Heather Bradley

I have been a Trauma Therapist for over 10 years specialising in working with Adults who have experienced Childhood Sexual Abuse.

I understand that going through a Trauma can radically change your life and can create feelings of loneliness, confusion and despair. Together we journey from where you are now into a life that has clarity, meaning and purpose. This can often involve going back to the past to release your Trauma at the root giving you freedom and control over your own life.

I have personally overcome anxiety, depression, CPTSD, flashbacks, addictions, vaginismus, dissociation, repressed memories, attempted suicide and self harm as a result of my own childhood sexual abuse and gang rape attack as a teenager. I really do understand just how debilitating trauma can be on your life. And I also know from first hand experience just how free, liberated, strong and in control of your life you can feel after therapy.

If you would like to know more about my own journey or what I can offer you please do check out my website where you will find videos and further information.

I specialise in Trauma, Anxiety and Complex PTSD.

In particular working with Adults who have experienced Childhood Sexual Abuse.

I also work with any Sexual Trauma and the Intimacy Issues and Relationship Issues that arise from that.

Helping you to understand and release the fear response and trauma from your body and to enjoy connecting with your body, reclaiming feelings of pleasure and safety.

I specialise in PTSD flashbacks, panic attacks, dissociative disorders and discharging the freeze response from the body.

I specialise in changing the way we store our traumatic memories. When we have a frightening experience we go into fight or flight but in a trauma where we can't get away we go into a freeze response. When this happens our memory never gets stored as a complete or finished memory, therefore when we are triggered we can find ourselves right back there. Sometimes this happens with all of our senses so that we can see, hear and feel ourselves back in time, but sometimes it happens as a body (implicit) memory. So we may feel agitation or fear but not know why. I work with people to discharge this freeze response so that it is no longer stored in the body and we complete the memory so that it is stored differently on a neurological level. This means you realise on a deep subconscious level that the danger is over now and you are safe.

I have a holistic approach to therapy. This is your journey. You are unique and your story is unique to you. I have a wide range of effective tools that we can use together in an organic way as we travel your healing journey together.

So one day we might be doing some gentle art work building trust with your child self, another day we might be looking at a traumatic memory and changing the negative beliefs you took on at that time. Another session we might purely be focusing on your body and how it has stored feelings of unsafety and release it on a body level. Another day we might do gestalt or parts work meaning that we can accept and understand all sides of you, even if they might be conflicting (an example of this might be part of you wants to have loving sex with your partner but another part of you might feel fear, mistrust or pain). Perhaps another day we will do some hypnosis or mediation to really allow your body to learn to relax and feel safe. Or you may like to try some reiki to balance your energy field. On other sessions we may explore your relationship with yourself and your partner if you have one - we may explore trust exercises you can take away to do at home.
Many of my sessions include using EFT and Matrix Re-Imprinting because it is such an incredibly effective tool for giving you the emotional freedom that you so deserve. The effects are deep and long lasting. Because of this I often teach my clients to tap at home in between sessions to accelerate their therapeutic journey and take control of their own lives.

There is so much that we can do together and we will always move at the speed that is right for you. I will never ask you to do anything you are uncomfortable with. You are in control at all times.

Typically, we would have weekly sessions and then I would set you a small task to do in the week to accelerate your healing and growth. This really helps to integrate all that we did in the session and set those new neural pathways in the brain for real deep and lasting change.

If this sounds like something you'd like to explore together, please do reach out to me for in person sessions in Bristol or online sessions over Zoom.

I look forward to hearing from you when the time is right.

With love and warm wishes,
Heather