Crime

Trauma counselling for Victims of Crime

When a crime is committed against you, you experience a tremendous amount of distress. This is normal. The severity of the distress and recovery time generally depend on the how violent the crime was. But everyone has their own path to recovery.

The most important thing for you to know is that you can recover from this experience. You may not believe this right now. You may be wrapped up in feelings of rage, guilt or shame. You may be experiencing “victim blaming” and other insensitive comments from people around you and that can feel more distressing than the crime itself.

You may have been a victim of crime, but you’re not a victim. You’re a whole person who is here, reading this site, because you need some help on the path to recovery.

You can feel it: you’re not yourself.

Does any of this sound familiar?

• You’re unhappy most of the time.
• You feel like crying and you don’t know why.
• You’re super alert, watchful or on guard.
• You’re having trouble remembering the crime.
• You’re tense and on edge.
• You have trouble falling or staying sleep.
• You’re telling yourself to get over it and move forward.
• You want to forget but images of the event keep coming back.
• You have nightmares, dreams and thoughts you can’t stop.
• You’re feeling cut off from family or friends.
• You wonder if you have depression.
• You’re hard on yourself.
• You’ve lost interest in your interests.
• You avoiding thinking about or talking about it.
• You have physical reactions (heart pounding, trouble breathing, sweating) when something reminds you of the crime.