Settle the alarm
Grounding, sleep and regulation skills that work under pressure, before anything is processed.
Services · 11
PTSD Counselling
PTSD is a nervous-system injury, not a character weakness. Counselling reduces the alarm, resolves the event and rebuilds sleep, trust and a sense of a future.
50-minute sessionsTRTP availableStabilisation first
Per 50-minute session, plus GST. Full fees are on the packages and pricing page. Sessions run online by secure video across Australia and New Zealand, by telephone, or in person in Melbourne by arrangement.
Post-traumatic stress keeps a finished event running in the present: intrusive images, nightmares, startle, avoidance, and a body that never quite stands down. It follows single incidents — assault, accident, medical emergency, front-line work — and prolonged exposure such as family violence or childhood harm.
Work begins with stabilisation, always. Once regulation is reliable, resolution follows through TRTP or trauma-informed processing, at a pace you set. Where symptoms suggest a psychiatric review or medication would help, you will be told and referred rather than kept in counselling alone.
PTSD can look like
- Flashbacks, nightmares or intrusive images
- Startling violently at ordinary sounds
- Avoiding places, people, driving or conversations
- Numbness, dissociation or lost time
- Anger, insomnia and a permanently short fuse
What we work on together
Resolve the event
Structured trauma resolution rather than repeated retelling, at an agreed pace.
Rebuild
Sleep, relationships, driving, work, and the sense that a future exists.
How the work unfolds
StabilisationTRTPTrauma-informed practiceGP coordination
01
Settle the system
Sleep, grounding and regulation first. Processing before stabilisation makes PTSD worse, not better.
02
Understand the injury
What trauma has done to your nervous system, in plain terms. Most of the shame goes at this point.
03
Resolve
Structured trauma resolution rather than repeated retelling, at a pace you control.
04
Return to life
Driving, crowds, sleep, intimacy and work — approached in graded, agreed steps.
“The startle response was the first thing to go. I did not know that was even possible.”
Client · PTSD
Common questions
Can counselling treat PTSD without medication?+
Often, yes. Where medication would help, that is a GP or psychiatrist decision and I will say so plainly.
What if my trauma was decades ago?+
It is still workable. Untreated post-traumatic stress does not expire, and late work is common and effective.
I work in emergency services. Is this confidential?+
Yes. Nothing is disclosed to an employer without your written permission.
More answers in the general FAQs, or ask Anne directly.
Often works alongside
Trauma Counselling
Specialist trauma resolution with TRTP — without reliving the detail.
The Richards Trauma Process
A structured four-part process that resolves trauma without retelling it.
Anxiety Counselling
Turn the volume down on worry and get your decisions back from it.
Ready to start with PTSD Counselling?
Book online in under a minute, or send a question first — Anne answers her own enquiries.