Trauma
Trauma symptoms can be complex, people often report a range of physical, mental, emotional and behavioural changes following the traumatic event. If you can relate to the symptoms below, I can support you to understand what is happening in your nervous system, reduce your fight /flight response and begin the journey to feeling more like your usual sense of self again.
Emotional symptoms
- Feeling fearful, anxious, or constantly on edge
- Intense sadness or grief
- Irritability or anger
- Emotional numbness
- Shame, guilt, or self-blame
- Feeling disconnected from others
- Mood swings
Psychological symptoms
- Intrusive memories of the traumatic event
- Flashbacks
- Nightmares or distressing dreams
- Difficulty concentrating
- Confusion or feeling mentally overwhelmed
- Hypervigilance (constantly scanning for danger)
- Feeling detached from reality or yourself (dissociation)
Physical symptoms
- Increased heart rate
- Muscle tension
- Headaches
- Fatigue or exhaustion
- Sleep disturbances
- Digestive problems
- Startling easily
- Sweating or trembling
- Chronic pain without a clear medical cause
Behavioural symptoms
- Avoiding people, places, or situations linked to the trauma
- Social withdrawal
- Changes in eating or sleeping habits
- Difficulty trusting others
- Increased use of alcohol, drugs, or other coping behaviours
- Becoming overly cautious or controlling
Relationship symptoms
- Difficulty forming or maintaining relationships
- Feeling isolated or misunderstood
- Fear of closeness or vulnerability
- Increased conflict with family, friends, or partners
Common signs of Post-Traumatic Stress
- Re-experiencing the trauma through flashbacks or nightmares
- Avoidance of reminders
- Persistent feelings of threat or danger
- Heightened emotional reactions
- Difficulty relaxing or feeling safe
Trauma in children and young people
Children may show trauma differently, including:
- Regression to earlier behaviours
- Separation anxiety
- Changes in school performance
- Increased clinginess
- Aggressive or withdrawn behaviour
- Repetitive play related to the traumatic event
- Sleep difficulties or nightmares
Working therapeutically with with individual yoga practices and counselling interventions equips clients with the tools to balance and regulate the movement between sympathetic and parasympathetic responses helps to build “vagal tone”, this means the clients nervous system has the capacity to develop more resilience and tolerance to internal and external stressors.
Therapeutic yoga will equip you with the skills to address and self regulate the stress response in bodily systems and physiology and move from "fight/flight" (sympathetic NS) to "rest and digest" (parasympathetic NS).Home practice between sessions is an essential part of the process of restoring homeostasis in the body and effecting lasting change.
