Most people who contact me about trauma therapy have already tried therapy before. That's worth saying out loud, because it shapes what they're worried about: not whether therapy works in general, but whether it will do the specific thing they need this time.
So here is what actually happens, without the brochure language.
Before the first session
Almost everyone starts with a free discovery call. It's short — twenty minutes — and there's nothing to prepare. You don't have to explain your history. The only question we're answering is whether I'm the right person for what you're carrying.
That call exists because trauma therapy has a matching problem. The approach matters less than whether you feel safe enough with the person to let your guard down, and you can't assess that from a website. Including this one.
If it isn't a fit, I'll say so and point you somewhere else. That's not a formality.
The first session
The first session is mostly me listening and both of us getting a sense of pace.
We won't dive into the hardest material because the clock says we're on session one. That's a common way for people to leave a first session feeling worse: opened up, then sent back into their afternoon with no time to close.
Instead we spend a good part of that hour on something that sounds unglamorous: finding out what steady feels like in your body. Where you feel most settled, what helps you come back when you drift, what your particular signs of "too much" are.
That isn't a warm-up. It's the ground everything else stands on. If we don't know how to get you back to steady, we have no business taking you anywhere difficult.
What you won't be asked to do
You won't have to retell the worst thing that happened. A lot of people have been made worse by therapy that required a full account before it could help. We can work with what's happening in your body right now — the tightness, the flatness, the flinch — and the story stays yours until you decide to share it.
You won't be pushed through a protocol. If today isn't the day for the difficult thing, then today isn't the day. That's information, not a setback.
You won't be touched. Somatic work means we pay attention to sensation. It does not mean anything happens to your body. You stay clothed and in your chair.
The pace, honestly
Trauma work is slow, and I won't pretend otherwise.
Some people notice a shift within a few months, usually the ones dealing with a single event that their system hasn't finished processing. Developmental trauma, the kind that formed over years in childhood, is longer work.
What I can tell you is that the pace is the point. Your nervous system learns safety through repetition, not through endurance. Going faster doesn't get you there sooner; it usually gets you overwhelmed, which sets things back.
After a few sessions I'll give you an honest read on what I think the work involves. That's more useful than a number I invent today.
How often we meet
Weekly suits some people. Fortnightly suits others, particularly once things are more settled.
This isn't a package or a subscription. You book one session at a time, and how often we meet is a conversation we keep having rather than a commitment you make on day one.
If you're in Brisbane
I practise in West End on Thursdays and Milton on Wednesdays, and I see people online across Australia. Sessions run in English or Spanish.
If any of this sounds like what you've been looking for, the discovery call is the place to start. And if you read all this and thought "that's still not quite it", that's useful information too. Tell me on the call, and we'll work out what would fit better.
