Trauma Counselling
Careful, paced treatment for single-incident and complex trauma, including PTSD.
Trauma treatment does not require you to relive everything in detail on day one. We begin with stability: understanding your responses, building capacity to manage distress, and establishing enough safety in the work that processing becomes possible.
When you're ready, we use evidence-supported trauma treatments — including trauma-focused CBT, Schema Therapy and EMDR — to process what happened so it stops intruding on the present.
Dr. Peter Saunders has worked extensively with PTSD in forensic, public mental health and private settings.
What to expect
Nothing gets processed in session one. We begin with understanding your responses, building capacity to manage distress, and establishing stop signals you control. Processing starts only when you are ready for it, and each session closes with containment work.
How many sessions will I need?
We agree the likely number of sessions with you at the first appointment, once we understand what's happening. A Mental Health Care Plan funds up to ten individual sessions per calendar year, and an initial referral commonly covers six before your GP reviews it. We set a review point rather than committing you to an open-ended course. Complex or childhood trauma takes longer than single-incident trauma, because stabilisation comes first.
Evidence base
Source: phoenixaustralia.org
Trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy and EMDR are the two psychological treatments recommended as first-line for PTSD in the Australian Guidelines for the Prevention and Treatment of Acute Stress Disorder, PTSD and Complex PTSD, published by Phoenix Australia.
How we work with this
The shape of treatment, step by step — adjusted to what you bring and the pace you set.
Stabilise first
Grounding, regulation and psychoeducation come before any processing work. You set the pace throughout.
Process with structure
Trauma-focused CBT and EMDR provide a contained method for working through memories rather than being flooded by them.
Rebuild afterwards
Treatment continues past symptom relief into trust, relationships and the parts of life trauma interrupted.
Questions about Trauma Counselling
Will I have to describe what happened in detail?
Not in the first session, and not before you have the capacity to manage it. EMDR in particular does not require a detailed narrative, which makes it an option where talking through the event is intolerable.
How many sessions does trauma treatment take?
That depends on whether the trauma is single-incident or complex, and it is agreed with you after assessment rather than estimated beforehand. Complex and childhood trauma run longer, because the stabilisation phase precedes any processing work.
What if I become overwhelmed during a session?
You hold agreed stop signals from the outset, and grounding work is taught before processing begins. Sessions close with containment rather than ending mid-distress.
Who provides trauma treatment here?
Dr. Peter Saunders, who has worked with PTSD across forensic settings, public mental health and private practice, and provides both trauma-focused CBT and EMDR.
Related services
EMDR Treatment
Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing — a structured therapy for distressing memories.
Stress & Burnout
For high-functioning exhaustion — when you're still delivering but running on empty.
Self-Esteem
Work on self-criticism, perfectionism and the belief that you're not quite enough.
Book with Peter
Sessions run 50 minutes, in our Melbourne CBD rooms or by secure video. No referral needed to begin.