Trauma is Storied in Our Bodies

Now what we have with trauma is we have his tremendous excitation, and then, boom, we're overwhelmed. This energy becomes locked - it becomes stuck in our bodies.”

– Peter Levine,

That trauma is stored in my body was a radical and mind-blowing idea for me.

Emotions get trapped in the body after something traumatic happens to us and the nervous system stays stuck in survival mode. While stuck in this state, stress hormones continue to surge through our bodies even though the event is over. When the body is under this constant level of stress, physical and psychological symptoms emerge.

Doing somatics - bodywork, movement, and physical activities with intention and awareness, can unlock these emotions and facilitate healing.

“Traumatic symptoms are not caused by the “triggering” event itself. They stem from the frozen residue of energy that has not been resolved and discharged; this residue remains trapped in the nervous system where it can wreak havoc on our bodies and spirits.”

– Peter Levine, Waking the Tiger (pg. 19)

“The body keeps the score: If the memory of trauma is encoded in the viscera, in heartbreaking and gut-wrenching emotions, in autoimmune dis-orders and skeletal/muscular problems, and if mind/brain/visceral communication is the royal road to emotion regulation, this demands a radical shift in our assumptions.”

– Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score (pg. 88)

“No matter how sophisticated our minds may be, the fact remains that their basic contents - what we think, believe consciously or unconsciously, feel or are prevented from feeling - powerfully affect our bodies, for better or worse.”

– Gabor Maté, When the Body Says No (pg. 45) 

An article in the online magazine Medium.com informs us of the impacts on the brain and the body and the increased risk of mental and physical problems:

“The truth is that trauma is not just “in your head” … The emotional and physical reactions it triggers can make you more prone to serious health conditions including heart attack, stroke, obesity, diabetes, and cancer, according to Harvard Medical School research.”

So, as you can see, trauma is not merely a phenomenon that is “all in your head.” It is stored in your body, and often

manifests itself as physical symptoms. As such, both body and mind must be taken into