Healing PTSD & trauma is a very real possibility…

With the right understanding and tools, PTSD doesn’t need to be a life long sentence, as well as resolving depression from holding your trauma in for so long…

PTSD, or Post traumatic Stress Disorder, is a psychiatric condition that occurs in people who may have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event or series of events.

These events, if left unresolved, remain as a body held negative emotion that is retained physically in the body.

These unresolved negative emotions can be triggered by future events that induce negative reactions in the triggered individual, creating confusion, fear, panic and feeling out of control.

A triggered individual quite often, will react as a response to his reaction, generally retreating, closing down or simply feeling overwhelmed.

Over time this can develop into depression in some individuals.

Treating depression on its own often will miss the real contributor.

Working with Annette & Graeme , who are professionally qualified, but more importantly, have first hand real life Trauma Informed experience in dealing with PTSD, Depression & Anxiety.

With each session, you have the convenience of online, phone or face to face…

During each session, you have 2 TRAUMA INFORMED professionals with you..

Trauma Informed therapists, who not only understand the effects, causes & impacts of Trauma, but have also experienced firsthand, their own PTSD, Depression & Anxiety…

Once you start with us, you receive and benefit from our extensive and professional trauma informed life experience in dealing with PTSD, trauma, depression in relationships and sexuality….

Imagine having each session with two highly skilled “trauma informed” professionals, as well as unlimited phone support between sessions…

PTSD is simply long held invalidated trauma, invalidated by negative self talk or by external invalidation, like gaslighting..

PTSD is becoming increasingly recognised as being much more frequent a problem, and is beginning to be recognised as a precursor or often a cause of depression, especially when mainstream therapy focuses on depression with out recognising the links to PTSD, especially from old and often unresolved early child hood traumatic events.

PTSD & Trauma and its long lasting effects are something that many of us are dealing with.

Today, there is an increasing awareness of trauma, PTSD and other forms of stress making them more relevant today than ever before.

The “Problem” is mainstream therapy is not recognising the individuality of emotional links between unresolved traumatic events, depression and anxiety.

Original traumatic events may have lasted only a few moments, or extended repeatedly over a period of time, even years. yet its impacts can be equally long standing. Unresolved PTSD & trauma hijacks your life, leaving you feeling helpless, out of control, burnt out or hyper alert, or so brain fogged and flat that getting out bed seems like climbing a mountain.

Anti depressants simply numb down the emotional intensity allowing an individual to function.

This sometimes can give an emotional break but rarely are recipients of these common medications advised to look at the cause, but simply left to “kick the emotional can down the road..”.

All too often, these medications are prescribed without any “off ramps”. Some people who have been prescribed these medications and have found that their body won’t let them get off them. This can bring back their original feelings of self-loathing, nightmares, flashbacks keeping them from engaging fully in life.

PTSD & trauma for each individual is their own unique experience of overwhelm, varying considerably according to age, personality, community, occupation and many other variable factors.

All PTSD is stressful, but not all stress is traumatic and one persons’ trauma may even be someone else’s pleasure.

Dealing with trauma is an individual and personal experience, because every single person is different and unique in this space and one size of therapy definitely doesn’t fit all.

Working with Annette & Graeme is developing your own unique & individual process & practice….

What doesn’t change, is that PTSD & trauma affects all of us at some stage and to some extent, either directly or in being around someone so affected.

Trauma, particularly PTSD can be described as having attributes similar to velcro, that if left unresolved, attract & accumulate further effects from traumatic events.

PTSD can be caused by experiencing or witnessing violence, verbal & emotional abuse, rape, neglect, betrayal, abandonment, car accidents, falls, injuries, invasive medical procedures, war and natural disasters to name a few…

Trauma can even be experienced from the way we interpret a situation, whether it is real or not, it becomes real to us.

Healing PTSD & trauma is a very real possibility…

With the right understanding and tools trauma doesn’t need to be a lifelong sentence…

And working with Annette & Graeme will change your life, because in each session you also get the benefit of our extensive and professional life experience in dealing with trauma, relationships and sexuality.

In between sessions, ALL phone contact is included, encouraged and not limited

There is increasing awareness of PTSD, Trauma & Depression and other forms of stressful impacts today than ever before.

PTSD, Trauma & Depression with its long lasting effects are something that many of us are dealing with, often without realisation..

What causes PTSD ?

Each individual will experience trauma differently, and can be caused by experiencing or witnessing a wide variety of circumstances.

Trauma can even be experienced from the way we interpret a situation, whether it is real or not, it becomes real to us.

Trauma can take years to show up, to the extent that the person is not even be aware of what may be happening to them, they just have an underlying sense of overwhelm, fear, numbness, emotional intensity, or physical disease un responsive to treatment.

In short, trauma is about losing connection with one’s self, being disconnected from our body, from those around us and our world in general.

PTSD occurs when body held un expressed emotions are ignored, or invalidated.

These unexpressed emotions accumulate and will influence future interactions, often in unpredictable ways.

The long term impacts of trauma become very difficult to recognise when they’re happening to us.

From here they’re often released in many different ways that are both unpredictable & unacceptable both to the person themselves and those around them.

These behaviours can even appear quite normal on the outside

Behaviours such as over working, spending long hours in front of the tv or computer, over eating, drinking too much and smoking, drug use etc, as well as the more hard core behaviours like depression, passive aggression, unfocussed rage, drug abuse, domestic and emotional abuse.

Somewhere inside us we might know that that behaviours are coping mechanisms for the fear, rage, shame and isolation that we live with but we feel helpless to change, and this is where we come in, to support and guide you in self discovery and self empowerment in finding your unique pathway forward

Healing trauma offers surprising benefits, way beyond your imagining.

You can’t change it but…

Nobody can treat past trauma as what happened can’t be undone, but we can definately support you in discovering how you can use it as a springboard of empowerment into the rest of your life…

Trauma is not an incurable disease and you can do better than merely learning to live with it.

We’re born with an innate capacity to triumph over trauma, as it’s part of our survival skillset, and our desperation to be free of our suffering is part of what gives us the courage to go there.

At Oztantra, we intimately understand the healing process involves not only your mind, but your body, emotions, soul and spirit, for trauma impacts us on all these levels, and is often a catalyst for profound awakening and spiritual transformation.

This especially applies if you have suffered sexual trauma in any form.

From our own personal experience, as well as with countless others over more than a decade of working in this field, triumphing over trauma creates a whole new world of deeper awareness, self and other connection, meaning and happiness.

How trauma works

Understand that trauma actually rewires your brain, your ability to interpret otherwise harmless situations as scary, even terrifying or even life threatening such as a closed door or a touch on the shoulder.

This is because the part of your brain that is activated or triggered has you believing you’re reliving your moment of unresolved trauma right now, even though it may have occurred many years ago.

It requires a range of gentle but safe approaches to re-train your brain to see what is really there.

Healing Trauma takes a full system rewire

Modern mainstream therapy has chosen to view trauma and its long term effects as an incurable disease, which can, at best be ‘treated’ with drugs and behavioural management.

There are times where medications are important, but the underlying issues, unless treated, will still remain.

Traditional talk therapy, or CBT (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy) involving only your mind, and medication therapy that blunts what you feel are limited in what they do.

They also give the power to the the therapist and the drug, and what you’re looking for is to take your own power back.

So sadly, modern western therapies are lagging behind in making significant and workable inroads into supporting sufferers and their families.

Treating trauma as a ‘normal’ human emotional issue, means that the impact of trauma can be cured, reversed or removed.

This approach involve learning to take back control of your own body, mind, emotions, heart and soul.

Unfortunately, and all to often, many sufferers are refusing to seek further assistance purely because of the poor quality and inability of “modern” methods to reliably and accurately support these clients and families.

This is particularly applicable to members of the modern services, such as Police, Ambulance, ADF, prison staff, school teachers, hospital staff, Fire Brigade, SES and other associated professions.

These people are intelligent, motivated and dedicated to serve, giving of themselves most often above and beyond the call of duty.

It is their selflessness and dedication that makes them successful at their chosen profession, and we as a community benefit from their skill and devotion.

It is these aspects of their personality that make them perfect for their chosen passion or role in life that also makes them vulnerable in overlooking, or resisting caring for their emotional selves.

This stoicism on one hand, makes them perfect in their choice of profession, but unfortunately it can also work against them in that they would rather “tough it out” than appear weak by sharing with work mates, partners or therapists.

An important part of this task is re-learning how to feel, to feel safe in your body and know that you can have control over what it is that you feel. This an area that we are particularly vigilant with, in being freely available to clients during this time, as their support people.

Believe it or not, listening to your body, in a safe way without re-experiencing your trauma, helps you integrate the experience(s) you’re probably spending an inordinate amount of energy trying to avoid.

You need to be able to know what you know, and feel what you feel, without becoming overwhelmed, enraged, ashamed or collapsed.

To feel calm and able to focus, especially in response to the images, thoughts, sounds or physical sensations that remind you of the past.

It is being honest with, and accepting of yourself, including about the ways you behaved in order to survive your experience, particularly if your incident happened to you as a child…

You will also benefit from re-learning how to feel fully, sensually alive in your everyday world, not just focussing on healing your trauma. The benefits of this process for you are beyond words, life changing and self empowering.

Tools we use for healing trauma include:

Understanding how trauma impacts you- that it is largely emotional, even spiritual, not logical

Mindful body awareness to help you inhabit your body and experience yourself more fully

Breath practices to regulate your arousal states

Mind/body practices to teach you that you have control over what you feel

Learning movement, sound and music practices to reconnect you with your joy

Learning touch practices to help you feel safe in your body, to know its boundaries and receive safe in touch from another

Learning to see your aggression, depression, arrogance, passivity etc as behaviours you took on as coping mechanisms rather than permanent disabilities

Learning to trust and re-open your heart, to yourself and others

Taking the actions that remain incomplete from your trauma eg. saying no, fighting back, running away

Finding a way to speak the unspeakable- through words, feelings, actions, writing, images

Integrating your traumatic memories as an important part, but not the whole of who you are

Giving your traumatized child a voice in a place of honouring and respect

Finding creative ways to rescript your life and fill in the holes born from the things you missed out on- love, acknowledgment, nurturing, respect, connection

Finding more of your authentic self- giving yourself permission to be sometimes scared, sometimes angry or hateful yet equally capable of being loving, caring, compassionate and fun.

See the Self who is in charge of all these different parts of you, the Self that exists underneath your coping mechanisms, that the essence of who you are.

Healing Trauma: If you want to go there we’re here to go with you

True healing of trauma takes time, but with each step you have a sense that you’re getting somewhere.

We are available in supporting you when you’re home, chipping away at the coal face.

All phone calls are included

Because, a few minutes on the phone will make all the difference in integrating your empowering change, especially knowing that our support is ongoing and not limited.

You have a sense of your own empowerment coming through.

You start to reach out to life rather than protect yourself from it.

“Having had our own experiences of trauma, some of it from early childhood, we know intimately the territory of which we speak and we have a passion for assisting others to find their way through the maze into a happier, more comfortable and successful life.”

PTSD can take years to show up, to the extent that the person is not even be aware of what may be happening to them, they just have an underlying sense of overwhelm, fear, numbness, emotional intensity, or physical disease un responsive to treatment.

In short, PTSD is about losing connection with one’s self, being disconnected from our body, from those around us and our world in general.

The long term impacts of trauma can very difficult to recognise when they’re happening to us.

Over time these unresolved memories and emotions accumulate and are stored in the body.

From here they’re often released in many different ways that are unacceptable both to the person themselves and those around them.

Some of which can even appear quite normal on the outside, such as over working, spending long hours in front of the tv or computer, over eating, drinking too much and smoking, drug use etc, as well as the more hard core behaviours like depression, passive aggression, unfocussed rage, drug abuse, domestic and emotional abuse.

Healing PTSD offers surprising benefits, way beyond your imagining.

You can’t change it but…

Nobody can treat past PTSD as what happened can’t be undone, but we can definately support you in discovering how you can use it as a springboard of empowerment into the rest of your life…

Trauma is not an incurable disease and you deserve & can do better than merely learning to live with it. Each of us are born with an innate capacity to triumph over trauma, as it’s part of our survival skillset, and our desperation to be free of our suffering is part of what gives us the courage to go there. Both Annette & Graeme at Oztantra, intimately understand that your unique healing process involves not only your mind, but your body, emotions, soul and spirit, for trauma impacts us on all these levels, and is often a catalyst for profound awakening and spiritual transformation.

This especially applies if you have suffered sexual trauma in any form.

Have you heard about Psychedelic Assisted Therapy..?

Psychedelic Assisted Therapy is now recognised as a powerful therapy in dealing with long term previously regarded as treatment resistant PTSD & Depression. This link is to our website that gives some more information about this new therapy.