Trauma counselling in Bendigo & online
Hi, I am Frederikke Jensen, a Master’s-qualified counsellor and narrative therapist providing dedicated trauma counselling in Greater Bendigo and from my practice in Kangaroo Flat. I use narrative therapy and draw on psychodynamic understanding in talk-based psychotherapy with people who have experienced trauma and want to work at a slow and thoughtful pace. My approach is trauma-sensitive, and I gently help you put words to feelings and sensations, paying attention to our connection and pace.
My approach to trauma work
Individualised and thoughtful trauma therapy
Sometimes trauma results in us ‘learning’ to stay quiet, accommodate other people, or doubt our own perceptions. This can happen in controlling or coercive relationships where your needs were not thought about, and boundaries were repeatedly violated.
Therapy can offer a place to begin finding your voice again.
Because trauma can alter how we experience our relationships and ourselves, often invoking deep shame, dissociation and emotional flashbacks, my approach is individualised and deliberately slow-paced. I will not ask you to speak directly about traumatic experiences unless you feel you are ready to share them with me.
I do this work with clinical experience and evidence-based therapeutic traditions, understanding that healing cannot be rushed and requires a deep relational understanding of human attachment and emotions.
Psychotherapy approaches I use in the healing of traumatic experiences
In my work with people who have experienced trauma, I use the following therapeutic frameworks, which are both talk-based, highly relational and collaborative therapies:
Narrative Therapy: My main modality, Narrative Therapy, which I specialised in during my Master’s degree, helps me bring a systemic lens to trauma work and think about how power and oppressive voices in culture, community and families impact people.
Psychodynamic Therapy: I draw from psychodynamic thinking to bring a deeper understanding of attachment, early life experiences and developmental perspectives in my work.
Both these orientations invite your perspective, make space for your voice, and are deeply relational and collaborative approaches to trauma work. This is vital in trauma counselling, as relational wounding happens when others are intrusive, dismissive, use coercion or exert power over.
Somatic awareness in trauma therapy
Somatic awareness is a natural part of the work I do rather than a set of separate techniques. Psychodynamic therapy, which I am informed by, has accumulated decades of therapeutic wisdom in relation to somatic expressions of psychic pain and how we may communicate through our bodies and work with somatic memories in therapy.
If you are worried about re-traumatisation
Although I aim to provide safety, people may re-experience some of what they have felt before, especially if trauma was relational, prolonged and complex. It is my hope, by saying this, that it sets a more realistic expectation of the work we may need to undertake.
Trauma therapy is a process of revisiting and working through, and finding understanding and trust may take time. It is also my experience that by being with another person who can tolerate your fear and distress as it comes up in therapy and convey hope—over time—trust in the process can gradually build.
I may recommend working in person if you have experienced severe relational trauma. Equally important is a regular, minimum weekly therapy appointment to ensure you are not left to struggle on your own for long if something distressing comes up in a session.
Types of trauma that a relational and collaborative approach can help with
Interpersonal trauma: Harm done to you by others in a close relationship, such as family violence, sexual violence, and emotional abuse.
Violent physical trauma: Harm done to you by others that may have happened unexpectedly and shattered your view of the world as a once safe place.
Childhood trauma in adults: Childhood trauma may sometimes result in Complex Trauma or C-PTSD. Childhood trauma can show up in adulthood as the effect of long-term neglect, emotional abuse, and physical violence when we were young. Perhaps growing up with parents who were distant, had addictions and had their own emotional and psychological struggles.
Systemic trauma: Discrimination or oppression of your rights and a perpetuation of personal trauma due to a lack of trauma-informed care and re-traumatisation.
Vicarious trauma: Secondary trauma experienced through frontline work or by supporting a loved one who has survived trauma.
Traumatic loss: A traumatic loss of someone close to you, such as suicide bereavement.
Finally, trauma therapy should never be forced, and if you have any worries about starting therapy, I invite you to speak about those worries and ask me questions.
Whether you’d like a call back for a brief talk or have a specific question, feel free to get in touch.
There is no charge for a brief initial conversation.
No need to share sensitive information by form, if we decide to meet in person or via telehealth, I set aside the first three sessions to understand more about what you’re going through.
You can read more about me and how I work before you reach out.
Warmly
Frederikke
E: frederikke@throughlinecounselling.com
M: 0427 043 171