Trauma Therapy

A trauma is less the event itself than what it leaves behind in us: an overwhelm from which there was no way out at that moment. Back then, the nervous system did what it could: fight, flee, freeze, disconnect inwardly. These reactions protected you.

It becomes difficult when they stay, even though the danger is over. Then the present keeps feeling like the past: Your body tenses before you know why. Closeness can feel threatening even though you long for it. You function, but find it hard to feel yourself. Often the mind can make sense of all of this, and yet understanding alone changes little. This is exactly where trauma therapy comes in.

The after-effects of trauma rarely come with a label. They show up as an everyday life that sometimes feels harder than it should. Signs can include:

• Tension, jumpiness, or an inner alertness that can't be switched off
• Sleep that doesn't restore, or dreams that linger
• Moments when you feel as if behind glass: numb, far away, not fully there
• Exhaustion with no apparent reason
• Difficulty with closeness: too much, too little, or both at once
• Patterns that repeat even though you saw through them long ago
• Reactions that seem too big or too small to you

These are not diagnoses but traces. You don't need to know whether what you experienced was “a trauma” in order to come. It's enough that it still occupies you today.

For me, trauma therapy doesn't follow a fixed program, but it does follow a reliable arc. In trauma therapy, it is described as a phase-oriented approach:

• Arriving and getting to know each other. We begin with a conversation and the question of what brings you to me and what you wish for. Together we look at whether working together feels right for you.
• Stabilizing and regulating. Before we turn to what was hard, we take care of what supports you. We discover what does you good and what calms you, and where you find support within yourself and around you. Gradually this creates solid ground to stand on. How long this takes varies a lot, and any amount of time is right here.
• Processing. Only when there is enough stability do we approach what is still held in the system, in small, manageable steps and only as far as feels right to you.
• Integrating. What you experienced becomes part of your story instead of determining it.

These steps don't follow one another strictly, and stability always takes priority.

Depending on what you bring, I draw on different approaches. They complement each other and often blend into one another in practice. In principle, my work is about using your resources, because you already have more at your disposal than you realize.

We all carry different inner parts: the part that functions; the one that withdraws; the one that has been waiting for safety for a long time. After overwhelming experiences, these parts sometimes turn against each other, or individual ones remain stuck in that earlier time. In ego state work, we get to know them, listen to what they need, and help them get back in touch with each other. Everyone has inner parts. This is not a sign of a disorder but normal experience, and a very respectful way of working with what is already there within you.

Trauma lives not only in thoughts but in posture, breath, and tension. That is why I always work with the body as well: with awareness, with regulation, and, when it fits, with the tools of body therapy based on the Pantarei approach. You'll find more on the Body Therapy page. Touch happens only if you want it; a no is always welcome.

No. A lot can be worked through without you having to put it into words. The body and the inner parts often know more than can be told. You decide what you want to show and what you don't.

Dissociation is a protective reaction: when something becomes too much, the system switches off a part of experience. It can feel like fogginess, like standing beside yourself, like missing time. Back then, this was wise. Today it can get in the way, and it is possible to learn to be present again, in small, safe steps.

Because trauma isn't stored in the mind but in the nervous system. You can know exactly that the danger is over, and your body still reacts. That's why we work with what the body and the inner parts still carry today.

No. For the nervous system, it makes no difference whether something happened two or thirty years ago. It responds to what hasn't yet come to an end. Many people come with childhood experiences that they remember only in fragments.

That can't honestly be said in advance; it depends on what you bring and how much stability is already there. We talk regularly about where we stand, and you can decide at any time to continue or to pause.

You don't have to know. It's enough that something still occupies you today or that everyday life feels harder than it should. In our first conversation, we look together at whether and how I can support you.