29/08/2025
🌿Childhood Trauma in Psychodynamic Counselling,
trauma is understood in a broad sense.
It does not only refer to obvious or extreme experiences such as abuse, neglect, or violence.
✨Trauma can also arise from subtle and less visible experiences in childhood – situations where emotional needs were not adequately met, or where the child was left without support in processing their feelings.
🌿For example:
A child who felt consistently unheard or dismissed may internalise the message that their feelings are not important.
🌿A child who experienced frequent but subtle criticism may carry a lasting sense of shame.
🌿Even “ordinary” events such as parental absence (due to illness, work, or divorce) can leave an emotional wound if the child did not have the capacity or support to make sense of it.
✨In this sense, trauma in psychodynamic work often refers to unmet developmental needs and unprocessed emotional experiences that were overwhelming or confusing at the time, but which could not be integrated into the child’s understanding.
✨How This Links to Psychodynamic Counselling
It pays close attention to how these past experiences shape a person’s current emotional world, relationships, and sense of self.
🌿Unresolved childhood trauma (whether major or subtle) can:
Become unconscious patterns repeated in adult life (e.g., choosing critical partners, self-sabotaging, avoiding intimacy).
Be re-experienced through 🌿🌿transference in the counselling relationship (e.g., expecting the counsellor to dismiss or criticise).
🌿Show up as defences such as denial, withdrawal, perfectionism, or overcompliance – strategies originally developed to manage painful feelings.
🌿Through the therapeutic process, the client has the chance to revisit these experiences in a safe environment, bring previously unconscious feelings into awareness, and work toward integrating them in a healthier way.
🚨Disclaimer: For general reflection—not therapy.
Some content might be triggering.
If you’re struggling, reach out to a licensed therapist, or contact me to book an introductory call.
