Trauma

Childhood is a crucial part of our lives, in which our understanding of the world and ourselves are shaped and formed. Frightening events, damaging relationships, or challenging experiences can all have a impact lasting well into adulthood. These in turn can affect relationships, functioning, and contribute to unhealthy coping mechanisms. 

Physical, verbal, mental and sexual abuse can and does happen in relationships. For people who have these experiences this can have a profound impact on mental wellbeing, and have lasting repercussions on future relationships. 

Many of us will change careers throughout our lives, usually with an ambition to find growth and personal challenge in new opportunities. However, when these careers come with challenging co-worker behaviour, the resulting impact on mental health impacts not just the work place, but the places outside of work we hold so important to us. 

Serious injuries and illnesses can have a profound effect, maybe relating to changed abilities, function, self-image, or memories of the incident, diagnosis, treatment, or recovery period. Therapy can help process the memories, find ways to help manage the past, present, and future. 

Exposure to nature can be uplifting, but sometimes it can be frightening when natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunami's, floods or storms wreck havoc and lead to loss and displacement. This, and the unexpected and uncontrollable nature of these disasters, can lead to lasting psychological distress.

Hollywood. In which a couple fall pregnant, carry, and deliver a large and healthy baby in a mere puff, then rapture over their new family member. It can be so far from challenging conceptions, maternal ill health, traumatic births, postnatal distress and neonatal poor health. This reality can leave people reeling, struggling to connect, and facing traumatic memories that seem to overwhelm.  

A career in the armed services, or in private protection, can be fulfilling and lead to great personal growth. It can also lead to exposure to loss, trauma, and human suffering, an exposure than can leave an imprint even when these events are geographically distant and in the past. 

Unwanted sexual contact can take many forms, but can have a significant impact on an individuals physical and psychological functioning, and is associated with a myriad of trauma symptoms even decades later. 

People who work in the fire, police, ambulance, rescue or medical services are often described as strong and brave, but this does not immune them from the impact witnessing catastrophic events may have.  Vicarious trauma can arise from individual or cumulative events, leading to burnout, mental health challenges, and effects reaching far outside the sphere of work. 

Emigration is a challenging process, which entails leaving a known geographical place, family, friends, support network, employment and pastimes to re-establish a life elsewhere. This journey may be voluntary or otherwise, but can be overwhelmingly stressful, leading to homesickness, and difficulties settling into the new place of living.