Trauma Therapy in Chichester

When the past keeps showing up in the present

Trauma is not just about what happened. It is about what is still happening inside us, in the body, the nervous system, and the patterns of feeling, thinking and relating that form around experiences we could not fully process at the time.

Many people come to trauma therapy because something in their life has stopped feeling manageable. They may be struggling with anxiety, low mood, difficulties in relationships, or a persistent sense of not feeling safe in their own body. Sometimes the connection to an earlier experience is clear; sometimes it is not. Either way, therapy offers a space to understand what is happening and to begin moving gently toward healing.

What we mean by “trauma”

Trauma is not defined by the event itself, but by how it is experienced and held within us. It can come from a single overwhelming event, an accident, a loss, an assault, or from longer-term, relational experiences such as emotional neglect, abuse, or living with a caregiver who was themselves unwell or unavailable. Both kinds of experience can leave a lasting imprint on the nervous system, on the sense of self, and on how we relate to others.

You do not need a formal diagnosis of PTSD to benefit from trauma therapy. Many people carry the effects of painful experiences that were never named as traumatic, but continue to shape their lives in quiet, powerful ways. In clinical language this is sometimes called complex trauma, developmental trauma, or “small-t” trauma.

What trauma therapy can help with

I work with adults experiencing a range of trauma-related difficulties, including:

Post-traumatic stress responses: flashbacks, hypervigilance, intrusive thoughts
Complex trauma from childhood abuse, neglect or emotional unavailability
The impact of sexual trauma or assault
Birth trauma, medical trauma or traumatic bereavement
Persistent anxiety, panic, or a sense of being on edge
Emotional numbness, dissociation, or disconnection from yourself
Relational patterns that keep repeating despite your best efforts
Shame, self-criticism, or a deep sense that “something is wrong with me”
The impact of unresolved trauma on intimacy, sexuality and close relationships

How I work with trauma

My approach is trauma-informed, attachment-aware, and grounded in the body. In practice that means we do not only talk about what happened, we attend to how your whole self is carrying it. We work gently with both the story and the body.

The clinical thinking behind the work draws on:

Interpersonal Neurobiology, Dan Siegel’s framework for understanding how experiences shape the brain and body.
Polyvagal Theory, Stephen Porges’s work on how the nervous system reads safety and threat.
The body-based work of Bessel van der Kolk and Pat Ogden’s Sensorimotor Psychotherapy.
Attachment theory, how early relational experience shapes adult regulation and relating.

Healing from trauma is rarely a linear process. It involves building safety, restoring the capacity to regulate difficult emotions, gently processing what is ready to be processed, and rebuilding a sense of connection to yourself and others. We move at a pace your system can manage, never pushing past what feels bearable.

Safety, pacing and your own wisdom

One of the most important principles in trauma therapy is that healing cannot be forced. The nervous system learns safety through experience, not instruction. Much of our early work together focuses on the therapeutic relationship itself as a safe place, building trust, learning to notice what is happening inside you, and developing the resources that will hold us when deeper work unfolds.

You are the expert on your own experience. Therapy is not something done to you; it is a collaboration. You always have a say in what we explore, how quickly we move, and when we need to pause.

What a session looks like

Each session is a space for whatever is most alive for you: a specific memory, a current difficulty, a pattern you are noticing, or simply a sense that something is not right. Alongside talking, we may work with breath, body awareness, imagery or grounding techniques, depending on what would be most supportive.

Trauma therapy is often longer-term work, because the patterns we are addressing are usually long-held. That said, every piece of the work matters in its own right. Many clients notice shifts, small and then larger, within the first weeks of regular sessions.

When trauma shows up in intimacy and relationships

Because I am trained as both a trauma therapist and a psychosexual therapist, my work is particularly suited to people whose trauma affects sex, intimacy or relationships. If those threads are part of what you are carrying, we can work with them together rather than holding them apart. See also Psychosexual Therapy and Couples Therapy.