Trauma

‘The body remembers what the mind wants to forget.’

Many people experience a critical incident or a traumatic event at some stage in their life. A critical incident is a relatively sudden, unexpected and overwhelming event which is outside the range of usual human experience. Examples may include being involved in an accident, being mugged, assaulted, raped or being witness to the murder or injury of another person, being subjected to sustained forms of physical, psychological or sexual abuse. Worldwide traumatic events include war, floods, plane crashes and other disasters.

What are the benefits of having counselling after a trauma?

• It allows the individual to process the traumatic event in a safe and confidential therapy setting.
• To learn to manage the effects of trauma such as nightmares and flashbacks.
• Counselling can relieve accompanying symptoms such as depression and anxiety.
• Can help develop tailor-made coping strategies to deal with traumatic effects.

Critical incident support

Trauma can strike organisations in many different ways from i.e. workplace fatalities, traffic accidents and personal bereavement, critical incidents can have a devastating impact both on individuals, their teams and their families. Alleviate Counselling has experienced critical incident support staff and believe strongly that sensitive psychological support is a priority after a traumatic event. Once people have stabilised and the shock has subsided, it can then be time to think about the possibility of longer-term counselling or psychotherapy. For this reason, Alleviate Counselling offers a combination of rapid response, on-site intervention and longer-term clinical support. Our extensive experience of critical incidents includes both group interventions and one-to-one support in a range of scenarios including:

• Armed robbery
• Sudden deaths in the workplace.
• Suicides
• Road or rail accidents
• Accident in the workplace
• Redundancy

Longer-term psychological care

While many people are naturally resilient and will recover from crisis under their own steam, research shows that between eight and ten percent of those exposed to traumatic events will experience longer term symptoms that may interfere with their capacity to lead happy and fulfilled productive lives.