Trauma
Trauma symptoms can be complex. People often report a range of physical, mental, emotional and behavioural changes following a traumatic event. If you can relate to the symptoms below, I can support you to understand what is happening in your nervous system, reduce your trauma symptoms and begin the journey to feeling more like your usual sense of self again.
Emotional symptoms
- Feeling fearful, anxious, or constantly on edge
- Intense sadness or grief
- Irritability or anger
- Emotional numbness
- Shame, guilt, or self-blame
- Feeling disconnected from others
- Mood swings
Psychological symptoms
- Intrusive memories of the traumatic event
- Flashbacks
- Nightmares or distressing dreams
- Difficulty concentrating
- Confusion or feeling mentally overwhelmed
- Hypervigilance (constantly scanning for danger)
- Feeling detached from reality or yourself (dissociation)
Physical symptoms
- Increased heart rate
- Muscle tension
- Headaches
- Fatigue or exhaustion
- Sleep disturbances
- Digestive problems
- Startling easily
- Sweating or trembling
- Chronic pain without a clear medical cause
Behavioural symptoms
- Avoiding people, places, or situations linked to the trauma
- Social withdrawal
- Changes in eating or sleeping habits
- Difficulty trusting others
- Increased use of alcohol, drugs, or other coping behaviours
- Becoming overly cautious or controlling
Relationship symptoms
- Difficulty forming or maintaining relationships
- Feeling isolated or misunderstood
- Fear of closeness or vulnerability
- Increased conflict with family, friends, or partners
Common signs of Post-Traumatic Stress
- Re-experiencing the trauma through flashbacks or nightmares
- Avoidance of reminders
- Persistent feelings of threat or danger
- Heightened emotional reactions
- Difficulty relaxing or feeling safe
Trauma in children and young people
Children may show trauma differently, including:
- Regression to earlier behaviours
- Separation anxiety
- Changes in school performance
- Increased clinginess
- Aggressive or withdrawn behaviour
- Repetitive play related to the traumatic event
- Sleep difficulties or nightmares
How psychotherapy can help
Trauma can affect how you think, feel, relate to others and respond to stress, often long after the event has passed. Through therapy, you can develop a greater understanding of your experiences, reduce distressing symptoms, strengthen coping strategies and gradually regain a sense of safety, stability and control in your life.
I create a safe and supportive space to process the impact of a traumatic event at a pace that feels right for you. I follow a trauma-informed integrative approach that explores emotional responses, triggers, negative thought cycles, assumptions, self-care and healthy boundaries. Psychotherapy can help you build emotional resilience to manage difficult emotions and navigate life's challenges with increased self-awareness and greater confidence in your ability to manage difficult thoughts, emotions and situations.
Psychotherapy is an opportunity to set clear objectives and goals. This is a starting point that can help you identify emotional states, understand your nervous system and how it responds, learn key coping strategies and practical tools to support feeling safe and return to living a full life.
How therapeutic yoga can help
Trauma work involves staying within a level of emotional and physical activation that feels manageable, helping you gradually reconnect with your body without becoming overwhelmed.
Initially, specific yoga postures and breathwork practices are used to bring movement to the body and observe how it responds. Over time, this work can help restore feelings of safety and confidence, regulate the nervous system when exposed to manageable internal stressors, and support reconnection with bodily sensations.
When appropriate, specific practices may focus on the iliopsoas muscles (the muscles responsible for walking, often known as the fight/flight muscles) to release physical tension and protective patterns that may have developed following traumatic experiences.
What engaging in therapy may change
- Feeling safer in your body
- Reduced hypervigilance
- Fewer flashbacks or triggers
- Improved sleep
- Greater emotional regulation
- Stronger sense of stability and self
If you have experienced a traumatic event, trauma-informed support is available, to help you recover your usual sense of self again
If you are experiencing nightmares, flashbacks, heightened anxiety or emotional overwhelm that are affecting your relationships, work or daily life. I have availability for psychotherapy and therapeutic yoga appointments to specifically address trauma in Glasgow and Shotts, you can reach out by the contact page or call me directly to arrange your first appointment.
