2 minute read
Trauma Informed Counselling: Stacy’s Story
Stacy had been receiving support from our Residential Resilience Project. During a regular phone call check in, she admitted to our Resilience Worker that she was really struggling with her mental health and wanted to end her life, and had a plan in place to do so.
Our resilience worker knew that Stacey needed more than a check-in call and swiftly contacted team members, while speaking to Stacey on the phone. She told Stacey that members of our team were on their way to see her. She also called and briefed the police, so they knew the importance of a rapid response.
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When team members arrived at Stacy’s house, the police were already there and found Stacy getting into the bath with razor blades next to it. The team members took over from the police, sat with Stacey and helped her to calm down, as Stacey was initially very agitated and distressed.
Stacy hadn’t taken her medication for weeks because she’d been too anxious to leave the house. Stacy’s GP was contacted for immediate collection of her medication.
A safety plan was put in place for Stacy and our team arranged for a family member to come and stay with her. We agreed that Stacy would have counselling with our Trauma Informed Counselling team. This took place at a community centre very close to Stacy’s home.
We worked with Stacy for 12 sessions. As we uncovered the reasons for her poor mental health and suicide plan, we discovered she had lost a lot of people in her life to suicide and she had experienced severe trauma at different points in her life.
We worked with Stacy on her flashbacks and nightmares that were triggered by previous childhood trauma. We helped her to process what had happened to her and desensitised her from the flashbacks by helping her to focus on all the positive parts of her life.
“Stacy’s outcomes were the best I’ve seen of any client I’ve worked with. She hadn’t left her flat for a long time because of her poor mental health and severe anxiety, but by the end of her therapy she was going shopping on her own, meeting friends at coffee shops, and managing household tasks which had previously dwindled.
She had a stutter which was triggered by low confidence and self-esteem - we worked on this with Stacy and by the end of the 12 counselling sessions, her stutter was almost non-existent. She had completely turned her life around and is in the process of becoming a volunteer with an organisation.” Trauma Informed Counsellor.
For Stacy’s final counselling session, she agreed to meet our team members at a coffee shop in the town centre. This was a very big step for Stacy and highlighted how far she had come in her journey.
At her final counselling session, Stacy said:
“I feel like I’m me again, found my voice again, more myself. The patience and care I’ve experienced through the whole process has been really positive. I wish I knew about this service a long time ago. I’m so grateful someone was there for me with good understanding and advice, and I now have coping mechanisms that I put into practice myself. All this and more, they saved my life.
