Something happened. Perhaps it was weeks ago, perhaps decades. And although you survived it — you got home, you gave the statement, you carried on — some part of you didn't quite come back. People often arrive at trauma counselling saying the same puzzled thing: I should be over this by now, and I'm not.
In South Africa, much of the trauma I see walks in off our own roads and out of our own driveways: a hijacking, an armed robbery, a break-in while you were home. I have also sat, over 40+ years, with people carrying car accidents, medical emergencies, sudden bereavements, and childhoods that were frightening long before anyone had words for it. Trauma is not weakness, and it is not a life sentence. It is an injury — and injuries can heal.
How trauma shows up afterwards
Trauma rarely announces itself politely. More often it shows up sideways: you are jumpy at intersections or at the sound of the gate; you avoid the road where it happened; you sleep badly and wake at every noise; the memory intrudes when you least want it, or you feel oddly flat, as if watching your life through glass. Some people become short-tempered with the very family they were so relieved to come home to, and then feel ashamed on top of everything else.
None of this means you are going mad. It means your body's alarm system did its job during the event and hasn't yet been told the event is over.
Old trauma counts too
Not all trauma is a single event. Some people come to me about a childhood that was chaotic, violent, or simply cold — and they often minimise it: others had it worse. But a nervous system that grew up on high alert tends to stay there, showing up decades later as anxiety, difficulty trusting, or relationships that keep repeating the same painful shape. This slower, older work has been a significant part of my practice, and it deserves the same patience as any fresh wound. Medical trauma belongs here as well — a frightening diagnosis, a birth that went wrong, an ICU stay — experiences the world expects you to simply be grateful to have survived.
How I work with trauma
Trauma counselling with me does not mean being pushed to retell the worst moment in detail. We begin by steadying things — helping your nervous system settle, so that daily life becomes more livable. My approach is trauma-focused and includes somatic work, which simply means we pay attention to what the body is doing: the clenched jaw, the held breath, the bracing you may not even notice any more. The body keeps the score of these things, and it needs to be part of the recovery.
When you are ready — and only then — we go closer to the material itself, always at a pace your system can manage. Body-based work is a large part of how I do that. Many people find it lets them approach a memory without drowning in it.
Sessions, in person or online
If you have been searching for trauma counselling near me from Johannesburg, my practice is in Fairmount, and some people find the routine of coming to a quiet room is itself steadying. I also work online across South Africa and abroad — trauma work translates well to video call, and after a hijacking or robbery some people frankly prefer not to drive anywhere at dusk, and I do not blame them.
Trauma sessions are 90 minutes, weekly or fortnightly, at R1,250 in South Africa with a sliding scale available, or £70 / €80 from the UK, Ireland or Europe. They are longer than a standard session on purpose: body-based work needs enough time to open something carefully and settle it again properly before you stand up.