While we live and breathe Stress is inevitable and we may all have experienced some form of trauma. It is important to be aware of the physical, mental, and emotional impact and effects of stress and trauma in childhood through adulthood. Stress effects our nervous system, triggering hormones that wreak havoc on our brains and bodies and show up as symptoms or health problems. To quote top cellular biologists Dr Bruce Lipton ‘95% of ALL illness is caused by stress’.
There are many symptoms of stress and trauma, the more you know and can recognise them, the easier it will be to understand your symptoms, reactions, and those of others: Unpleasant memories, feelings, negative emotions, fears, phobias, avoidance, grief, anger, anxiety, irritability, aggression and low mood. Also, physical cluster of symptoms that may have an emotional component; pain, headaches, muscle stiffness, sleep disturbance, difficulty concentrating, poor desicion making, poor short-term memory, cravings, and unhealthy habits.
However, the harmful effects of stress are not inevitable and do not have to be lasting!
Imagine if you could improve your health, calm your nervous system and be set free?
What would your life look like?
How would that feel?
I can support you in recovery and healing:
- Awareness, acknowledgement, connection being heard and understood.
- Release the emotional attachments to the negative thoughts, feelings, memories and the physical discomfort attached to issues.
- Be more aware of yourself, physically and mentally and therefore have more resilience to bounce back, breaking the cycle with behaviour change.
- Discover your strengths and be empowered to make better choices towards your life purpose.
- Be given tools going forward for self-help, emotional first aid, also called self-regulation techniques to use in future stressful and traumatic moments.
- Resulting in a positive effect on all aspects of your life, personal, professional, performance and relationships.
I support the person, not the condition, with a trauma informed holistic approach holding a safe place. Using a combination of appropriate tools to address individual needs. EFT Emotional Freedom Techniques, also known as Energy Psychology, the most effective tool I have come across, can quickly and consistently release and soothe negative thoughts, emotions and the physical discomfort attached to issues. You can then have the same thoughts without the intensity, calming your nervous system, setting you free to move forward. Set free with the appropriate support, tools and solutions to thrive not just survive using other modalities with only coping mechanisms and symptom management.
What is Stress? It is anything that takes you out of your comfort zone. There are three types of stress: physical, emotional, and chemical, whether from injury, physical or emotional trauma, lifestyle, toxicity or nutritional depletion through diet. We live in a fast paced, pressurised, 24/7 technological world, where things happen, sometimes awful things happen, especially the Covid-19 health pandemic and economic fallout. However, not all stress is bad for us, if we have awareness, tools, and resilience. Good stress and anxiety levels can keep us safe, teach us valuable life lessons and enable us to choose healthy behaviours and make better lifestyle choices.
What is Trauma? Trauma is a very personal thing. It is any experience that leaves us feeling shocked, overwhelmed, isolated, and in fear. Trauma can be ‘big’ like an accident, abuse, abandonment, bereavement, bullying or divorce, or ‘smaller’ like anything new to you taking you out of your comfort zone. During a stressful event whether the “threat” is perceived, real, or it is imagined, the brain does not know the difference, and the distress is real and physically felt. Trauma can be a response to a one stressful event or to many events over a longer period. It is more likely to affect us badly when it is long term and complex, and when there has been no support. Not everyone realises the full impact it has on them at the time. What is traumatic for one person can have less impact and significance to another person. This may be because of individual personalities, beliefs, values, and previous experiences.
How does the stress effect us? The typical stress response of “fight, flight, or freeze”, is a natural psychological defence mechanism used to cope in painful situations. In the moment, the front of the brain known as prefrontal cortex, where conscious reasoning occurs, shuts down. The danger fighting adrenaline and other neurochemicals rush through the body, preparing to fight for your life, run away from the threat, or play dead. It is normal for our heart rate to increase, blood vessels constrict, breathing become faster and shallow, there is less oxygen in the blood stream, which leads is to over-breathing, and feeling many strong emotions and symptoms including panic, sweating, shaking, tearful and fear. Everyone’s response will be different. The memories of the events are imprinted in the emotional side of the brain, in a part called the amygdala which holds the emotional significance and intensity. They are stored through visual images, smells, sounds, taste, and touch and then negative feelings can easily be triggered interpreting safe normal sensory input as danger whenever we experience similar circumstances in later life.
What can help? In a moment when your nervous system is on high alert and you notice that you are feeling overwhelmed by emotions and symptoms, by using simple self-regulation or grounding techniques, such as EFT for emotional first aid, also controlling your breathing you can reduce the feelings. Controlled breathing will bring oxygen and blood flow back to the brain calming the nervous system bringing awareness to your senses reducing your symptoms and bringing yourself more into the moment to deal with the situation. Sometimes the past problems still cause issues, months or years after, the painful memories, shock or prolonged stress shaping our present behaviour and health. If what you are experiencing has been diagnosed as a complex mental health condition you could find a qualified mental health professional who is experienced in EFT, as this is not a medical intervention.
My aim is to support my clients in healing, as described above. I provide a package of care for healing with a holistic, trauma informed approach holding a safe place. Using a combination of appropriate tools to address individual needs. Identity the cause, use the techniques to release the emotional attachment to the issues, calm the nervous system and reduce the symptoms so it feels safe to move forward to your purpose with awareness, empowerment, and resilience. Transforming your experience with stress, so how you think, feel and act can be a healthier response to future stress.
If you are interested in working together with me on your healing, the next step is to request a free Health Appraisal form.
Once the completed form is returned, an appointment will be made for your free up to 30 minute telephone consultation at a mutually convenient time. I will answer any questions you have, outline what you want to achieve by working with me, explain how I work and outline the options on offer.
Healing From Stress And Trauma Package of Care
• Introductory Consultations are £85. Duration 60 minutes.
• Moving forward, an individually tailored package of care include six one-hour consultation and email support between consultations.
• Cost £420. Payments can be flexible £70 per session.
• Packages of care can be flexible and agile for clients needs.
• Telephone, Skype and Zoom appointments are offered for those who prefer not to travel or for long distance consultations.
The first session is based on what is important to you, as the client you choose your outcomes. In each of the following sessions we use your most important outcomes to guide our work. In each session we use gentle and safe techniques to explore and heal the causes of your difficulties.
I usually teach my clients simple techniques they can use to ease their distress between sessions. They can use these techniques to speed up the process and to help them for the rest of their lives.
At the end of each session I may give clients tasks to do between sessions. These tasks are to strengthen the changes they’ve made and to practice new ways of being in the world.
At the beginning each next session we review the progress you are making and decide what to do next. What is important to you may change as we make progress and we can adjust our course as we go along.
If there is still work to do at the sixth session, we review our progress and plan our next steps. You decide when you have made enough changes for you and when to end, pause or continue. A month after our last session I will get in touch with you by email to find out how you are progressing.
To request your free Health Appraisal form get in touch via the contact page.