Counselling and Mental Health Service

One-off workshop

Practitioner referral only

This session is a Zoom facilitated session. This workshop will close for booking at 9 am on the day of the session. The Zoom link will be sent out after the workshop is closed.

This workshop is psychoeducational, not therapy.

Aims and Objectives:

To consider definitions of trauma and symptomology

Give you an opportunity to understand what can happen to our brains and our autonomic nervous systems during and after traumatic events

Use concepts from Polyvagal Theory to understand our lived experience and identify some strategies to cope day to day

Provide information about where and how to access therapy for trauma

It is suitable for anyone experiencing symptoms of PTSD or complex trauma. These can include some or all of the below responses following a traumatic event:

Constantly thinking about and or images of the event coming into your mind

Flashbacks / re-experiencing whereby you feel you are back in the trauma event

Difficulty sleeping and or nightmares

Changes in how you feel emotionally, e.g. anxious, scared, sad, angry

Hypervigilance being on high alert

Feeling numb and or detached from yourself and or your surroundings

Avoiding situations that remind you of the event

Denial that the event happened

Trauma can occur when an event or series of events are experienced as highly threatening and involve feelings of fear and/or helplessness. Below are some examples of traumatic events:

Being involved in a car crash

Being raped or sexually assaulted

Being physically and or emotionally abused / neglected

Domestic abuse (to self or witnessing to others)

Being harassed or bullied - including racism, sexism, homophobia, biphobia or transphobia, and other types of abuse targeting your identity

War and conflict

Terrorist attacks

Surviving a natural disaster, such as flooding, earthquakes or pandemics

Losing someone in particularly upsetting circumstances

Being sectioned or getting treatment in a mental health ward

Being diagnosed with a life-threatening / serious health condition

This Zoom workshop will provide an opportunity for Q&A for those who wish to engage in the chat as directed by the facilitator. Audio and video functions will be disabled in the event of a large turnout for this workshop. If numbers are small, the use of the audio and video functions may be offered. Further Zoom etiquette will be sent with the meeting link.