Areas of support Trauma and PTSD

What trauma and PTSD mean

After a frightening or distressing event, it is common to feel shaken, sleep poorly or have the memory return unexpectedly for some weeks, and these reactions usually ease with time and support. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is diagnosed when a recognised pattern of reactions persists beyond a month and causes significant distress or interferes with daily life. The pattern includes unwanted memories, nightmares or flashbacks, avoidance of reminders and a body that stays on high alert, often with self-blame or feeling cut off from others. A national survey from 2020 to 2022 found that about 11 per cent of Australians aged 16 to 85 have had PTSD at some point.

Trauma can also accumulate. When hurtful or frightening experiences are repeated, particularly in childhood or within close relationships, the effects can reach into how a person sees themselves and relates to others, which is often called complex trauma. The World Health Organization recognises complex PTSD as a diagnosis, combining the features of PTSD with lasting difficulty managing strong emotions and sustaining relationships, and a sense of self marked by shame.

How trauma affects the body

When something threatening happens, the brain's alarm system prepares the body to act, or sometimes to freeze, faster than conscious thought. After trauma this alarm can stay more sensitive than it needs to be, so a smell or a tone of voice can set it off even when you know you are safe. Understanding these reactions as a nervous system trying to protect you is usually an early part of therapy.

Psychiatrist Dan Siegel's term "window of tolerance" describes the zone in which feelings can be strong but you can still think clearly and stay present. Trauma can narrow that window, so small stresses tip a person into feeling overwhelmed, or numb and far away. Part of the work is practising ways to come back into the window, with the aim of widening it over time.

Trauma therapy in stages

Trauma therapy often follows the stages psychiatrist Judith Herman described in her 1992 book Trauma and Recovery, which she called safety, remembrance and mourning, and reconnection. The first stage focuses on feeling safer and steadier, through skills for settling the body and attention to sleep and trusted relationships.

Therapy can then turn to the memories themselves. The Australian PTSD Guidelines, developed by Phoenix Australia, recommend trauma-focused therapies for PTSD. These aim to help a person approach what happened step by step, with support, so the memory can come to feel less raw and more like part of the past. A later stage turns outward, towards relationships and parts of life that trauma may have crowded out. In practice the stages overlap.

How Jess works with trauma

Where useful, Jess's assessment can include a diagnosis such as PTSD or complex PTSD. Her formulation links past experiences with the difficulties you have now and shapes a treatment plan agreed with you.

The plan reflects your goals. One person mainly wants to sleep better or feel less on edge in crowds, while another wants to understand patterns that go back to childhood. Through her clinical psychology training and roles in public mental health services, including acute inpatient and rehabilitation settings, Jess has worked with people at many different points in their recovery.