Traumatic Stress service

Traumatic experiences can have a real impact on both your physical and mental health, even years after the actual incident. PTSD isn’t just something you experience in the military. It is a very understandable reaction to lots of different types of traumatic experience.

We support people who have been exposed to a range of different experiences, such as:

• Repeated or prolonged trauma, such as, physical and sexual assault, rape, domestic violence, trafficking, torture, and detention
• Childhood abuse
• Violent or traumatic bereavement
• People who are refugees or asylum-seekers, from war and conflict for example
• Traumatic birth or birth trauma
• People coming to terms with strong feelings of shame and self-criticism 

We aim to help people reduce their distress, process, and understand their experiences, and live the life they choose.

We are a team of therapists who specialise in helping people affected by trauma. We provide psychological treatments for PTSD and Complex PTSD, to help reduce distress and symptoms such as nightmares, flashbacks, and intrusive memories.

We typically use a phased approach, which lead up to understanding trauma memories.

Treatment can take place in a group setting with up to eight other people, or one-to-one with you and your specialist.

Phase 3 will always be on a one-to-one basis. We offer therapy remotely, via video call, and in-person in our clinic.

The phases are dependent on your treatment pathway and may include:

Phase 1 – Understanding and Coping with Complex PTSD

We learn more about PTSD and Complex PTSD and develop the skills to manage the main symptoms. 

Phase 2 – Developing Compassionate Resilience

This phase explores our capacity to be self-compassionate. Self-compassion is a much needed skill to help us manage strong emotions and a tendency to blame ourselves for things that have happened in our lives.

Phase 3 – Working on Trauma Memories

This phase helps you to make sense of your trauma experiences and, where necessary, work more directly with flashbacks and difficult memories. This will be one-to-one with a therapist.

There are three types of therapy that we may recommend, including Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (TF-CBT), Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR), and Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET). We decide together the right option for you. 

Phase 4 – Living Life After Trauma Therapy

This phase helps you to discover how you would like to live in line with your values and self-compassion.

Referral

You need to be referred by your GP or other healthcare professional in Berkshire, through the Gateway service.

We do not accept self-referrals.

Call 0300 365 2000 (Press option 4) 

Email gateway@berkshire.nhs.uk

As a National Centre of Excellence, we also take referrals from across the country when funding has been agreed. If you live outside of Berkshire and need support, please speak to your GP for the best available option for you.

We will send you a letter confirming your referral. When you next in the assessment waiting list, we will write to you to ask you to arrange a time for your assessment appointment. 

Interpreter

Let us know before your appointment if you would like an interpreter.

We regularly work with people who do not speak English, or communicate using sign language, through interpreters.

Please note some clinicians work across different days and localities, so you may be able to get in touch with a specified clinician on certain days only.

Call 0118 904 7111

Email traumaandveterans@berkshire.nhs.uk

If we are away, please leave your name and contact number in a voicemail and we will contact you.

Call NHS 111 for mental health support and if you need urgent help call 999.

Contact times

We know that coming to sessions can be hard, so you are welcome to bring a friend or family member with you. They can wait in the waiting room if you would prefer for them not to attend your whole appointment.

You are also welcome to bring a support pet with you, but please let us know in advance so that we can make arrangements. 

If you need time after the session to take a break, then you are welcome to sit for a while in our waiting area.

Please note we share a reception and waiting area with many other services.

All our clinic rooms are on the ground floor and wheelchair accessible or accessible by lift. In our car park we have car parking spaces reserved for people with a Blue Badge.

We are based at Erlegh House, on the University of Reading Whiteknights Campus. Some of our team also work in The Athena Centre, within Upton Hospital in Slough.

Please do not visit unless you have an appointment.

Erlegh House

Whiteknights Campus
University of Reading
Earley Gate
Whiteknights Road
Reading
RG6 6BZ

What3words location: ///remark.drop.erase

Visit What3Words for online map 

The Athena Centre

The Athena Centre
Upton Hospital
Albert Street
Slough
SL1 2BJ

What3words location: ///homes.slope.helps

Visit What3Words for online map

It can be really difficult to support a loved one who is experiencing PTSD or Complex PTSD.

They may appear fine one minute, and then inconsolable with grief the next. You might not know why you are arguing over something that seems irrelevant. You might be finding it difficult to know what to say, or wanting to avoid saying anything for fear of saying the wrong thing.

Our Friends and Family booklet has information on PTSD and Complex PTSD, trauma-focused therapy, as well as tips for supporting your loved one and you.

Read our Friend and Family guide (pdf)

Our Neurodiversity Passport can help you communicate your needs to our staff. It covers sensory processing, your communication preferences, and topics that might make you feel anxious and overwhelmed, so that we can support you.   

Read about our neurodiversity passport