Breaking Free from Trauma and Addiction
Trauma therapy is a type of psychotherapy that helps process and recover from the physical and psychological effects of trauma. It can help you to gain a better understanding of the traumatic experience and its impact on your mental health and behaviour. By successfully engaging with your professional therapist, you will no longer need to resort to substances or addictive behaviours as a coping mechanism.
If you are, or know someone who is, struggling with substance abuse and compulsive behaviours, trauma therapy can be incredibly effective in helping remove these harmful habits. It can help to identify the root causes of addictive behaviours, which can then be addressed in a safe and supportive environment. This type of therapy also helps you to learn healthy coping strategies so you don’t have to rely on substances or other problematic behaviours.
Not only does trauma therapy offer insight into the underlying causes of addiction, but it also helps to build a strong foundation for recovery by providing practical tools and skills to maintain sobriety. It can help to build self-confidence, foster healthy relationships and even find meaning in life without the use of drugs or alcohol.
Download Brochure
Types of Trauma Related to Addictions
When it comes to addiction, there can often be underlying trauma that is driving the addictive behaviour. Some of the common types of trauma related to addictions include physical and sexual abuse, witnessing violence, suffering emotional or psychological harm, experiencing a traumatic event such as a car accident or natural disaster, and growing up in a dysfunctional home. Childhood trauma and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder are two other common causes of self-medicating and consequentially addiction.
It is important to recognise that everyone’s experience with trauma is different, but with the right kind of help, you can learn how to effectively manage and cope with negative emotions and address memories of past events, moments in which you have experienced abuse and counter the effects of traumatic incident trauma.
Trauma Therapy for Relapse Prevention
Trauma therapy can help you and your addiction counsellor to identify triggers and choose the right methods to manage negative emotions in a healthy way, rather than resorting to drugs, alcohol or compulsive behaviours. During our trauma-focused sessions, you can also discover new communication skills and strategies for stressful social situations. Living a balanced lifestyle without the use of substances is going to be easier by following the few rules you and your therapist will set during these sessions.
Our trauma therapists will enforce talking therapies to help you manage your stressors and triggers. They can include:
- Cognitive behavioural therapy for rebuilding your reactions and understanding of your attitude in difficult situations.
- Movement desensitisation and reprocessing for resolving your trauma-related issues through innovative eye movement therapy (EMDR).
- Dialectical behaviour therapy for reflecting upon your physical symptoms and reactions to trauma memory triggers, as well as any PTSD symptoms.
It is important to note that trauma therapy is not intended as an overnight cure for addiction, but rather as a long-term treatment plan for relapse prevention.
Evidence Based
Medical reviewers confirm that trauma therapy is highly successful in treating mental health issues related to addiction, dual diagnosis and comorbidity. Through our talking therapies, we can help you treat:
- Mental health issues as a consequence of traumatic events
- Psychological consequences of sexual assault
- Self-harm ideation
- Pathologically low self-esteem
- Non-neurological panic attacksdifficulty sleeping
- Unresolved painful memory
- Stress caused by cultural issues
Entrust your recovery in our hands, we are here to help you and fight alongside you. Dual diagnosis including PTSD and addiction are treatable through trauma treatment practices and therapies which focus on adopting healthier coping skills.
You Can Trust Our Mental Health Professionals
Featured CBT Specialists
Anita Chellamah is a counsellor specialising in Addiction and Developmental
Trauma.
After an active career in the arts, Anita hit rock bottom due to her drug and
alcohol addiction. After changing her life, becoming clean and sober she re-learned to live again in recovery. This is what sparked her passion for the
work she does, in the knowledge that confronting and recovering from illness
of addiction and childhood trauma is possible.
She qualified as a counsellor in 1998 and has worked with addicts and families
affected by addiction in many different treatment settings delivering 1-1
sessions as well as groups working with DBT, trauma-focused tools and the 12
Step framework.
Throughout her work she has explored addictive patterns, processes and how
they present in various addictions such as alcohol, drugs, love addiction and
co-dependency.
The Book Alcoholics Anonymous was going to be initially called “ A Way Out”
and she believes strongly that there is a way out, to be able to live a life filled
with purpose, hope, and choice, whilst also living in the reality of life on life’s
terms.
BSc, MB, BS, MRCGP, FDSc CSAT3 (Asia Pacific)
Seamus works online for Catch Recovery London and Castle Craig as an aftercare teletherapist.
Seamus trained as a doctor at the University of London and then became a GP in the Royal Air Force for 22 years, running his own medical centres on a variety of flying stations both in the UK and abroad in conflict zones.
He developed an interest in addiction and trauma with many of his patients predominantly suffering from addictions to alcohol, prescription drugs and other compulsive behaviours around food, work, control, and co-dependence.
On retiring from the RAF in 2006 he completed a degree in Addiction Counselling at Bath University, and worked in a prison setting, delivering a 12 Step daycare programme. He has also worked with addicted health professionals in a therapeutic community, developing a 12 Step recovery programme with a CBT-based mindfulness and acceptance approach.
In the last ten years he has worked within Asia; running an intensive Addiction Outpatient Program in Hong Kong and in residential rehabs in Malaysia and Thailand as well as being a programme director at a treatment centre in Borneo.
Trust is deserved, and so we are aware that your first session with a trauma therapist can feel daunting. However, we want to assure you that all our counsellors are licensed and we can refer you to board-certified physicians if you need physical treatment options for your dependence.
The CATCH Recovery therapy sessions are realised within a safe environment and only in the presence of at least one trauma specialist.
In order to find the best mental health specialist for your current needs, we will conduct a free screening. This will help you choose a private practice provider who will use the latest evidence-based research to help you. With us, you can resolve the negative effects of traumatic situation cases, learn how to experience emotions in a more controlled way and discover better strategies to manage difficult feelings.
Take Control of Your Addiction Today
Restart Your Life with CATCH Recovery
Don’t let past trauma stop you from living on. While post-traumatic stress disorder is a difficult condition to treat, recovery is not impossible. Receiving the right diagnosis is the first step to healing, but it must be followed suit by the appropriate psychological therapy. Seek treatment right away, so that you can learn how to cope with trauma symptoms and heal from the long-term effects of traumatic events.
CATCH Recovery is here to provide you with the best mixture of talking therapy and mental health resources for a successful mental health overhaul.