Trauma and PTSD therapists in Isle of Lewis, Scotland Scotland, United Kingdom GB
We are proud to feature top rated Trauma and PTSD therapists in Isle of Lewis, Scotland, United Kingdom. We encourage you to review each profile to find your best match.
Trauma and PTSD
Vicky Mould
Counsellor/Therapist, Accredited Professional Registrant (PNCPS Acc.)
While the effects of PTSD can be debilitating and distressing, recovery from it is possible (yes, it really is), and I'm here for you if you'd like support in that journey. I undertake trauma training regularly as part of my continuing professional development and can facilitate using creative mediums alongside talking - including art. I regard safety as all-important, and I'll work to establish a safe and trusting relationship with you. Traumatic birth, sudden and unexpected bereavement - including baby loss, and sexual or domestic abuse are some of the underlying traumas I can support you with. I can offer a compassionate, non-judgmental and understanding approach and work at a pace that feels comfortable for you. If you'd like to explore counselling together, please get in touch with me to arrange a low-cost consultation.
13 Years Experience
Online in Isle of Lewis, Scotland (Online Only)
Trauma and PTSD
James Hitchen - I Am James Therapy & Coaching
Therapist, Psychotherapeutic counselling (level 5), MBACP, AdV member Addiction Professionals, MNCPS accred. National Centre For Eating Disorders
I am member of the International Stress Management Association, am and advanced member of Addiction Professionals registration body and am a member of the Complex Trauma Institute. I am an addictions and eating disorder specialist as well as working with other issues such as anxiety, depression, trauma, ADHA, self harm, self esteem, loneliness and other disorders. I offer a range of services from 1:1 and group counselling/coaching sessions. I trained at Richmond College and am strongly informed by 12 step philosophy as well as helping clients to look after their mental, physical, spiritual and emotional health to thrive in life.
7 Years Experience
Online in Isle of Lewis, Scotland
Trauma and PTSD
Gemma Autumn
Counsellor/Therapist, Integrative Adult and Adolescent Counsellor Cert, PgDip, MBACP Accredited
I work with those going through issues related to trauma.
8 Years Experience
Online in Isle of Lewis, Scotland
Trauma and PTSD
Sara Aicart-Pendlebury
Art Therapist, Human Givens Practitioner (HG.Dip.P), Member of Human Givens Institute, IFS therapist Levels 1&2, Narm Practitioner
PHOBIAS, PANIC ATTACKS AND POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS
The brain has an emotional alarm system designed to keep us safe. When people suffer from panic attacks, phobias or post-traumatic stress, it is because the system has gone into overdrive.
What happens is this. There is a small, structure in the brain, known as the amygdala (Greek for almond, which is its shape), that has access to our emotional memories and learned responses. It evolved in the distant past and its job is to match new circumstances to what is already in the store and alert us to anything that previously represented a risk and might do so again. In the distant past, this might have been a movement or flash of colour that could have signified an approaching predator. The amygdala would then have triggered changes to help the body get ready to fight or flee the danger – pounding heart, racing pulse, quick, shallow breathing, etc.
Now imagine this. A young woman, who has had a highly stressful day, is waiting in a long supermarket queue, worrying whether she’ll be out of the shop in time to catch the bus to school to collect her little girl. It is one pressure too many. The amygdala responds as if she is under threat and she starts to feel her heart pounding strangely and her breathing quickens. She becomes terrified that she is having a heart attack and that makes the symptoms escalate – her palms sweat; her chest feels as if it is bursting and she struggles to breathe. Soon she feels overwhelmed and may collapse or run out of the shop. The amygdala, fearful that this could happen again, files away the fact that there were bright lights and lots of people queuing when the ‘threat’ occurred. Then, when the woman is queuing in the post office the next day, the bright lights and queue may be sufficient for the over-vigilant amygdala to trigger another panic attack to deal with the new ‘threat’.
Phobias start the same way – the amygdala makes associations with what was going on when a person first felt threatened, not all of which may be relevant. So, while it is understandable that someone who is attacked by a vicious dog may well develop a fear of dogs generally, it could equally be the case that someone develops a fear of broken glass because, on a previous occasion, when they had had a panic attack, there was broken glass lying near to where they collapsed. Agoraphobia develops when someone is too frightened of panic attacks even to leave the house.
In the case of post-traumatic stress, someone who was in the back seat of a car when a collision occurred may find it frightening to travel in the back seat again but there may be other, unconscious, connections with the accident too, such as the smell of petrol. So the person may experience seemingly inexplicable panic when filling up their own car with petrol.
Fortunately, human givens practitioners are taught a simple and effective way to deal with all these circumstances. If a traumatic memory is causing panic attacks, phobias or post-traumatic stress, they can use a powerful, painless visualisation procedure, known as the rewind technique, to take the emotion out of the memory and enable the memory of the event to be stored away as history, instead of as one that continues to intrude on the present. The memory remains, and always will remain, a deeply unpleasant one but no longer is it emotionally arousing. This method can work swiftly and reliably even in the most extreme of cases.
15 Years Experience
Online in Isle of Lewis, Scotland
Trauma and PTSD
Dr Ian Anderson
Psychologist, Consultant Clinical Psychologist (HCPC registered), PhD, MSc, MSc, MSc, MA (Econ), BA (Econ) Hons
Sometimes human beings are faced with truly horrible situations: threat, a fear of death, or witnessing such events. A normal response to these situations is severe psychological disturbance. However, such disturbance usually remits within weeks. Unfortunately for some people the psychological disturbance lasts months, years, and sometimes a lifetime. These disturbances include nightmares, intrusive thoughts, avoidance of situations that resemble the trauma, difficulty relating to other people, withdrawal from social life, and in extreme cases dissociation from reality. The two most common psychological conditions associated with this disturbed response are Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Adjustment Disorder. Psychologists have had more than a hundred years of experience in dealing with these difficulties. In the First World War it was described as shell shock. In the Second World War it was known as combat fatigue. We now know that it is not only those who engage in combat who suffer from these disorders. What we are increasingly understanding is that posttraumatic experiences are a disturbance of memory: the disturbance is that we simply cannot forget the horror we have experienced. Psychologists have developed clear treatment pathways to assist the victims of trauma.
44 Years Experience
Online in Isle of Lewis, Scotland