Trauma Counselling
Trauma-informed psychotherapy offered with attention to safety, pacing, and your own preferred way of engaging the work.
Trauma therapy can offer a place to make sense of overwhelming experiences, their effects, and the ways they continue to shape daily life, relationships, identity, and emotional well-being. Michael Towers provides trauma-informed psychotherapy in a collaborative, non-pathologizing, and respectful manner, with attention to safety, pacing, and your own preferred way of engaging the work.
A trauma-informed approach
Trauma can affect how people experience their bodies, emotions, memories, relationships, and sense of self. Therapy may include attending to safety, self-connection, emotional regulation, meaning-making, and the effects of trauma on identity and relationships. The pace and focus of therapy are guided collaboratively, with care taken not to push beyond what feels manageable or useful to you.
What therapy may involve
- Establishing safety, trust, and a workable rhythm for therapy.
- Exploring the effects of trauma on your life, relationships, and sense of self.
- Developing ways to respond to overwhelming emotions, disconnection, or distress.
- Reconnecting with preferred values, identities, and possibilities for living.
Non-pathologizing care
This practice uses a non-pathologizing approach to trauma work. That means your responses are not understood simply as personal deficits or disorders, but in relation to what you have lived through, how you have tried to survive, and what matters to you now. Care is intended to be collaborative, respectful, and attentive to dignity, culture, context, and lived experience.
In practice, this means:
- Autonomy and respect for your trauma story
- No probing questions about trauma details
- A focus on healing without requiring full disclosure
Philosophy and therapeutic tools
- Trauma is stored in both body and mind, restricting authentic self-expression
- Trauma can manifest cognitively, emotionally, and sensorily, often with disconnects between these experiences
- Healing involves reconnecting and integrating these aspects
Therapy draws on:
- Somatic and mindfulness-based techniques
- Narrative Therapy practices as a foundational framework
- Emotional understanding to inform the healing process
- Identity work to reshape trauma-saturated narratives
Successful trauma counselling is achieved when the client transitions from being controlled by their trauma story to controlling the narrative themselves.
Session letters and continuity
After each session, Michael provides a therapeutic letter reflecting key themes, language, understandings, and next steps from the conversation. These letters are intended to support reflection and continuity between sessions, and they also serve as the primary clinical record of care in this practice.
Booking and fit
If you are considering trauma counselling, you are welcome to book a session or reach out with questions about fit, process, and practical details. Therapy can be helpful, but no specific outcome can be guaranteed, and it is important that the approach feels appropriate for your needs and preferences.
Questions? Call or text Michael at 250-215-4155, or email [email protected].
To book a session online: