Trauma Counselling Throughout Vancouver, Lower Mainland and BC.
By listening deeply, being curious to understand, and finding the path to healing. We offer you attention, compassion, and presence to help process traumatic experiences.
Have you ever felt overwhelmed by an event that just wouldn’t go away? When our nervous system is pushed to its limit, it can lead to a trauma response that lingers. You may experience this as powerlessness, confusion, fear, and shame. The earlier in life we experience trauma, the more significant its long-term effects can be.
With childhood trauma, the consequences run deep. As a child, you have fewer resources to deal with the impact, and many people develop ways of coping, such as addictions, self-harm, destructive relationships, and isolation.
Unresolved trauma leads to repetitive ways of managing life-based on trauma response, making it harder to deal with stressful situations. Over time, this can lead to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or Complex PTSD.
When trauma remains unprocessed, we tend to under-react to extreme situations like rage, abuse, or neglect and overreact to everyday experiences like misunderstandings, emotions, or not feeling heard. Trauma counselling can help uncover and heal these patterns, allowing you to regain balance and resilience.
- Diana Fosha
Most struggles in life have roots in trauma, but not every hardship is traumatic. Trauma shapes how we respond to challenges, leading to coping mechanisms that disconnect us from ourselves or others.
If you notice recurring patterns of avoidance, emotional overwhelm, feelings of shame, or difficulty in relationships, trauma may be a contributing factor.
Our therapists specialise in trauma therapy and have in-depth training in several experiential approaches that work on trauma recovery.
No matter where we begin, you can be confident that if trauma is the underlying cause of your struggles, it can be healed. We address your most pressing concerns first, building a safe space to explore deeper experiences when you’re ready.
At Turning Point Therapy, our therapists start where you are, whether you are dealing with relationships, depression, self-esteem, or emotional overwhelm.
The main difference is PTSD is a result of a single incident such as an assault, accident, or natural disaster. In comparison, CPTSD is a result of ongoing events such as childhood abuse, partner violence, and human trafficking. They both have similar symptoms, such as re-experiencing the trauma, hypervigilance, avoidance and numbing. CPTSD tends to have further difficulties with relationships, emotional regulation and daily functioning.
Dissociation is a strategy of avoidance of painful experiences where the person separates from awareness of their body, emotions and sometimes memory. This response lies along a continuum. When we experience trauma at a young age it is a common strategy to escape the pain of abuse.
At Turning Point Therapy we don’t believe any particular approach is any better and that we can learn something from all approaches. We encourage people first to find a therapist they connect with and feel comfortable with. This will allow you to fully relax into your experience, which is the beginning of change. However, we believe that approaches that connect with the root of the issue and process emotional material are necessary to heal traumatic experiences.
When we are affected long-term by trauma, our nervous system is affected by this sense of danger and emergency that it holds. Our nervous system is either on alert for danger or shuts down. These are different parts of the nervous system. So when something happens in your life, your nervous system can respond to the present, similarly to the original trauma.
5.0 rating
“Tamsen has always been deeply thoughtful, caring, connected and helped me foster new insights. I can highly recommend them. Thank you, Tamsen!”
— Peter Lambert
5.0 rating
— Ingrid
5.0 rating
— Silvia Martinez.
After reading our therapist’s bios, perhaps you are drawn to one or two, but you want to double-check. No problem!
You’re ready to get going and know who you want to work with.