Understanding the Link Between Anxiety and Trauma

From a Trauma Therapist Supporting Adults in Coffs Harbour & Online

Many adults seek therapy to manage anxiety—but often, anxiety isn’t just about day-to-day stress. It can be a long-term response to past trauma, even if that trauma happened years ago or feels ‘in the background’. As a trauma therapist in Coffs Harbour with experience supporting adults, I focus on helping clients understand the connection between their anxiety and earlier life experiences.

If you’re struggling with anxiety that feels persistent or out of proportion, there’s a good chance it’s tied to your nervous system’s response to past events. Understanding this link can be an important step toward healing.

How Trauma Fuels Anxiety

When you’ve been through trauma—whether a one-time event like an accident, or ongoing experiences like childhood neglect, relationship abuse, or bullying—your nervous system learns to stay on high alert. Even when you’re safe now, your brain may still scan for danger and interpret everyday stress as a threat.

This often shows up as anxiety symptoms, such as:

• Constant worry or racing thoughts

• Panic attacks or intense fear ‘out of the blue’

• Trouble sleeping or relaxing

• Avoiding places or situations that feel unsafe

• Feeling irritable, on edge, or emotionally exhausted

• Difficulty trusting others or feeling secure

These symptoms are signs that your system is doing its best to protect you, even if it no longer needs to.

Anxiety Conditions That May Be Linked to Trauma

In my work with adults in Coffs Harbour, I often see trauma playing a role in many common anxiety-related conditions, including:

• Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

• Panic Disorder

• Social Anxiety Disorder

• Health Anxiety

• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

• Complex PTSD (C-PTSD)

Even if you don’t meet the criteria for a specific diagnosis, anxiety and trauma symptoms can still affect your daily life, relationships, and overall sense of well-being.

Healing Is Possible with the Right Support

As a therapist with experience in working with trauma and anxiety, I help adults explore how past events may be influencing their present, and offer tools to create lasting change. I use a trauma-informed approach based on Imagery Rescripting and Reprocessing Therapy (IRRT), which supports clients in safely processing painful memories and reducing their emotional intensity.

Therapy is about reprocessing trauma and making sense of it, so you can feel more in control, connected, and calm in your life today.

Why Work with a Trauma Therapist in Coffs Harbour?

Choosing a therapist who understands the impact of trauma on anxiety means you’ll be supported in a way that respects your history and nervous system. Based in Coffs Harbour, I provide therapy for adults seeking relief from chronic anxiety, unresolved trauma, or a general sense of emotional overwhelm.

If you’re ready to understand the deeper roots of your anxiety, I’m here to support you.

Get in touch to book a therapy session with me in Coffs Harbour or online telehealth.