Beyond the Mind: How Our Bodies Remember and Heal
Everybody has trauma. Meaning, every body has trauma.
Deep in the pores, the fascia, the bones, trauma is woven into our very being, shaping how we move, react, and feel. From the tightness in our shoulders to the heaviness in our chest, trauma manifests itself in countless ways, often lingering long after the mind has consciously processed it.
When we talk about trauma, we often think it only relates to specific, intense events—accidents, violence, or major losses. However, trauma can be more subtle and intertwined into your everyday experiences: chronic stress from work, uncomfortable interactions with strangers, or repeated micro-aggressions. These experiences get stored in our tissues, muscles, and nervous system and our bodies remember what our minds may forget.
Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, a renowned trauma researcher and author of The Body Keeps the Score, said, “if the memory of trauma is encoded in the viscera, in heartbreaking and gut-wrenching sensations, in the loss of a sense of control, and in the fear of physical and emotional disintegration, then it needs to be addressed at the level of the body.”
Trauma’s imprint on the body can manifest as physical pain, tension, or ailments that seem to have no direct cause. It's the stiffness of your neck, the knot in your back, the pit in your stomach. The body becomes a vault for unresolved emotions, waiting for the right key to unlock and release them.
Research supports the idea that our bodies store traumatic memories. Our fascia, a network of connective tissue that wraps around every muscle and organ, can hold onto emotional pain just as it does physical tension. According to van der Kolk, trauma causes “deeply imprinted changes in body and brain that can remain forever locked in the muscle, tissue, and even the mind.”
Trauma disrupts the connection between the rational brain and the emotional brain. This disconnection makes it difficult to process experiences logically and instead, stores these experiences in a non-verbal, sensory part of the brain and body.
“Neuroscience research shows that the only way we can change the way we feel is by becoming aware of our inner experience and learning to befriend what is going inside ourselves.”
So if we land in the knowledge that trauma lives in the body, then healing must also involve the body. This is where practices like somatic movement and breathwork come into play—techniques that prioritize a deeply internal and personal exploration of what is present in the system. In this, we create a safe space to release stored tension and trauma, often without even having the language to describe what it is.
By simply reconnecting inwards through the power of movement and breath, we can start to unlock and release the trauma stored in our bodies. This process of bringing conscious awareness to our somatic experiences allows us to feel, release, and let go of what no longer serves us. In doing so, we create the space to set both our body and mind free, fostering true healing and deep embodiment.
