I've always been drawn to figuring out trauma. In my experience, healing from trauma can be likened to a dark night of the soul, which, if we can walk the path it leads us on, can help us remember who we are at our core. Healing takes as long as it takes, it has its own timeline and the journey is definitely not linear.
I wanted to study psychology after school, but life had different plans for me. Instead I studied photography and later completed an M.A. in Digital Design. When the time was right, I went back to university to do an M.A. in Counselling & Psychotherapy and completed my thesis on trauma and dissociation (1st class honours). I have also completed training in EFT and Hypnotherapy. I am an accredited and advanced EFT practitioner and clinical hypnotherapist.
The term trauma can seem scary and even stigmatising, but trauma simply means 'wound' and we have all been wounded or hurt. I think normalising trauma and seeing it as a fact of life, but not a life sentence, as Peter Levine says, is really important. Mountains of research and the personal experience of millions, if not billions, show that trauma is the most important root cause (there can be others of course) of many so-called mental "disorders", as well as many chronic and unexplained physical illnesses.
We can see evidence of unresolved traumatic stress in addiction, anxiety, depression and chronic health issues, as the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study has shown. This is why it is so important that we work with root causes, not just symptoms. My areas of interest are in birth, developmental, relational and complex trauma, our first years of life have a profound influence on us.
I find that talk therapy, on its own, is not effective at resolving trauma. We can spend years in traditional psychotherapy without deep change and personal growth. We are not just talking heads, we also have a body which needs to be included in any therapeutic work. It is now well understood that our body is a repository for unresolved post traumatic symptoms; trauma is both physiological and psychological.
Dissolving the emotional charge of explicit and implicit memories (read more about the felt sense here), which we experience as triggers, flashbacks and unexplained symptoms, is crucial to healing from trauma. I use EFT, hypnotherapy, techniques from somatic experiencing, Internal Family Systems, and other modalities, along with psychotherapeutic skills, to achieve this.
Workshops and Courses completed:
• Matrix Birth Reimprinting, Sharon King, Cork, Ireland, 2010
• ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training), Waterford, Ireland, 2011
• Healing Trauma, Peter Levine, Sounds True, 2015
• Trauma, Attachment & The Care Giver (part 1), Jess Angland, Portlaoise, Ireland, 2016
• Repairing Trauma (part 2), Jess Angland, Portlaoise, Ireland, 2016
• Shame, Self-Loathing & Complex Trauma Treatment: Somatic Interventions, Janina Fisher, PESI, 2016
• Certified Family Trauma Professional Intensive Training: The Most Effective Techniques for Treating Traumatized Children, Adolescents and Families, Robert Rhoton, PESI, 2017
• Brainspotting, David Grand, Sounds True, 2017
• Embodiment Exercises: How to Sense the Body to Increase its Powers of Self-Regulation, Raja Selvam, 2017
• How to Work with Trauma That is Trapped in the Body, Pat Ogden (The National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine, NICABM), 2017
• An Integrative Approach to Treating Complex PTSD and Dissociative Disorders, Kathy Steele, pcpsi.ie, Cork, Ireland, 2017
• Trauma Desensitisation, Tim Dunne, Dublin, Ireland, 2017
• Shame (part 1), Jess Angland, Portlaoise, Ireland, 2017
• The Cost of Care-Giving: Patterns of Care-Giving, Jess Angland, Portlaoise, Ireland, 2018
• How to Work With Shame, (The National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine, NICABM), 2018
• Shame (part 2), Jess Angland, Portlaoise, Ireland, 2018
• Health and Healing Through Mind-Body Unity, Gabor Maté, Cork, Ireland, 2018
• Internal Family Systems Step by Step: IFS for Deep Healing, Richard Schwartz, PESI, 2019
• Working with Relational Trauma: Dealing with Disorganised Attachment, Carolyn Spring, 2019
• Polyvagal theory, oxytocin, and the neurobiology of love, Stephen Porges & Sue Carter, pcpsi.ie, Cork, 2019
• Deep Brain Reorienting, Frank Corrigan, pcpsi.ie, Dublin, Ireland, 2019
• Safe and Sound Protocol Certified Practitioner, Integrated Listening Systems, 2019
• Dealing with Distress: Working with Suicide and Self-Harm, Carolyn Spring, 2020
• Pre and Perinatal Trauma, Raja Selvam, Integral & Somatic Psychology, 2021
• Webinars: 1.Trauma in a Time of Trauma, 2.Trauma that has become stuck, 3.Trauma triggers & flashbacks and 4.Trauma memories, Carolyn Spring, 2021
• Nurturing the Heart with the Brain in Mind, Bonnie Badenoch, pcpsi.ie, 12 month programme, 2022
• Trauma, Dissociation and the Body: A Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Approach, Pat Ogden, California Institute of Integral Studies, 2022
• Treating Trauma and Addiction with the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model, Jan Winhall, pcpsi.ie, 2023
• Self Compassion: An Antidote to Shame, Christopher Germer, pcpsi.ie, 2023
• The Practice of Being Present, Bonnie Badenoch, pcpsi.ie, ongoing 2023 - 2024
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