Trauma counselling
A supportive place to explore difficult experiences at your own pace.
Trauma can leave you feeling stuck, trapped or overwhelmed. Reaching out for help is an important step toward understanding what happened and how it is affecting your life.
At New Hope Counselling Centre, I am committed to helping you move forward with care and support.
Understanding trauma
A shocking or threatening event, or a series of experiences, can leave lasting emotional, mental and physical effects. A person may feel terrified, helpless or powerless after experiencing or witnessing something distressing.
Trauma is personal. The meaning of an experience, the support available and the difficulties that follow can differ from one person to another. You may feel overwhelmed by emotions or as though part of your experience remains “stuck.”
Counselling provides a place to explore these effects without assuming that everyone’s experience is the same.
Experiences that may bring someone to counselling
Accidents and disasters
Experiences such as a vehicle accident or natural disaster may leave a person struggling long after the immediate event has passed.
Harm within relationships
Sexual or physical assault, threats, betrayal and other harmful experiences with another person can affect a person’s sense of safety and trust.
Childhood and developmental experiences
Neglect, abandonment and physical, verbal, emotional, sexual or spiritual abuse may remain important parts of a person’s story. Counselling can offer space to consider those experiences and their meaning in life today.
Trauma, relationships and resilience
This work can include exploring attachment: the bonds and experiences of care that develop early in life. Feeling safe, receiving comfort and learning to manage emotions are important themes to explore.
Experiences of support
A secure and supportive home can include affection, comfort when distressed, emotional and physical support, and clear, healthy boundaries. Reliable care can help a child feel valued and protected.
Experiences of uncertainty
Ongoing conflict, abuse, neglect, unclear boundaries and a lack of support can leave a child feeling unsafe or alone. Separation, loss and changes in the home may also be important to discuss in the context of the person’s individual experience.
Exploring childhood experiences can help us understand present concerns. Your history does not need to be reduced to a score or treated as a fixed prediction of your future.
How the effects may show up
People may seek counselling because of anxiety, depression, difficulty in relationships, distressing memories, problems managing emotions or concerns about post-traumatic stress. Some describe feeling disconnected or finding that familiar situations bring distress back.
These concerns deserve individual attention. A questionnaire cannot establish a diagnosis or show the full effect an experience has had on your life.
Exploring EMDR therapy
EMDR is a focus of the trauma work at New Hope Counselling Centre. I can discuss whether it is appropriate for your needs and what the process would involve.
The starting point is to understand your experiences, present concerns and goals for counselling. Work can include emotional support, addressing the effects of difficult experiences and considering the resources that help you feel more supported in daily life.
Taking the next step begins with a conversation about the practice and whether this support is a good fit for you.
Reflecting on childhood experiences
The questions below refer to your first 18 years of life and may bring up difficult memories. You can skip any question, pause or discuss it with a professional rather than answering on your own.
These are reflection questions, not a diagnostic test or a scored ACE assessment. The number of experiences you identify does not measure your worth, determine your future or replace an individual assessment.
- Did a parent or another adult in the household often insult you, humiliate, put you down or swear at you?
- Did a parent or any other adult in the household often act in a way that caused you to be afraid that you might be physically hurt?
- Did a parent or any other adult in the household frequently push, grab, slap, or throw something at you?
- Did a parent or another adult in the household ever hit you so hard that you had marks or were injured?
- Did an adult or a younger person, at least 5 years older than you, ever touch or fondle you or have you touch their body in a sexual way?
- Did a parent or any other adult ever try to have or have oral, anal, or vaginal sex with you?
- Did you often feel that no one in your family loved you or thought you were important or special?
- Did you frequently feel that your family didn’t look out for each other, feel close to each other, or support each other?
- Did you often feel that you didn’t have enough to eat or had to wear dirty clothes, and/or had no one to protect you?
- Did you frequently feel that your parents were too drunk or high to take care of you or take you to the doctor if you needed it?
- Were your parents ever separated or divorced?
- Was your mother or stepmother frequently pushed, grabbed, slapped, or had something thrown at her?
- Was your mother or stepmother kicked, bitten, hit with a fist, or hit with something hard at any time?
- Was your mother or stepmother ever repeatedly hit for a few minutes or threatened with a gun or knife?
- Did you live with anyone who was a drinker or alcoholic or who used street drugs?
- Was a household member ever depressed or mentally ill or attempt suicide?
- Did a household member ever go to prison?
If something here feels important, you can bring it into counselling at a pace you are comfortable discussing. Support is available even if your experience is not described in this list.
