Trauma counselling in Bristol
BACP-Registered Therapist & Rewind Technique Practitioner
Sometimes the most difficult thing about trauma is not knowing that is what you are dealing with.
You might have spent years feeling like something is just a bit off, like you react more strongly than you should, or struggle to feel settled even when life looks fine on the surface. You might feel disconnected from yourself, or find that certain situations, people, or conversations knock you sideways in ways you cannot quite explain.
These patterns often have roots. And those roots are often in experiences that your nervous system never fully processed, even if those experiences happened a long time ago, or did not feel dramatic enough to count as trauma at the time.
I am Paul James, a BACP-registered therapist with a practice in Queen Square, Bristol city centre. I have over 20 years of personal recovery behind me, which means I bring more than professional training to this work. I understand what it feels like to carry something difficult, and what it actually takes to begin moving through it. I work with people carrying trauma whether they arrive knowing that is what it is, or whether we work that out together. Alongside talking therapy, I offer the Rewind Technique, a gentle, specific method for processing traumatic memories without having to relive them. More on that below.
When trauma does not look like trauma
There is a common idea that trauma means surviving something dramatic: a serious accident, an assault, a disaster. And while those experiences absolutely cause trauma, they are far from the only kind.
Many people carry what is known as complex trauma, or CPTSD, the accumulated impact of prolonged difficult experiences rather than a single event. This might include:
Because these experiences were often just the texture of everyday life, many people do not recognise them as the source of how they feel now. They assume something is wrong with them, rather than understanding that their responses are a completely logical reaction to what they went through.
PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder, tends to relate to specific events and can show up as flashbacks, nightmares, hypervigilance, or a persistent sense of danger even when you are safe. CPTSD tends to run deeper, affecting your sense of identity, your relationships, and your ability to feel stable and secure in the world.
Both are things we can work with in therapy.
The Rewind Technique: processing trauma without reliving it
One of the things that puts people off seeking help with trauma is the fear of having to go back through it all in detail. That fear is completely understandable, and it is one of the reasons I offer the Rewind Technique as part of my work.
The Rewind Technique uses guided relaxation and a structured visualisation process to help your mind safely reprocess a traumatic memory. You do not need to retell the story at length, and you will not be asked to relive the experience. The aim is to change the relationship your nervous system has with the memory, so that it no longer triggers the same level of distress when it surfaces.
It is not about erasing what happened. It is about removing the charge from it, so it becomes something you remember rather than something that keeps happening to you.
Clients who have worked with the Rewind Technique often notice a reduction in:
We will only use this approach when the time feels right. It is one tool among several, not a fixed route.
How trauma shows up: the four responses
When the nervous system experiences something overwhelming, it develops automatic responses to keep us safe. These responses, fight, flight, freeze, and fawn, often become deeply ingrained patterns of behaviour long after the original threat has passed.
Two of the most commonly overlooked are freeze and fawn, because they can look like personality traits rather than trauma responses.
Freeze
You feel stuck, numb, or unable to act. On the outside things may look calm, but inside there is a kind of paralysis. Decision-making feels impossible. You go through the motions without really feeling present. This is the nervous system shutting down as a form of protection.
Fawn
You become very good at reading other people and managing their emotions. You say yes when you mean no. You shrink yourself to avoid conflict or to keep others comfortable. Over time, you can lose track of what you actually want or feel, because your attention has been so focused outward for so long.
Flight
You stay busy, move fast, and keep things moving. Slowing down feels dangerous. Anxiety lives just below the surface. Avoidance of situations, conversations, and feelings becomes a default way of coping.
Fight
Irritability, reactivity, a short fuse. A sense of needing to be on guard. You might find yourself in conflict more than you would like, or feel that people experience you as more intense than you intend to be.
Most people recognise themselves in more than one of these. In our work together, we start to notice which patterns show up most, where they came from, and how to build new responses that feel more like a choice.
Emotional flashbacks
Not all flashbacks are visual. Emotional flashbacks are sudden, overwhelming surges of feeling: fear, shame, helplessness, rage, that arrive without an obvious trigger, or in response to something that seems far too small to explain the intensity of what you feel.
In the moment, they can feel completely real and current. That is because your nervous system is not distinguishing between then and now. It is responding as if the original experience is happening again.
Learning to recognise emotional flashbacks for what they are is often one of the most significant shifts in trauma work. When you can name what is happening, you begin to have a different relationship with it, and that changes everything.
How I work
I see clients in person at my practice in Queen Square, Bristol city centre, around a 15-minute walk from Bristol Temple Meads station, and easy to reach from across the city and surrounding areas. Sessions are also available online via Zoom if you would prefer to start that way, or if travelling in does not suit you.
In our sessions we may work on:
The pace is always yours to set. There is no fixed route through this work. We go where it makes sense to go, at a speed that feels manageable.
What to expect from your first session
A lot of people feel nervous before their first session, and that is completely normal, especially when it comes to trauma. You will not be expected to open up everything straight away, or to have a clear account of what you have been through ready to deliver.
The first session is mostly about getting a sense of each other. I will ask some questions to understand what has brought you to this point, what you are hoping things might look like if things improve, and what feels most pressing for you right now. You can share as much or as little as you feel comfortable with. By the end, we will have a clearer picture of how we might work together and what that could look like going forward.
What life can look like on the other side
Trauma therapy is not about becoming a different person. It is about becoming more fully yourself, without the weight of unprocessed experiences pulling at you from underneath.
The changes are often gradual. But over time, clients find that the reactions that used to hijack them start to lose their grip. The flashback that would floor them for a day becomes something they can move through. The situation that used to trigger a disproportionate response starts to feel manageable. Relationships that felt exhausting begin to feel safer.
More broadly, many clients find that they:
Taking the first step
Reaching out about trauma takes courage, and you do not need to have everything worked out before you get in touch. We can start wherever you are.
Sessions are available in person at my Queen Square practice in Bristol city centre, and online via Zoom.