Psychological Trauma is the unique response a person has to a particularly stressful event or enduring conditions that overwhelm their ability to integrate their emotional experience. Hence, a person experiencing trauma may find it hard to stay present or to understand what has happened to them.

People have different psychological responses to trauma. If you have experienced trauma you may, for example: feel anxious, depressed, disconnected from your life, experience dissociation, or have symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) such as flashbacks or avoidance of places that remind you of the trauma.

It is important not to judge your own unique response to trauma. At MCPC your psychologist or psychoanalyst will help you to understand what has happened and to psychologically integrate this difficult event or enduring conditions. 

Winnicott understands trauma as a disruption to the feeling of ‘being in one’s life’ and he understands recovery from trauma as the ability to think about and feel the effects of a traumatic event without feeling as if one is ‘losing one’s mind’. When the traumatic event or enduring conditions can be thought about and felt without a disruption to the feeling of ‘being in one’s life’ a person who has experienced trauma be considered ‘healthy’.