What trauma actually is
Trauma is less about the event itself and more about what your nervous system did with it. When something happens that is too much, too fast, or too soon, the nervous system can get stuck in a protective response long after the situation has passed.
This can show up as hypervigilance, reactivity, numbness, difficulty trusting, patterns that repeat in relationships, or a persistent sense of being braced for something you cannot name. These are not signs of fragility. They are signs of a nervous system that learned to protect you.
A somatic and nervous-system approach
Most talking therapies work top-down: starting with thoughts and working toward the body. Trauma often requires a bottom-up approach: starting with the body, the breath, the felt sense and the nervous system, and allowing the cognitive processing to follow.
Leah draws on somatic awareness, polyvagal theory and body-based approaches to work with trauma at the level it is actually held. Sessions are paced with care. The goal is never to relive or retraumatise, but to create enough safety that the system can begin to reorganise.
In person in Carlton, or online
Trauma work benefits from a settled, consistent environment. Sessions are available in person at 167 Drummond Street, Carlton VIC 3053, or online from a space where you feel at ease. Both options are equally supported and equally effective.
Common questions
Do I have to talk about what happened?
No. You decide what you share and when. A lot of trauma work starts with the body and the nervous system rather than the story, and it is paced so you never have to relive anything to make progress.
What is a somatic approach to trauma?
It works from the body up. Trauma is often held as patterns in the nervous system: bracing, startle, numbness, a body that will not settle. Somatic work builds enough felt safety for those patterns to loosen, and the thinking and meaning-making follow.
Does it count as trauma if nothing dramatic happened?
It can. Trauma is about what an experience did to your nervous system, not how it would sound to someone else. Experiences that were too much, too fast or too soon can leave a mark, including ones that happened slowly over years.
Do you work with PTSD?
I offer trauma-informed counselling in Melbourne and online, working with trauma and its after-effects through a somatic approach. I am a counsellor, not a psychologist, so I do not diagnose. If you need a formal assessment or specialist treatment, I can refer you and keep supporting you alongside that care.
Learn more about individual counselling or read the frequently asked questions.