Trauma Therapy in Corsham, Wiltshire and Online
Specialist trauma-focused psychotherapy
Many people picture trauma as a car crash or natural disaster. Yet growing up with criticism or emotional distance, painful relationships, betrayal, or repeated pressure at work can also leave a mark. You may simply feel that something still affects you without calling it trauma. I offer specialist psychotherapy at Hartham Park in Corsham, near Bath, and online across the UK. If you are looking for therapy or counselling, we can explore whether this approach fits, without needing to settle on a label.
People sometimes use the informal terms “Big T” for a major event and “small t” for less visible or repeated experiences. These labels do not measure impact. Growing up with criticism or an unpredictable parent, painful relationships, or repeated problems at work can leave a mark, even without one defining memory. A therapist might call this relational, attachment, developmental or cumulative trauma; you do not need to use any of those labels. You might notice:
When you understand what happened, but it still affects you
Perhaps therapy has helped you understand your past, recognise patterns or develop useful coping skills. Yet part of you still reacts as though nothing has changed. You might know that you are safe, for example, while still feeling on edge or finding it hard to trust.
Specialist trauma therapy can offer further ways of working with the memories, feelings and learned responses beneath these difficulties. I am a psychotherapist accredited with the BABCP, with additional training in specialist approaches that we can draw on to suit your needs and pace.
How Is Specialist Trauma Therapy Different from Counselling or CBT?
Counselling, CBT and trauma-focused therapy can all be helpful. They overlap in many ways, but they can place emphasis on different aspects of a person’s difficulties.
Counselling can provide a supportive and confidential space to talk about what has happened, understand your feelings, make sense of relationships and experiences, and feel heard without judgement. For many people, having time to reflect with another person can be an important part of recovery. Counselling approaches vary considerably, and some therapists also work specifically with trauma.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) often focuses more directly on the links between thoughts, emotions, behaviour and physical responses. It can be particularly useful for understanding patterns in the here and now, identifying unhelpful beliefs or predictions, developing alternative perspectives and changing behaviours that may be maintaining a problem.
My own professional training began in CBT, and I continue to value cognitive and behavioural approaches where they are useful. Trauma-focused CBT is an established treatment for PTSD and is recommended by NICE alongside EMDR in appropriate circumstances.
However, people affected by trauma sometimes describe a frustrating gap between what they know intellectually and how they continue to feel or react.
You may know that you are safe now, recognise that a situation is different from the past, or understand logically that you were not to blame, while your body and emotions continue to respond as if danger is still present.
There is a neurological basis for why this can happen. Under significant stress, the brain tends to prioritise rapid threat detection and more automatic responses. At the same time, functions associated with the prefrontal cortex, including working memory, flexible thinking and top-down regulation of emotion, can become less efficient. This does not mean that the thinking part of the brain literally switches off, but it can become harder to access reflective, flexible thinking when the nervous system is highly activated.
Specialist trauma therapy therefore may involve more than trying to change a thought through reasoning alone. The work can include the way distressing memories are stored and triggered, the meanings attached to those experiences, bodily and emotional responses, attachment patterns, avoidance, shame and learned responses to threat.
Depending on the formulation, treatment may draw on EMDR, Deep Brain Reorienting, Brainspotting, Internal Family Systems and Schema Therapy alongside cognitive and behavioural approaches.
The aim is not to choose between ‘thinking’ and ‘feeling’, or between top-down and bottom-up therapy. It is to understand which processes are maintaining the difficulty and use approaches that can work with them at an appropriate pace.
How trauma therapy works
Understanding Your Experiences
We begin by exploring what has brought you to therapy and how past experiences may be influencing your present reactions. You do not need to arrive with a diagnosis or a complete explanation of what is happening.
You do not have to tell every detail
Some of the therapies I offer involve less talking about your thoughts and feelings. We may gently notice sensations, emotions or what happens in the moment, without needing a detailed account of every difficult experience. You will not be expected to repeatedly retell your story. We agree together how to work, at a pace that feels manageable.
Building Stability
Before approaching distressing memories, we may develop grounding skills and ways to manage emotional overwhelm or disconnection. This preparation helps the work remain paced and manageable.
Processing and Moving Forward
When it feels appropriate, we can carefully work with memories, emotions and beliefs that continue to affect you. Therapy also focuses on developing greater choice, healthier boundaries and new ways of responding in the present.
Weekly therapy or a focused intensive?
Weekly sessions offer steady, paced work. A longer session may suit some people after assessment and preparation. Read about EMDR and trauma intensives in Wiltshire and Online EMDR Intensives. We can discuss which format, if either, is suitable for you.
Questions people often ask
Do I need a PTSD diagnosis?
No. You do not need a PTSD diagnosis to explore whether trauma-focused therapy may be helpful. Difficult childhood or relationship experiences, betrayal, repeated stress, attachment difficulties and other experiences can continue to affect how you feel, respond or relate to others without meeting the criteria for PTSD. We can explore what is happening for you without assuming that every difficulty is caused by trauma or requiring you to adopt a particular label. If the main difficulty is connected to a current or past relationship, you can also read about Relationship Trauma Therapy for Individuals.
Will I have to talk through everything that happened?
No. Trauma therapy does not always require you to describe every detail of what happened, and you will not be expected to repeatedly retell difficult experiences.
With EMDR, it is often possible to work with a memory without giving a detailed account of it. There is also a specific EMDR approach known as the Blind to Therapist (B2T) protocol, which can be used in appropriate circumstances when someone does not want to disclose the content of a traumatic memory in detail. You still remain aware of what you are working with, but the therapist does not necessarily need to know the full story.
Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) also places much less emphasis on talking through the trauma itself. After identifying the experience or trigger we are working with, attention is directed towards early orienting, tension and shock responses. This can offer a way of working with trauma that does not depend on repeatedly describing or analysing the event.
How much you share is always discussed collaboratively. I will need enough information to understand what you are experiencing, assess safety and plan treatment appropriately, but you remain in control of how much detail you disclose.
How is specialist trauma therapy different from counselling or CBT?
Counselling can provide a supportive space to reflect, understand experiences and make sense of feelings and relationships. CBT can help you understand links between thoughts, emotions, behaviour and physical responses, and change patterns that may be maintaining difficulties in the present. Trauma-focused CBT is also an established treatment for PTSD and is recommended by NICE alongside EMDR in appropriate circumstances.
Specialist trauma therapy may additionally focus on distressing memories, attachment experiences, learned threat responses and emotional or bodily reactions that continue even when you understand the problem intellectually. The aim is not to treat one approach as better than another, but to understand what is maintaining the difficulty and choose treatment accordingly.
How do you decide which trauma therapy approach to use?
You do not need to choose between EMDR, DBR, Brainspotting, IFS or Schema Therapy before you begin. We start with assessment and an individual formulation, considering what you are experiencing, your history, current triggers, emotional stability, preferences and the pace that feels manageable. We can then agree which approach, or combination of approaches, is most appropriate and review this as therapy develops.
Can trauma therapy help if I understand the problem but still react emotionally?
It can be worth considering. Insight is valuable, but understanding why you react in a particular way does not always change an automatic emotional or physical response. You may know that you are safe or that the present situation is different from the past, while still noticing fear, shutdown, shame, anger or other reactions. Trauma-focused work can explore the memories, meanings and learned responses that may be contributing to that gap between what you know and how you continue to feel.
Can trauma therapy help with complex trauma or CPTSD?
Complex trauma and CPTSD can involve difficulties that have developed over a longer period, including problems with emotional regulation, relationships, trust, shame or a persistent sense of threat. Treatment needs to be individually formulated and carefully paced. For some people, work may initially focus on stability, emotional regulation, safety and attachment patterns before, or alongside, more direct trauma processing. We would discuss what is appropriate for you rather than assuming that everyone needs the same treatment sequence.
Will we start processing traumatic memories straight away?
Not necessarily. Trauma therapy begins with understanding what you are experiencing, assessing your needs and agreeing a treatment plan. Preparation may include developing ways to manage distress, strengthening stability and discussing what to expect from processing. Direct work with traumatic memories begins when it is clinically appropriate and when we have agreed that the timing and pace are right for you.