Trauma and PTSD

If you have been a witness to or the subject of a traumatic event of any kind, you may experience flashbacks or nightmares, have difficulty sleeping or coping with everyday life, and suffer from feelings of guilt, depression or panic. Hypnotherapy can help you with all of these, including the longer term effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Traumatic incidents can overwhelm the brain’s ability to properly process the information it received during the event, and the symptoms you might then suffer from can be due to the brain continually trying to make sense of what happened. Hypnotherapy can help you to process the memories of traumatic events safely, allowing the brain to stop continually re-evaluating them, and thereby freeing you from the effects of the trauma.

In May 2010 I was in a car accident on the motorway which could easily have killed me and my three daughters.  I fell asleep at the wheel for a millisecond, but it was enough to send us spinning across two lanes of traffic, hitting the central reservation and then ricocheting back across the motorway until we slammed into the barrier on the hard shoulder.  Thankfully my girls were ok, and I got off lightly with shock, whiplash, a cracked rib and a written-off car.

It could have been a lot worse though, and I refused to get behind the wheel again for months.  As a passenger in a car I flinched at everything, held my breath and gripped the seat until my knuckles went white.  The overwhelming guilt I felt at what could have happened was interfering with my everyday life.  I couldn’t talk about the accident without bursting into tears, and I had horrendous nightmares that stopped me sleeping at night and prevented me from functioning properly during the day.  Even watching an action film triggered terrifying flashbacks that left me shaking and in floods of tears.

Nine months later I realised that something had to change, and I asked a colleague for help.  Cognitive Hypnotherapy worked – the flashbacks and nightmares stopped within a couple of weeks, I can talk about the accident without getting upset, I bought a car, and am driving confidently again.

If you have experienced a traumatic event (or series of events) that’s affecting how you live your life, Cognitive Hypnotherapy could help you.  Having been through it myself I know how upsetting and debilitating it can be, and I can assure you that I will work with you sensitively and at a level and pace of change that you feel comfortable with and ready for.

Please do contact me for more information if you think you (or someone you know) may be struggling with the effects of a trauma, and we can talk about how I might be able to help.