How Trauma is Stored in the Body and Why Talk Therapy Might Not Be Enough
Trauma Takes Over the Nervous System
When a person experiences something scary, threatening, or overwhelming, the autonomic nervous system goes into survival mode – fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. There are many times when a person can come out of one of these situations untraumatized because they are able to complete the stress cycle.
What Happens When the Stress Cycle Isn’t Completed
If the nervous system is not able to complete a self-protective response, however, a person can get stuck in one of these states. This is when an event that was too much becomes traumatic; the body holds on to the survival energy that didn’t get processed through at the time. This is why it feels like the body remembers; because it does. It says in that defensive state chronically, creating unwanted symptoms and, at times, disease.
Therefore, trauma is less about the event that happened itself and more about the ability to find safety afterwards in a way that resonates with the mind, body, and spirit.
(Read our blog post “What Is Trauma? Understanding Symptoms, Causes, and Trauma Healing” to learn more.)
Understanding The Brain’s Role In Trauma
Our brain is responsible for raising the alarm and finding the best strategy for finding safety. As a potential client for trauma work like Somatic Experiencing or EMDR, it can be helpful to understand what parts of our brain do when we experience a traumatic event.
The Amygdala: Your Brain’s Alarm System
The amygdala which sits inside of the brain and on top of the brain stem is the alarm system for the brain, alerting the whole system that danger is present. Over time, if trauma goes untreated, the amygdala gets extra sensitive to possible threats. Because it is also responsible for emotions, this is why it can feel like a person who is traumatized is always “on edge.” An overly sympathetic amygdala creates a hypervigilant and anxious person who can have a difficult time regulating their emotions.
The Prefrontal Cortex and the Loss of Logic in Crisis
The prefrontal cortex is responsible for logic and language. It is, from an evolutionary standpoint, the newest part of the brain. It is also the last to develop, completing its maturity in a person’s early to mid twenties. This is the part of the brain we use when we are trying to decide if danger is present. It might even be online in the beginning of the threat when we are still engaged socially, because it might try to talk down an aggressor or problem solve how to get to safety quickly. If the threat is great enough, this part of the brain goes completely offline, making way for the brainstem and limbic system to take over.
The Brainstem and the Body’s Automatic Reactions
The brainstem is in charge of sending the messages to engage the sympathetic nervous system during traumatic stress. It initiates self-protective survival responses, such as fight, or flight. The brainstem is responsible for essential functions like breathing, heart rate, swallowing, blood pressure, and digestion. This is why during trauma we see changes here, as well as in a person who is traumatized.
This is why trauma can’t be easily talked through in order to resolve it; it isn’t a logical response but a biological one. Trauma responses are instinctual and emotional by nature. This is why body-centered modalities like EMDR and somatic therapy are so effective for trauma healing.
Trauma is Stored Survival Energy
Dr. Peter Levine, who developed Somatic Experiencing, noticed that animals often aren’t traumatized because they are often able to use their survival energy as danger arises, allowing it to flow through and discharge in a helpful way. They don’t store all of the energy because they run, fight, chase, or shake, which not only keeps them safe but allows them to return to a regulated state. People are often unable to complete these survival responses in the same way due to a myriad of reasons.
The Link Between Chronic Stress and Unprocessed Trauma
Have you ever opened your email and you see one unread message from your boss and it feels like you are being chased by a bear? Have you ever read a news article that made your heart stop, but then had to go into a meeting like nothing ever happened? These are ways in which our systems are constantly exposed to stressors that can feel like life or death but we have no way of discharging that energy. This is why chronic stress can be so harmful on our health and look a lot like trauma.
Trauma persists in the body because the survival strategy didn't happen. The self-protective response was thwarted, leaving the system in chronic states of fight, flight or freeze. This creates patterns in the body such as bracing, area-specific tension, dissociation, or chronic dysregulation. This is an important component of trauma treatment to address because it is often a forgotten one. We often focus on emotions post-trauma, but we can help somebody so much more by bringing in the body as well.
The Body Tells the Story: Triggers and Somatic Responses
Most people have a general understanding of what a “trigger” is when it comes to trauma. However, we don’t often understand or explain why this happens.
Why Triggers Are Physical, Not Just Mental
Because the amygdala is so sensitive, the memory of the event is often scrambled, and the chronic fight/flight/freeze response, the whole system becomes a detection device for danger. This means that anything that looks like, feels like, seems like, smells like, tastes like the trauma even remotely gets categorized as a threat and the body goes into self-protection mode. There is no need for the prefrontal cortex to do much work because the amygdala is already on it, even if it is misguided.
The Importance of Bottom-Up vs. Top-Down Therapy
This is why it is important to do bottom-up therapy instead of top-down therapy for this kind of issue. We can’t talk our way out of feeling triggered if the whole system is responding as if there is one. It has to learn that it is safe, not told so. By meeting the body where it is, we are able to understand how it uniquely would like to complete the self-protection it didn’t get to in the moment. We are able to have a dialogue with the nervous system to understand it, but to also help it to understand that it doesn’t have to spend so much survival energy to function anymore because it is truly safe.
Signs of Chronic Stress or Trauma
Here are some signs that you might be experiencing the effects of stored trauma energy:
Anxiety
Hypervigilance
Inability to feel safe
Chronic, unexplained pain
Difficulty sleeping
Digestive issues
Frequent headaches or migraines
Emotional numbness
Emotional reactivity
Feeling jittery or “on edge”
Fatigue
Brain fog
While these can all be caused by different medical processes, it is important to note that they are also a symptom of stress. There are so many clients that have come to me after labs continually coming back normal, clear scans, visits to the ER with no real answers, to learn that their symptoms are better explained by chronic stress and/or trauma. It can feel like you are “crazy” or “making it up,” but I assure you that you are not and that it is indeed a mixture of mental and physiological distress. The good news is that you don’t have to suffer forever and there is hope! Finding a trauma-informed therapist can help.
Why Somatic Therapy Offers Hope
Somatic therapy offers a powerful path to healing because it addresses the root of trauma where it often lingers most—in the body. Unlike traditional talk therapy, which engages the mind, somatic therapy works directly with the nervous system to release stored survival energy and bring the body back into a regulated, safe state. For individuals who have tried talk therapy and still feel "stuck," somatic therapy provides a trauma-informed, body-first approach that honors both physiological and emotional needs, offering real and lasting relief.
At Embodied Healing, our goal is to empower you to develop a greater capacity for self-regulation and resilience. Reach out to us to get started on your trauma healing journey!
Frequently Asked Questions About Trauma and The Body
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Yes. Trauma is often stored in the nervous system as unprocessed survival energy, which can result in chronic physical and emotional symptoms.
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Talk therapy addresses cognitive aspects of trauma, but trauma also lives in the body. Somatic therapy works with the body’s memory and nervous system for deeper healing.
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Symptoms of stored trauma may include anxiety, fatigue, headaches, chronic pain, digestive issues, and sleep problems—even when medical tests show nothing wrong.
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Bottom-up therapy, like Somatic Experiencing or EMDR, works by engaging the body first, helping to release stored survival energy before addressing cognitive patterns.
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The brain shifts from logical thinking (prefrontal cortex) to survival mode (amygdala and brainstem), making trauma responses instinctive rather than rational.
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Somatic therapy involves body-based practices that help discharge trauma-related tension and restore nervous system regulation, promoting both physical and emotional healing.
Stevie Olson-Spiegel is a Licensed Therapist and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner located in Kansas City. She uses Somatic Experiencing as her main body-based trauma healing modality, as well as EMDR. As an Intuitive Eating Counselor, she uses these principles to help her clients challenge their relationship with their cultural misconceptions about their body and food.
