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Abuse and Trauma

Victims of abuse and trauma usually report a keen ability to replay the event in their mind, consciously or involuntarily. For most victims, the event of physical, emotional or sexual abuse resides in their being ... like a skeleton ready to pounce out of an unlocked closet.

Their lives and those close to them are affected in many ways. Some develop psychological conditions
while others are physically or emotionally debilitated by the fear and trauma of the abuse, unable to function in their lives without the aid of mind altering substances.

One's self esteem and belief in self worth is affected and most find themselves caught in undesirable circumstances over and over again. While victims of abuse find themselves caught in the wheel of oblivion, survivors of abuse find themselves propelled to avoid the psychological and physiological traps that arose as a result of abuse. Either way, this causes stress on the victim/survivor in their bid for normality.

If you are or know of someone who is a victim of abuse, be assured that this need not be the only way of life. Survivors can overcome the odds and lead a normal and full life. There are lots of help available to support those who are ready to release the hold abuse has on you or your loved one. Some therapies work better for one individual than the other, so it is important that you find the best therapy suited most to you and your personal circumstances.

Hypnotherapy is one of the many therapies available. It is commonly the chosen therapy for a person who has been so traumatised that the mere thought of the abuse is enough to send them spiralling down the stairway to oblivion. Unlike other forms of talk therapy, one does not need to recall or relive the whole traumatic event. During hypnotherapy, we work mainly to address the emotions surrounding the event that we carry through into the present.

Heather sought hypnotherapy as a curiosity. She was raped in her late teens and the situation revolved around a car and power games by the aggressor. A decade had gone by and she was still affected by the memory. She had gone through counselling and psychotherapy and was pretty much leading a close to normal life if not for her one remaining symptom - flashbacks. She experienced spontaneous recall of the event usually prompted by a number or sequence of numbers. This made it particularly distressing for her to drive around. License plates would flash by around her as she drove behind cars causing flashbacks. Seeing the make, model or colour of a car could also jolt her back to relive the distress she felt from that memory, therefore resolving her composure to that of the traumatic event. Heather has managed to keep all this under control without others being aware of the trauma that still haunted her. All this tired and strained her mentally, emotionally and physically.

With hypnotherapy this visual lock was changed and she is now free of the associations she used to have with cars, numbers and colours. She now leads a happy and fulfilling life with her family free of the trauma of her past. She can still recall the event but the emotions surrounding it is gone. She now sees the event as just something that had happened in her past. She was able to move on even more fully than before.