Childhood Trauma

As children, our coping skills, mental abilities, and emotional stability and security, are developed and nurtured through our families, relationships and friendships.

The more support and positive resources available to us at that time, the more likely we are to grow and develop into well-functioning children and adults.

Unfortunately, it does not always happen in this manner. As children, we often can’t make sense of our experiences and the emotional toll they have on us. Our childhood experiences, both positive and negative, become our “normal”. As a result, we develop and adapt “as normal”, in response to our experiences.

Often later in life, when our coping skills no longer prove effective. and our mental abilities have increased through both our reasoning and decision-making skills, we can find our choices are not achieving our desired outcome. We may experience relationship difficulties that we feel ill-equipped to deal with, or leave us feeling emotionally ‘stuck’.

Counselling offers the opportunity to examine, and work through, what may be unresolved problems for us, up to that point in our lives, in a safe, supportive and protected environment.

Working with a counsellor to name and talk about any childhood trauma allows us to resolve the issues which were causing us to become “unglued” as adults, enabling us to move forward in our lives.