Counselling Connections

During our journey as human beings, we are bound to experience critical incidents that leave us reeling with difficult emotions, and sometimes seemingly permanent trauma symptoms.

​

Traumatic events can bring us together, and they can also tear us apart.

Trauma can be seen as an injury that happened to us, and we are left with the task of sorting out how to first service it, then heal and grow from it. Even though you might continue to struggle with the effects of trauma, you have survived and that took courage, strength, and resourcefulness.

​

There are two ways in which people come into contact with trauma, a one-time powerful incident (e.g. a single or multiple powerful critical incidents such as assault, rape, or child abuse) or from chronic  exposure to repeated traumatic events (e.g. neglect, domestic violence, military war zone, or first responders).

​

These critical incidents have a seriously debilitating impact on our sense of safety, esteem, identity or life, and threaten our ability to function in daily life in safe or normal ways. This can lead to depression, anxiety, addiction, aggression, regression, psycho-emotional numbness, or other dissociative disorders.

​

If you are a traumatized persons that remains untreated, you can experience a sharp and serious decline in your mental health condition. Emotional expression and regulation may cease to be present for you. You can become easily aggravated and/or overwhelmed by distress and unmanageable intrusions – such as nightmares, flashbacks, and disturbing memories or physical sensations.

​

Each person experiences traumatic events differently. Many people affected by trauma may not yet realize all that has happened to them and how they have been affected. Others may want help but may not feel quite ready to ask for it. It is important for survivors of trauma to indicate readiness for entering treatment for their trauma, and to find a therapist that has the skills and experience to be able to establish and maintain therapeutic safety.

​

​​

At Counselling Connections, we bring a holistic approach to trauma care that attends to our clients from a mind-body-spirit basis, as we acknowledge and attend to the needs of our clients who present with trauma symptoms. Our therapeutic approaches are based on a creating a solid foundation of safety for those who have been traumatized. We also strive to incorporate the most recent findings from neuroscience discoveries.   

​

Living with unprocessed trauma is akin to that of a shaken bottle of soda. Inside the bottle is a tremendous amount of pressure. The safest way to release the pressure is to open and close the cap in a slow, cautious and intentional manner so as to prevent an explosion. (Rothschild, 2010)

At Counselling Connections, we will help you to re-establish a sense of safety in your life, give you tools for better understanding what you have experienced, make your daily walk in life regain a sense of being do-able, and nurture your sense of hope, meaning and purpose in life.