Past experiences—childhood events, trauma, bullying, or complicated family dynamics—can echo long after they occur. Counselling provides a weekly space to explore these memories safely, understand their impact, and reconnect with your strengths.
How the past can show up in the present
- Intrusive memories or flashbacks.
- Feeling numb, on edge, or disconnected from your body.
- Relationships that repeat familiar painful patterns.
- Self-criticism rooted in old narratives about your worth.
- Avoidance of places, people, or situations linked to the past.
- Difficulty trusting others or yourself.
Why healing from the past can take time
Your mind and body developed strategies to survive what happened. These strategies—hypervigilance, people-pleasing, shutting down—once kept you safe. Letting them go can feel risky. Cultural taboos about speaking up, or fear of not being believed, can also keep the past unspoken. It is easy to feel stuck between wanting change and fearing it.
How counselling supports healing
Counselling can create a pace to unpack these past events that feels safe. Sessions may include storytelling, resourcing, and grounding exercises to help you stay present while exploring the past.
Because we meet at the same time each week, you can rely on a consistent container as you process and integrate.
Approaches we may use
- Trauma-informed pluralistic therapy to blend talking, creative, or somatic approaches.
- EMDR resourcing and processing when you want to work directly with traumatic memories.
- Parts work to honour protective inner voices and help them soften.
- Compassion-focused work to rebuild a kinder relationship with yourself.
Support for men addressing past experiences
Men are often told to "get over it" quickly. Therapy provides permission to name harm, explore vulnerability, and redefine strength as the ability to heal.
Affirming support for LGBTQIA+ histories
Queer, trans and intersex people may carry memories of exclusion, conversion attempts, or family rejection. Counselling offers a space where your identity is celebrated as we work through the impact of those experiences.
Healing counselling FAQs
Do I have to share every detail of what happened?
No. You control what you share and when. IN fact, therapy approaches such as EMDR emphasise that you do not need to retell the past to be able to heal from it. We prioritise safety and grounding over retelling everything at once.
Can we integrate EMDR into sessions?
If EMDR feels right, we can incorporate it after preparing your resources and ensuring you feel ready.
What if I worry therapy will make things worse?
We move gently, using stabilisation tools and regular check-ins to keep the work manageable.
How do we know when to stop therapy?
We review your goals and current capacity together. Some people pause when sessions feel less essential, while others continue for ongoing support—there is no single marker we rely on.
Next steps
Book a consultation to share what you are carrying. If we continue, your weekly session will be a predictable time to process the past and reclaim your present.