Leanne Cuddington, MA
Somatic Counselling Psychology
Registered Clinical Counsellor
Kitsilano, Vancouver, BC
778-859-0213
individual and couples counselling
therapy: trauma; somatic therapy: anxiety, depression, stress, relationships
marriage, grief, addictions
"Improving relationships with
ourselves and others for
positive choice and change."
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Counselling Services
Trauma
"If one can take action on one's own behalf in a difficult situation, the potential for trauma is reduced." -- Rob Fisher
As an individual and couples counsellor, I specialize in the treatment of trauma and its effects.
Many people think of trauma as connected only to major harmful events like a violent attack or a catastrophic accident. However, trauma can result from any number of negative life experiences in the past or present, such as:
- Loss of someone close to you
- Negative parenting
- Emotional or physical abandonment
- Physical, emotional, or sexual abuse
- Witnessing physical or verbal violence
- Accidents or injuries
- Acute or chronic illness
- Loss or threatened loss of a relationship
Trauma can also stem from seemingly incidental experiences, such as being shunned or ignored by people you look up to, or being embarrassed, criticized, or ridiculed by people whose opinion you value. Trauma is in the eye of the beholder; different people experience it in different ways.
Whatever its cause, unresolved trauma can make you feel powerless, helpless, and unsafe. It can reinforce negative thinking and create painful feelings. More worryingly, it can manifest in life-disrupting issues such as anxiety, depression, relationship distress, panic, low self-esteem, compulsions, addictions, and other self-harming behaviours.
The reason for this is that trauma memories often become embedded in a person's brain and nervous system. These memories can make someone highly sensitive to triggers that reactivate the trauma and feed into its negative effects.
Trauma profoundly affects the body. By using bodily experience as a primary entry point in trauma therapy, rather than the events or the "story", I attend first to how the body is processing information, and its interface with emotions and cognitive meaning-making.
Reclaiming the body as an important source of information is not only important for the resolution of trauma, it is crucial to our existence if we want to live as vital human beings.
Therapy for trauma and its effects can help you to:
- Achieve authentic insights and new understanding of your underlying emotional triggers
- Feel more relaxed and comfortable in previously stressful situations
- Experience more fulfilling relationships
- Move forward with life goals
- Experience greater self-esteem and confidence
- Improve your ability to handle other challenges in your life
- Live free of compulsions, addictions, and other self-harming behaviours
Through compassionate acceptance of what we've experienced and where we are in this moment, we can profoundly change our future.
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