I would like to note that I don't like to go by titles such as 'expert' or 'specialist' when it comes to trauma therapy, as I believe trauma is one of those subjects you can never know everything about.

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A lot of people — and even therapists — mistakenly think 'trauma therapy' means talking about the things that happened. That's not necessarily true. There's sometimes a place for talking about trauma and feeling validated, but treating the trauma and its effects usually takes more than that.

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Talking about what was traumatic can be a bit like talking about going to the gym, versus actually going to the gym and exercising. The latter is what creates change — but thinking, and not always feeling great about it, is sometimes what gets people through the door in the first place.

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Calling myself an 'expert' closes me off to the unknown and the unconscious — it creates a kind of hubris that isn't what psychotherapy should be about. I don't proclaim to heal you, or your trauma — your brain and body heal themselves. The therapies we do together, and the things you do outside of therapy, are what aid that healing, in the same way physiotherapy aids the body's own healing process.

That said, I've had a significant amount of training and experience in the area of psychological trauma, so I'll write a bit about what I think about it here — partly as a guide for you, and partly so you can get a feel for my knowledge and approach if you're looking for PTSD or trauma therapy in Liverpool.

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What Trauma Actually Is

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'Trauma' comes from the Greek word for 'wound'. It's the effect of any experience you've been involved in — directly or indirectly, or that you've witnessed — that has left an imprint.

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If you've been through a trauma, you carry a kind of 'wound' in the brain, because trauma impacts the brain, and what's in the brain is also in the body, and vice versa. Despite what some therapists say, trauma isn't the thing that happened to you — it's the imprint the event has left behind.

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That wound sits within the microscopic circuitry of the nervous system — the 'neural network'. The good news is wounds heal, but sometimes they need proper attention to do so, just as a physical wound might need attention from a nurse, surgeon, or physiotherapist.

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One way I think about trauma is as a piece of glass that's been dropped — it breaks into pieces, or 'parts' (sometimes called 'ego states' in therapy). You're still all there, but you don't feel together, or like your usual self. The pieces of glass are fragmented from one another, and the spaces between them are the effects of the trauma. Different pieces can hold different memories, which is part of why we sometimes can't remember all the details of an event, or only remember fragments. The brain isn't really made of glass though — it's more like a jelly — so these 'parts' sit more on a spectrum, like looking into an infinity mirror.

Trauma therapies allow the reintegration of those pieces so the trauma can heal. Not every therapy is designed to heal trauma this way — some act more like a sticking plaster, while underneath, the wound keeps decaying.

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Because ordinary talking therapy or CBT usually isn't enough on its own to reach where trauma actually sits, different styles of therapy are often needed to reach the parts of the brain where trauma resides. Talk therapy alone has shown to be largely ineffective at treating trauma, and can sometimes further embed it. Just because someone says they "work with trauma" doesn't mean they have the training to work with all its aspects.

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Signs of Trauma, C-PTSD, and PTSD

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Trauma can be locked away, which is why a lot of survivors carry on seemingly fine, on autopilot — but the locked-away wounds are still there, just invisible, and can be triggered later. Unprocessed experience can resurface if it hasn't properly been dealt with — you might find yourself moving from anger, to numbness, to overwhelming sadness within moments.

Signs of trauma, C-PTSD, or PTSD can include:

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• Aches and pains, fatigue, muscle tension

• Anxiety, fear, and a racing heartbeat

• Anger, irritability, and mood swings

• Avoidance of people, places, or busy/crowded situations

• Being startled easily, edginess, hyper-vigilance

• Difficulty concentrating, memory problems, confusion

• Disconnection or dissociation — spacing out, feeling far away, floaty, or fuzzy

• Feeling low, numb, hopeless, or disconnected

• Guilt, shame, and self-blame

• Insomnia, nightmares, flashbacks, or sleep paralysis

• Isolation, or shutting down and feeling unable to feel love or connection

• Addictions, compulsions, or using alcohol/substances to cope or self-medicate

• Physical symptoms without a clear medical cause — IBS, fibromyalgia, tinnitus, unexplained pain

• Self-harm or suicidal thoughts

If several of these are familiar, that alone is reason enough to reach out — you don't need an official diagnosis first.

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PTSD and Post-Traumatic Stress

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PTSD is generally said to apply when the effects of trauma last more than six weeks after the event — this can go on for weeks, months, or years if it isn't treated appropriately. Post-traumatic stress is actually a normal response to an abnormal experience, which is partly why I prefer the term 'post-traumatic stress' over the label 'disorder'.

Post-traumatic stress can present more intensely than trauma in general. The original event or events could stem back as far as childhood, and a traumatic memory can be vague or fragmented — some parts vivid, others barely there at all.

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Complex PTSD (C-PTSD) and Childhood Trauma

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Childhood trauma comes from childhood experience — perhaps you were ignored or unloved, your parents or carers were preoccupied with their own needs, or you were raised around chaos or danger. This is often, though not always, where the roots of C-PTSD lie.

One way to think about how C-PTSD differs from PTSD: with PTSD, it might be a car crash you survived. With C-PTSD, it might be a car crash in which your parents or carers died and you survived. Or: a single accident could cause PTSD, while C-PTSD is more likely to follow one or several intentional incidents caused by someone else — repeated over time, often involving relationships and loss, and usually with grief attached.

Trauma doesn't just affect the conscious brain — it rewires the unconscious and subconscious to be more sensitive to future threats. So anything in the present that's associated with the original trauma can bring back memories, emotions, physical sensations, and behavioural responses.

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If You're Searching for a PTSD Therapist in Liverpool

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If you're looking for a PTSD therapist in Liverpool, or PTSD treatment in Liverpool, it's worth knowing what you're actually looking for — because not every therapist who says they "work with trauma" has trained specifically in therapies designed to reach where trauma sits in the brain and body. A PTSD psychologist or therapist working from purely talk-based methods may help you feel heard, but may not have the tools to actually process and resolve trauma at a nervous-system level.

I work from a clinic in South Liverpool, and also see clients online and by phone — so if you're searching for trauma or PTSD therapy near Liverpool, or anywhere else in the UK or beyond, in-person or online sessions are both available.

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Trauma Therapies I Use

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The therapies I most commonly use, and am trained in, include:

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• Brainspotting (BSP) — a somatic and cognitive approach, typically using eye positions to access, heal, and process trauma. (Trained Phase 1–3, Masterclass, and Addictions.)

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• Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) — a heavily somatic therapy that processes shock at its roots, accessing the lower regions of the brain and building an internal scaffolding to process shock and trauma safely, without the overwhelm that can occur in other therapies. (Trained Lv1–3, DBR Sudden Sound, and WhereSelf with DBR trainings.)

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• Ego State Therapy — looks at parts of the self, working with them to address childhood trauma and dissociative patterns.

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• Eye Movement Desensitisation & Reprocessing (EMDR) — a somatic and cognitive therapy using eye positions and tapping to treat the effects of PTSD and trauma. A common, evidence-based therapy, though on its own it's often not enough to work with the personality/ego states involved in complex trauma. (Trained Lv1–3 & EMDR 2.0.)

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• Eye Movement Integration (EMI) — similar in principle to EMDR, using eye positions to treat trauma and blocks, and can help avoid the overwhelm or 'looping' that sometimes occurs with EMDR. (Trained Lv1–2 & Supervision.)

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• IFS Therapy (Internal Family Systems) — a type of ego state therapy that looks at personality as a system of parts and protective parts. IFS builds awareness and helps people gain more control by working with their parts, and is particularly good for developmental, childhood, and complex trauma. (IFS Lv1–3 Institute Trained & Masterclass.)

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• Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (SP) — a heavily mindful and somatic therapy for working with trauma stored in the nervous system, trained through Dr. Pat Ogden's Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute.

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• Lifespan Integration — works with conscious timelines to help process the unconscious without getting caught up in the story of what happened. Powerful, yet gentle. (Trained Lv1–2 with Lifespan Integration Brighton/Hove.)

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BSP and DBR both grew out of EMDR, so they carry a newer, richer body of neuroscience behind them — not that this discredits EMDR, it's simply a different tool, much like choosing a different exercise for a different part of the body.

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These approaches treat the psychological, emotional, and physical impact of trauma more quickly and effectively than talking alone, and are particularly effective as a post-traumatic stress treatment. Results can often be felt after a single session of each, though a full recovery usually takes more sessions.

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Because these therapies work with how the brain and nervous system are actually wired, they differ from more traditional talking therapies. They work with the mind-body connection to integrate traumatic experience so it sits more comfortably, rather than overwhelming you — and they're especially useful for people who find it too difficult, or too traumatic, to talk directly about what brought them into therapy, since it's not the words or the content of the story that's being treated.

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Why These Therapies Work

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Recent research shows the brain has a profound ability to heal itself — much like a wound heals — a phenomenon called neuroplasticity. Even the deeper parts of the brain (the midbrain) have been found capable of forming new neural connections. The eye's optic nerve connects directly to the midbrain, which is partly why eye-position and eye-movement techniques can be so effective — they take a direct route to where trauma is first registered.

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The midbrain manages your most unconscious processes — it just 'does', without you needing to think about it. It's a primitive but powerful part of the brain that helps regulate your whole being. Successful trauma therapies tend to work around cognitive functioning and go directly into the limbic system, helping the nervous system re-regulate itself — because if you feel better, you tend to think better too. As the saying goes: IQ tends to decrease as anxiety increases, so as anxiety decreases, IQ usually increases.

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Conditions and Experiences I've Worked With

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I've used BSP, DBR, EMDR, EMI, IFS, Lifespan Integration, and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy to help people who've experienced:

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• Abuse, accidents, attacks, and attachment injuries

• Birth trauma

• Bullying and narcissistic abuse

• Childhood trauma and neglect — feeling abandoned, unloved, or ignored as a child

• Crime, directly or indirectly

• Domestic abuse and violence

• Psychoactive drug use

• Road traffic incidents

• Rape and sexual abuse

• Witnessing death, suicide, or other critical incidents, including traumatic birth or major public tragedies

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As well as trauma itself, these approaches have also been used successfully alongside anger, anxiety, depression, phobias, sexual difficulties, sleep paralysis, substance misuse, and unwanted or distressing memories.

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A Note on EMDR and Choosing the Right Approach

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• EMDR is probably the most well-known trauma treatment, but it isn't necessarily the most appropriate on its own for every kind of trauma. Having trained extensively across BSP, DBR, EMDR, EMI, IFS, Lifespan Integration, and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, I can help make an informed decision with you about which combination might suit your particular history best — rather than defaulting to a single, one-size-fits-all protocol.​

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• My work is trauma-informed, and heavily influenced by clinicians and researchers including Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, Dr. David Grand, Dr. Dan Siegel, Dr. Deb Dana, Dr. Gabor Maté, Dr. Janina Fisher, Dr. Onno van der Hart, Dr. Pat Ogden, Dr. Peter Levine, Dr. Richard Schwartz, Robin Shapiro, Kathy Steele, and Dr. Stephen Porges.​

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• The NHS recommends EMDR as a treatment for trauma, though NHS provision is sometimes limited in what it can offer. Mind also publishes useful information on treatment options for PTSD.

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• Even if you're based outside Liverpool — anywhere else in the UK, or internationally — online trauma therapy is available direct to your location.