Welcome to my blog series, where I will discuss therapy from a client's viewpoint. It's important to mention that, while my insights are drawn from extensive experience with clients from various backgrounds, all individuals, names, personas, businesses, locations, occurrences, and events depicted are entirely fictional. Any similarity to real-life individuals, living or deceased, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Daryl had worked in the ambulance service for 15 years, progressing through his paramedic career with apparent ease. Based in a busy city, the job had given him a sense of value, friendship, and achievement. "It's a tight knit team", he explained on the first session "We've worked together a long time, played together, and supported each other through everything imaginable". Although he acknowledged that he had been exposed to a number of distressing situations, he had been able to process this with apparent resilience: "It's not like I didn't care, obviously I did, but I could shake it off and go home". But a few months ago, his crew attended an incident where a large crowd, agitated and threatening, had directed their anger towards the crew. Since then, Daryl had noticed himself feeling trapped in a cycle of fear, anxiety, and emotional overwhelm. Despite talking about his experiences with his husband, colleagues and friends, the symptoms persisted, and he found himself feeling unsafe, disconnected, and no longer enjoying his work or life outside work. He spoke to his manager who suggested Daryl access therapy, one of the most effective ways of addressing PTSD.
PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - is a mental health condition that can develop after experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event. It's completely normal to feel distressed after such an event, but when these feelings don't go away with time, this is when we start to suspect PTSD. Symptoms can include flashbacks, nightmares, a wish to avoid certain people, places, or situations, feeling jumpy or on edge, feelings of guilt or shame, or feeling disconnected from others or the world. So why would therapy help Daryl, and others like him? Simply put, trauma rewires our brains, making it hard to feel safe and calm. Therapy helps process painful memories and retrain the brain to respond in healthier ways.
Working at his own pace, Daryl progressed through three key areas of trauma therapy. First was to learn coping strategies for when he felt overwhelmed, so that he could regain a sense of control, including breathing and grounding exercises. Then, using EMDR therapy, we processed traumatic memories, helping to reduce their emotional charge. Lastly Daryl learnt to notice, acknowledge, and at times challenge negative thought patterns about himself and the world using CBT.
"I've heard of CBT, but never EMDR" confessed Daryl. "I don't really want to just talk about how I feel over and over - I've tried that, and it doesn't seem to help". As Daryl soon discovered, EMDR is a therapy specialised in helping the brain reprocess traumatic memories which get 'stuck' in our brain. The goal isn't to forget these memories, but make them less distressing. By using eye movements (or other forms of rhythmic, bilateral stimulation) memories feel less vivid and painful, and it becomes possible to reframe the events that contributed towards them in a healthier way. For Daryl, that meant moving from a feeling of overwhelming vulnerability and powerlessness to a position of feeling empowered and safe again. CBT is another evidence based trauma therapy, which focuses on changing negative thought patterns associated with the trauma. By noticing the links between thoughts, emotions and behaviours, unhealthy links can be replaced with other, healthier ones, reducing emotional distress. By noticing thoughts that people were out to deliberately hurt him, Daryl was able to reframe these, thus feeling safer when out in public.
Daryl had come to therapy feeling trapped by the effects of trauma, and therapy was able to offer him a way to move beyond this back into a life that felt fulfilling and safe again. If you, like him, are ready to start this journey, or would like to learn more about therapy options, please feel free to reach out.
Please note that Daryl's story is entirely fictional, inspired by my years of working with adolescents and adults. The information about mental health, psychological therapy, and recovery from trauma is entirely based on current evidence-based knowledge and guidelines. Images are created using AI. If you would like more information or support please contact myself or any of the organisations listed on the Contact tab.
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