What Is Trauma?
Trauma is not just about what happened — it is also about how those experiences live on in the body and mind. Whether you have been through a single overwhelming event or a series of difficult experiences over time, trauma can affect how safe you feel in the world, how connected you feel to others and how you relate to yourself.
Trauma describes the lasting impact of experiences that were too much, too fast, too soon or not enough for too long. This might include:
- Abuse, neglect or violence
- Medical trauma or accidents
- Discrimination or systemic oppression
- Loss, abandonment or early attachment disruption
- Being in a situation where you felt powerless or unsafe
Everyone’s response is different. You do not have to meet a specific “threshold” for your experience to be valid.
Common effects of trauma include:
- Hypervigilance, anxiety or a sense of being on edge
- Emotional numbness or a sense of detachment
- Shame, self-blame or low self-worth
- Flashbacks or intrusive memories
- Sleep difficulties, nightmares or chronic fatigue
- Difficulties with trust, intimacy or boundaries
- Physical symptoms without a clear medical explanation
- Feeling stuck, unsafe or like something is “wrong” with you
You might not recognise your experiences as trauma especially if they were normalised growing up, but if something from your past continues to negatively impact how you feel, relate or function, it is worth exploring.
Types of Trauma
There are many forms of trauma, and your experience may not fit into neat categories. Some commonly recognised types include:
- Acute trauma – from a single incident, such as an accident or assault
- Chronic trauma – from repeated or ongoing events, such as abuse or neglect
- Developmental trauma – relational disruptions early in life that affect emotional and physical development
- Complex trauma – the result of multiple, compounding experiences over time
- Secondary or vicarious trauma – from witnessing or supporting others in distress
- Intergenerational trauma – patterns passed down through family or cultural history
Trauma may also intersect with other issues, including anxiety, depression, identity, relationships, physical health or burnout.
How Therapy Can Help
You do not have to face trauma alone. Therapy can offer a consistent, compassionate space to begin understanding what you have been through and how it may still be affecting you.
Therapy can help you:
- Make sense of your responses
- Reconnect with parts of yourself that feel shut down or overwhelmed
- Develop grounding tools and emotional regulation strategies
- Rebuild a sense of trust, safety and choice
- Work through trauma gently without retraumatising
- Begin to imagine a life not ruled by past experiences
At Seven Lion Yard, we offer approaches that support trauma recovery, including:
- EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) – uses bilateral stimulation to support the brain in reprocessing distressing memories, reducing their emotional charge
- Trauma Focused CBT – identifies and challenges unhelpful thoughts, gradually processing traumatic memories and building coping strategies to reduce fear and avoidance
- Attachment-informed therapy – explores the impact of early relationships and patterns of connection
- Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) – supports recovery from shame and self-blame
- Internal Family Systems (IFS) – helps understand and care for the parts of you shaped by trauma
- Mindfulness and somatic practices – help regulate the body and build present-moment safety
You do not need to know where to start or which approach is right, we will help you find what feels safe and supportive.
What to Expect
We know that reaching out for therapy after trauma can feel daunting. We work collaboratively and at a pace that feels manageable for you. There is no pressure to talk about anything before you are ready.
We will begin by getting to know what is bringing you here and exploring what kind of support might feel safe and helpful. Therapy may involve learning grounding techniques, understanding trauma responses in the body and gradually processing difficult experiences when it feels right to do so.
