Trauma-Informed Therapy in Swansea & Online Across the UK

Trauma can touch every part of a life — how we think, feel, relate to others, experience the world — whether it comes from one event or years of ongoing adversity, and either way, you deserve a space where your story is met with compassion, understanding and respect.

As an integrative counsellor in Swansea, I offer trauma-informed therapy in person and online across the UK. Healing doesn’t come from forcing yourself back into painful memories before you’re ready — my approach is about building safety and trust first, and helping you reconnect with yourself at whatever pace is actually right for you.

What Is Trauma?

Trauma isn't only about what happened to you — it's about how it's affected your mind, body and nervous system.

It can come from childhood neglect or abuse, domestic abuse or coercive control, sexual violence or assault, bereavement and significant loss, bullying or discrimination, medical trauma, accidents or injuries, sudden life-changing events, or repeated experiences of feeling unsafe, powerless, or unheard.

Two people can live through the exact same event and come out affected in completely different ways, and there is no "right" or "wrong" way to respond to trauma.

How Trauma Can Affect You

The impact often reaches far beyond the original event.

You may notice yourself:

Feel constantly anxious or on edge
Experience flashbacks or intrusive memories
Struggle with sleep or nightmares
Find it difficult to trust others
Feel emotionally numb or disconnected
Experience shame, guilt, or self-blame
Avoid certain places, people, or situations
Feel overwhelmed by emotions or unable to identify them
Have difficulty maintaining relationships
Feel like you're always waiting for something bad to happen

These are your nervous system trying to protect you. Therapy can help you understand these reactions while you build greater emotional safety and resilience.

What Does Trauma-Informed Therapy Mean?

Being trauma-informed means recognising that many emotional difficulties have their roots in experiences where safety, trust, or connection were broken.

Rather than asking, "What's wrong with you?", trauma-informed therapy asks, "What happened to you?" and "How has that shaped your experiences today?"

My approach centers around:

My Integrative Approach to Trauma Therapy

No two trauma journeys are the same, so I tailor therapy to you. It’s grounded in person-centred counselling — empathy, acceptance, trust — and alongside that I might draw on psychoeducation to help you understand trauma’s effect on the brain and body, CBT to work through unhelpful thinking patterns, existential approaches to make sense of what’s hard to make sense of, and creative interventions when words just won’t come.

As both a counsellor and a creative practitioner, I know trauma isn’t always easy to say out loud. When it fits, creative approaches offer another way into your thoughts, emotions and experiences — gently, meaningfully, and never with any expectation of being “artistic.”

Recovery from trauma isn't pretending it never happened, and it isn't "getting over it."

Healing is understanding how your experiences shaped you, reconnecting with your own strengths, building healthier ways of coping, and learning that safety and trust and real relationships are possible again.

Therapy can help you make sense of what happened while you build a life that feels grounded, connected, and genuinely yours.