Trauma-Informed
Therapy Sydney,
Gestalt and Somatic
Trauma-informed Gestalt and somatic therapy with Chauncey Sjostedt, PACFA certified therapist in Surry Hills. All of my work is trauma-informed. I work with developmental trauma, relational trauma, complex trauma and birth trauma, drawing on Gestalt, Somatic Experiencing and Polyvagal Theory.
PACFA Certified Practicing Member #29367 · Surry Hills & Online
What does trauma-informed
mean?
Trauma is one of the most common and most misunderstood dimensions of human experience. It is not defined by the severity of an event but by the impact of that event on the nervous system and on the person's ongoing relationship with safety, connection and their own sense of self. Many people carry significant trauma without a formal diagnosis, and many carry experiences they would not name as trauma but that have left substantial marks.
Trauma-informed is not a modality. It is an orientation, a way of understanding every person who comes to therapy as someone whose nervous system and relational patterns have been shaped by their experiences, including experiences that may not carry the label of trauma but that have had a traumatic impact. It shapes how sessions are run, how the therapeutic relationship is built, and how the work is paced.
Safety First, Always
The single most important thing in trauma work is safety, relational safety between you and me, physiological safety in your nervous system, and the absence of re-traumatisation through moving faster than your system can safely process. I do not rush this. Safety is not a precondition we establish once and then move past. It is something we return to throughout the work.
Your Pace, Not Mine
Trauma therapy done well moves at the pace of the person, not the pace of a protocol or a treatment timeline. I take my cues from your nervous system, from your readiness, and from what is genuinely workable in each session. There is no expectation of how fast things should move. Slow and thorough is more effective than fast and destabilising.
Understanding the Body's Role in Trauma
Trauma is not just a memory. It is an incomplete physiological response that the body is still trying to resolve. Understanding the body's role means working with sensation, with nervous system states, and with the physical dimensions of traumatic experience rather than treating trauma as purely a cognitive or narrative phenomenon. This is where somatic approaches make a crucial contribution.
Types of trauma
I work with
A common misconception about trauma is that it requires a dramatic or obviously terrible event. Many of the most significant traumas are invisible from the outside: the chronic emotional neglect that looked like a stable middle-class upbringing, the relational trauma of growing up with a parent whose moods were unpredictable, the accumulated impact of being consistently told that your feelings were too much or not enough. These experiences are real and their effects are real, even when they do not fit the cultural template of what trauma looks like.
Trauma takes many forms. Not all of them look dramatic from the outside, and not all of them are recognised as trauma by the person who experienced them. The following are the types of trauma I most commonly work with, though this list is not exhaustive.
Developmental or Childhood Trauma
Experiences in childhood that were overwhelming, frightening, neglectful or abusive, including emotional neglect which is often invisible from the outside and leaves significant marks, shape the developing nervous system and relational patterns in ways that continue to affect adult life long after the original experiences have passed. Developmental trauma often does not look like a single identifiable event but like a pervasive relational atmosphere: the feeling of never being quite safe, quite seen, or quite enough.
Birth Trauma
Birth trauma is a specialist area given my background as a registered midwife for 13 years. I bring clinical understanding of the perinatal period alongside psychotherapy training. For more on this see the birth trauma and perinatal therapy page.
Relational Trauma
Relational trauma arises from harmful or neglectful experiences within close relationships: emotional abuse, psychological manipulation, abandonment, chronic criticism or the persistent absence of genuine attunement from caregivers. Because it occurs within relationship, it tends to shape how safe and trustworthy relationships feel in adult life. People with significant relational trauma often find the therapeutic relationship itself a place where their trauma responses are most visible, which is why building genuine relational safety is so central to this work.
Complex Trauma, Multiple and Ongoing
Complex trauma involves multiple, repeated or chronic traumatic experiences, often beginning in childhood and typically occurring within the family system or other close relationships. Its effects tend to be more pervasive and harder to identify than single-event trauma, affecting identity, self-regulation, relational patterns, the ability to tolerate strong emotions and the fundamental sense of safety in the world. This is the most common form of trauma I encounter in my practice, and the one that responds best to a patient, relational and body-aware approach.
Single-Event Trauma
Single-event trauma such as accidents, sudden bereavement, assault or medical emergencies can leave lasting impacts even when the person appeared to cope well at the time. The body holds the experience long after the cognitive mind has moved on, and symptoms can appear weeks or months later, sometimes apparently unconnected to the original event.
My approach
to trauma
Gestalt, Processing in the Present Moment
My approach to trauma draws on three interconnected frameworks that work together rather than separately. The Gestalt orientation provides the relational and present-moment foundation. Somatic Experiencing provides the body-level tools for working with stored physiological responses. Polyvagal Theory provides the map of the nervous system that makes sense of why trauma responses feel the way they do. Together they allow for trauma work that is both deep and genuinely safe.
Gestalt therapy works with what is present right now, including how the past is present in the body, in current patterns and in the dynamics between us in the room. Rather than narrating trauma from a safe analytical distance, Gestalt creates conditions for a more direct and embodied engagement with what was experienced. This does not mean plunging into painful material. It means attending carefully to what is present, including what is being avoided, and working at a pace that is genuinely manageable for your nervous system.
Somatic Experiencing, Releasing What the Body Holds
Developed by Peter Levine, Somatic Experiencing works with the physiological dimension of trauma: how the body stored an incomplete stress response and how that stored energy can be gradually and safely released. This is not cathartic or dramatic. It is slow, careful and attuned. The body leads at its own pace. Learn more on the somatic therapy page.
Polyvagal Theory, Nervous System Regulation
Polyvagal Theory, developed by Stephen Porges, provides a framework for understanding how the autonomic nervous system regulates our experience of safety, connection and threat. In trauma work, this means understanding why responses feel involuntary and physical rather than rational, building a clearer map of your own nervous system states, and gradually expanding your capacity for regulation through the accumulation of safe relational experience. The theory informs how I pace sessions, how I read the room, and how safety is continually tended rather than assumed.
Managing overwhelming emotions
What I do not do,
referral guidance
I Am Not a Clinical Psychologist or Psychiatrist
I am a PACFA certified psychotherapist and counsellor, not a clinical psychologist or psychiatrist. I cannot offer Medicare rebates, psychological assessments, diagnoses, or psychiatric medication management. If you need any of these things, I am happy to discuss a suitable referral.
I Do Not Provide EMDR or Formal PTSD Diagnosis
I do not offer EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing), formal PTSD assessment, or written diagnoses. If EMDR is specifically what you are looking for, I can recommend a qualified EMDR practitioner. My approach to trauma processing draws on Gestalt and Somatic Experiencing, which are distinct methods. If you are unsure which approach is right for you, please reach out and we can discuss it directly.
If you are uncertain whether my approach is suitable for your specific situation, please reach out directly and we can discuss it honestly. I would rather have that conversation before you book than have you begin therapy that turns out not to be the right fit. A free introductory call is available before the first session for exactly this purpose.
Sessions are available in person in Surry Hills on Saturdays and online on Wednesday afternoons (Glebe) and Saturday mornings (Surry Hills). Sessions are 50 minutes. No GP referral required. Full details on the appointments page.
Who this is for
This work is for anyone whose present experience is significantly shaped by past overwhelming events, relationships or conditions, whether or not those experiences are formally recognised as trauma. It is for people whose nervous system responses feel disproportionate or out of their control, who find certain situations or relationships triggering in ways they cannot always explain, or who notice that their past seems to follow them into the present in ways they have not been able to shift through understanding or willpower alone.
It is also for people who are not sure whether what they experienced constitutes trauma. If you grew up in an environment that was difficult but not obviously abusive, if your childhood was functional from the outside but you carry a pervasive sense of not having been fully safe or seen, if you have a complex relationship with your history that you have never had a proper space to examine: all of these are good enough reasons to explore trauma-informed work.
I work with LGBTQ+ people carrying the particular traumas of navigating a world that has not always been safe or affirming. I work with people who have experienced birth trauma, relational trauma, family-of-origin trauma and the accumulated impact of minority stress. All of this is held with genuine care and with a deep respect for the pace at which your nervous system can safely move.
Common questions
Questions about trauma-informed therapy. More on the full FAQ page.
Book a session
- Trauma-informed therapy means the therapist understands how trauma affects the nervous system, the body and the way people experience safety in relationships. It shapes how sessions are conducted: the pace, the attention to the body, the explicit prioritisation of safety and the avoidance of re-traumatisation. All of Chauncey's work is trauma-informed regardless of what brings someone to therapy.
- No. You do not need a PTSD diagnosis or any formal diagnosis to receive trauma-informed support. Many people who have experienced significant trauma have never been diagnosed with anything. If your experiences have affected how you feel, relate or function in the world, that is sufficient reason to seek support.
- Chauncey works with developmental and childhood trauma, birth trauma and perinatal experience, relational trauma including emotional abuse and neglect, complex trauma involving multiple or ongoing experiences, and single-event trauma. She does not provide EMDR, formal PTSD assessment or psychiatric medication management.
- Trauma is held in the body as well as the mind. Somatic approaches work directly with how trauma is stored physically, including nervous system states, physical tension and incomplete stress responses. Rather than focusing only on the narrative of what happened, somatic work helps the body process and release what it has been holding, which can support change that talk therapy alone sometimes cannot reach.
- Polyvagal Theory, developed by Stephen Porges, explains how the autonomic nervous system regulates our sense of safety, connection and threat. In trauma therapy, understanding Polyvagal principles helps explain why trauma responses can feel so physical and so out of rational control. It informs how sessions are paced, how safety is built, and how the nervous system can gradually expand its capacity for regulation over time.
Take the first step
towards feeling better
Book a trauma-informed therapy session in Surry Hills or online. No GP referral required. I respond to all enquiries within 48 hours.