Psychological
Trauma
Trauma is not the event; it is what stayed in the body and the nervous system after the event ended and the organism never got the message.
What counts as trauma
Trauma is not only war or a road accident. It is any experience that exceeded the organism's capacity to process it at the moment it happened: a loss, a medical experience, violence — physical, verbal or psychological — a sudden shock, a betrayal of trust. And it is also prolonged trauma: years in an environment where there was no safety.
What makes an experience traumatic is not its objective severity but a combination of three things: how unprepared the person was, how alone, and how impossible it was to respond. That is why two people in the same event leave with different imprints.
How it shows
- Flashbacks, intrusive images, nightmares — or, conversely, gaps in memory.
- Hypervigilance: constant alertness, startling at noise, an inability to relax.
- Avoidance: of places, people, conversations, even feelings.
- A sense of disconnection — "as if I'm watching from a distance", "as if the body isn't mine".
- Guilt and shame, often disproportionate: "I should have done something".
- Physical symptoms with no organic finding, especially pain and chronic tension.
- Difficulty with trust and closeness, even with people who never caused harm.
How we work: stability first
The most common harm in trauma therapy is haste. Telling the story before having the tools to stay present while telling it is not processing — it is re-traumatisation.
So the work has an order. First phase: stabilisation. We build safety within the therapeutic relationship, learn to recognise when the nervous system activates and how it settles, and establish concrete anchors in the present.
Second phase: processing. Only once there is ground do we approach the experience itself — gradually, at a pace you set, with the option to stop at any moment. The aim is not to relive the event; it is for the body to stop treating it as something happening now.
Third phase: reconnection. What the event means today, what place it holds in your story, and which relationship, job or identity has been on hold while the organism stayed on alert.
At a glance
- ForAdults
- Duration50 minutes per session
- SettingAt the practice in central Thessaloniki, or online
- ApproachCognitive behavioural (CBT) with EFT elements
- AppointmentsBy phone or through the contact form
- PaceStabilisation first; processing only once there is ground to stand on
Frequently asked questions
No. Memory gaps are among the most typical consequences of trauma, not evidence that “it wasn't that bad”. We work with what is there — sensations, images, bodily responses — and recovering memories is never a goal in itself.
There is. The nervous system does not keep a calendar: if it still reacts as though there were danger, the event has not closed, however many years have passed. Many people come decades later, often when something in the present reactivates it.
There can be periods of intensity, particularly when things that have been avoided start being named. That is exactly why the stabilisation phase comes first: so the tools exist before they are needed. And we say so explicitly when we approach such a point — it does not happen without warning.
Yes, within individual psychotherapy for adults. If the situation is ongoing, safety comes first: we then work alongside the specialist services (in Greece, the SOS line 15900 and the Counselling Centres) and the therapeutic work adapts accordingly.