Trauma can come in many forms, and its effects can reach far beyond the experience itself. I work with adults who are healing from experiences such as:
Betrayal trauma can develop when someone you trusted deeply violates that trust, whether through infidelity, deception, secrecy, or other profound breaches of trust. It can leave you questioning yourself, your relationship, and what you thought you knew.
Single-event trauma can result from an experience that feels overwhelming or life-threatening, such as an accident, assault, sudden loss, or other traumatic event. Even when the event is over, the nervous system can continue to respond as though the danger is still present.
Complex trauma develops through repeated or prolonged experiences of threat, harm, instability, or emotional injury, particularly when they occur in relationships where you needed safety and care. C-PTSD can affect emotional regulation, self-worth, relationships, trust, and your sense of safety in the world.
Childhood trauma and developmental trauma can occur when a child grows up without the consistency, emotional safety, attunement, or protection they need. Emotional neglect, chronic criticism, family dysfunction, abuse, and unpredictable caregiving can shape how you see yourself and relate to others long into adulthood.
Relational trauma occurs when relationships that should provide safety, connection, and belonging instead become sources of fear, rejection, manipulation, instability, or emotional pain. It can affect attachment, boundaries, self-trust, and the way you understand your own needs.
Traumatic grief can occur when a loss is sudden, violent, complicated, or connected to a deeply painful relationship or experience. Grief can also become complicated by estrangement, betrayal, unresolved feelings, or the loss of a relationship you wished you could have had.
Trauma can also develop through experiences that happen repeatedly over time, especially when there is little opportunity to feel safe, understood, or supported. These can include:
Even when you understand that something happened in the past, you may still find yourself reacting as though it is happening now.
Your body may tense. Your emotions may become intense very quickly. You may find yourself replaying what happened, anticipating what could go wrong, or reacting in ways you wish you could change.
You may understand some of these reactions. Other times, you may wonder why you respond the way you do.
Therapy can help you begin making sense of these patterns, understand where they come from, and find ways of responding that feel more grounded and authentic.
Healing involves understanding these responses and helping your mind and body recognize that what happened before is not the same as what is happening now. It can also involve building and experiencing the safety, connection, support, and resources you may have needed back then but did not receive.
We start by gaining a deeper understanding how past trauma is still showing up in your life today.
We build an inventory of what you are noticing, including your thoughts, beliefs about yourself or others, emotional reactions, triggers, relationship patterns, body sensations, and survival responses such as fight, flight, freeze, fawn, or shutdown.
We also look for patterns. What tends to activate you? What happens inside when it does? What have you learned to do to protect yourself? What beliefs or expectations have you carried forward from earlier experiences?
Sometimes these connections are obvious. Other times, you may know that something feels wrong without understanding why you react the way you do.
This phase is about helping you feel safer and more grounded in the present. Trauma can leave your nervous system reacting as though danger is still happening. You may become overwhelmed quickly, shut down, disconnect, go blank, or feel as though your emotions take over before you have a chance to understand what is happening.
Together we work on recognizing these responses and gradually expanding your window of tolerance (the range in which you can stay present with difficult thoughts, emotions and experiences without becoming overwhelmed or shutting down).
This might include learning ways to regulate your nervous system, stay connected to the present, understand what your body is communicating, and develop internal resources that help you feel more steady. We don't rush trauma processing. Building enough safety and stability to do the deeper work is part of the work.
When you feel ready and have enough stability in place, we can begin working more directly with the trauma itself in whatever form you carry it (beliefs, memories, emotions, body sensations, reactions, activation, and or dissociation).
Trauma is not always stored as a clear story or memory. It can show up through emotions, body sensations, beliefs about yourself, relationship patterns, triggers, or reactions that feel much bigger than what is happening in the present.
Using approaches such as EMDR, IFS-informed therapy and attachment-focused work, we can gently work with these deeper experiences and the meanings connected to them.
The goal is not to erase what happened or force you to relive it. It is to help your nervous system recognize that the experience is no longer happening now, while allowing painful beliefs and patterns that developed around it to begin to shift.
We move at a pace that respects your nervous system, your readiness and your choice throughout the process.
You don't have to know exactly what you need from therapy before reaching out. We can start with what you're experiencing now, talk about what has been going on, and see whether I might be the right person to support you.
If you're ready to take that first step, you're welcome to reach out.
Adrie-Anne Gamble
Master Practitioner in Clinical Counselling (CPCA #3793)
Canadian Certified Counsellor (CCPA #10001293)
Online Counselling Alberta
Serving adults virtually across Alberta, including Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer, Lethbridge,
Medicine Hat, Grande Prairie, Airdrie, St. Albert, and surrounding communities.
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