Intelligence Squared How To Overcome Trauma, With Psychotherapist Dr Gwen Adshead (Part Two)
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Mar 25, 2026 Dr Gwen Adshead, a forensic psychiatrist and psychotherapist with three decades of clinical experience and author of Unspeakable, speaks about trauma, identity and recovery. She explores how traumatic events reshape identity. She discusses speaking and writing as tools for healing. She outlines cautious, varied therapeutic approaches and the role of language in enabling post-traumatic growth.
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Therapy Should Begin With Gentle Exploration
- Trauma therapy requires careful pacing rather than brutal excavation of memories.
- Gwen Adshead compares therapy to archaeology: start with soft brushing, not a digger, to avoid harming the patient.
Finding Words Is Central To Healing
- Words shape identity and recovery; many trauma survivors struggle to find language for feelings.
- Adshead notes alexithymia and describes therapy and poetry as raids on the inarticulate to create new meaning.
Trauma Feels Like Something Stolen
- Trauma often feels like a theft and produces grief similar to fear.
- Adshead cites C.S. Lewis's line 'grief felt so much like fear' to illustrate bereavement as an identity robbery.
