousal:
• • Feeling constantly “on edge” or easily startled
  • Difficulty sleeping or concentrating
  • Prone to outbursts of anger or irritability

• Difficulty Functioning:
• • Struggling to maintain relationships, work commitments, or regular routines due to the above symptoms
  • Feeling overwhelmed by everyday tasks that once felt manageable

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

PTSD is a mental health condition that can develop after you experience or witness a traumatic event. If you experience the signs above consistently for more than a month, and they significantly impact your quality of life, seeking professional trauma counselling in Melbourne is highly recommended. A qualified trauma counsellor can:

• Help you understand PTSD and how it might be affecting you
• Provide a safe space to process the traumatic event(s)
• Teach you effective coping strategies to manage flashbacks, anxiety, and other symptoms
• Support you in gradually regaining a sense of control and normalcy in your life

Please Note: This list is not comprehensive. If you suspect you may be experiencing trauma, seeking professional guidance from a qualified trauma counsellor is the best way to get personalised support and begin your healing journey.

The effects of trauma when left untreated

Unfortunately, many of us come into contact with traumatic incidents and the longer we live, the more likely we are to experience a trauma event. Trauma is the response to a profoundly stressful or frightening event that overwhelms an individual’s ability to self-manage. This causes feelings of powerlessness, diminishes sense of self and one’s ability to feel an extensive array of emotions and experiences.

Trauma events vary significantly. Two individuals can experience the exact same event and be impacted very differently. It can occur as a one-off incident or be repeated over a long period of time. Individuals who experience trauma often develop coping mechanisms to enable them to survive and get through the experience. However, these coping mechanism are often only effective for managing the trauma event and can be detrimental when implemented into our everyday lives.

Traumatic events impact our brain and may cause individuals suffering from trauma to become hyper vigilant. This results in the brain associating benign events as suspicious or even traumatic, causing a great deal of stress and anxiety. For the individual, this results in feelings of dread, depression, fear, anxiety and an impaired ability to cope with everyday situations.

How can trauma counselling help?

Therapeutic engagement is very effective in the treatment of trauma. Unlike traditional counselling, trauma therapy must be measured and paced to ensure the client feels safe at all times. MSRCC offers specialised trauma therapy in Melbourne that enables clients to:

• understand their coping mechanisms
• validate their experiences and emotions
• understand and make sense of their trauma
• understand the impact of the trauma on their daily life and how it plays a role in how they react
• develop strategies to enable them to respond in a more considered and effective way and remain more present in their daily life

MSRCC therapists are specifically trained in Trauma Therapy and Recovery. They integrate psychological techniques to assist clients in getting their lives back on track. We work with you and address your specific needs to stop you from being triggered by past traumatic events and step fully into life with safety, calmness and authenticity. Call us today to get help to overcome your traumatic experiences.

MSRCC Offers Trauma Counselling in Melbourne

Are you or someone you know in need of trauma counselling?

In psychology, ‘trauma’ is defined as an emotional response to a distressing event. That event could be anything that a person looks back on as a very negative moment in their life. In some cases, trauma results from a life-threatening occurrence, such as an accident, a violent attack or an experience on the battlefield. Other times, it might be due to events that aren’t life-threatening but that are very impactful in a negative way regardless, such as harassment, embarrassment or rejection.

At Melbourne Specialist Relationship Counselling Clinic (MSRCC), our trauma counsellors help clients work through their struggles with psychological trauma.

What You Can Expect from MSRCC Regarding Trauma Counselling

When you come to MSRCC seeking counselling for trauma, you can expect a supportive environment and the help of a team dedicated to guiding you towards recovery. Here are a few cornerstones of our counselling in this arena:

• Experienced trauma counsellors: Our therapists are specialists in the area of trauma therapy, having gone through in-depth and specific training on matters of trauma and recovery. They have the skills and tools to help you work through your trauma.
• An empathetic approach: All trauma is different, which means all trauma support and counselling has to be tailored to suit each specific case. We work with you closely to understand your ordeal, from the event(s) that caused it to the coping mechanisms you are using to make it through. By understanding your shock and the impact it has had on your life, we can develop strategies to help you live with the events in a healthier, more effective way.
• A free consultation: When seeking therapy for trauma, it is essential to find an environment where you feel comfortable and supported. We offer a free 15 minute telephone consultation so that you can get to know us and get a sense of our counselling style before committing to anything or spending any money.

The Importance of Trauma Therapy

For those struggling with trauma, finding quality trauma support in Melbourne is essential for many reasons. These include:

• It helps you understand that what you are feeling is normal: How you are feeling in the wake of a traumatic event is entirely normal. Your situation is unique, but your symptoms are things that many other people are dealing with or have dealt with in the past. Seeking therapy for trauma can help you understand that there is nothing ‘wrong’ with you. In turn, this revelation makes envisioning recovery easier.
• It maps out a path towards recovery: Having someone with deep knowledge of trauma sit down with you, work through the causes of your distress and familiarise themselves with your symptoms and coping mechanisms is the most effective way to help you map out a path towards recovery and improvement.
• It can help you improve your quality of life: Ultimately, that path will hopefully lead you to a place where you feel calmer, safer and more at ease in your day-to-day life. The goal is to help you manage the stress, anxiety, fear and depression that are so common for post-traumatic victims—thereby helping you live a fuller, happier life.

To address the multi-faceted impact of trauma on your life, consider seeking professional guidance through trauma counselling in Melbourne.

Why Trust MSRCC Regarding Trauma Counselling

Trauma events vary significantly. Two individuals can experience the exact same event and be impacted very differently. It can occur as a one-off incident or be repeated over a long period of time. Individuals who experience trauma often develop coping mechanisms to enable them to survive and get through the experience. However, these coping mechanisms are often only effective for managing the trauma event and can be detrimental when implemented into our everyday lives.

If you are seeking trauma counselling in Melbourne, call MSRCC to obtain further information from our intake staff. During this call, you will be able to decide for yourself whether you feel comfortable with us.