How the Nervous System Stores Childhood Trauma...

(and how Somatic Experiencing Helps You Let it Go)

Trauma isn't just what happened.

It’s how the body responded when it happened and how it kept carrying it long after the moment passed. It's the years you held that particular feeling or experience in your nervous system.

 And if you had childhood trauma, it's probably woven so tightly into your coping. mechanisms, what you think is your personality & how you move in the world.

It shows up as....

• Tightness in your chest when someone raises their voice.

• Feeling like you're foggy in the middle of a conversation.

• Exhaustion after saying “no” or hanging out with certain people

• Being startled or on edge really easily
• People Pleasing & monitoring how people are feeling & if they are happy
• Difficulty trusting others and new experiences or certain situations
• Feeling unsafe, even when you know you are logically
• Being hard on yourself & having a harsh inner critic
• C...

Sometimes it's really clear that you have childhood trauma. You might have lived through tragedy, abuse or traumas that are undeniable but not all childhood trauma is obvious. In fact, childhood trauma includes a whole array of things you might have lived through and deemed "normal" because of the home you grew up in or the coping skills you developed. It also doesn't mean you had "bad" parents, sometimes life happens and families go through difficult things that leave us with trauma, even when our parents did their absolute best.

Trauma is not just physical pain. It can also be emotional and mental pain.

As Gabor Mate says "it is not what happens to you; it is what happens inside of you as a result of what happens to you." If you had support, safety & access to other resources to help you make sense of what you went through, chances are you had a higher likelihood of moving through traumatic situations without them become trauma that is trapped in your body. 

But, in the absence...

You can find her book Heal Your Body HERE

A
Abdominal Cramps: Fear. Stopping the process.
Abscess: Fermenting thoughts over hurts, slights and revenge.
Accidents: Inability to speak up for the self. Rebellion against authority. Belief in violence.
Aches: Longing for love. Longing to be held.
Acne: Not accepting the self. Dislike of the self.
Addictions: Running from the self. Fear. Not knowing how to love self.
Adrenal Problems: Defeatism. No longer caring for the self. Anxiety.
Alcoholism: Feeling of futility, guilt, inadequacy. Self-rejection.
Allergies: Denying your own power.
Alzheimer’s Disease: Refusal to deal with the world as it is. Hopelessness and helplessness. Anger.
Amenorrhea: Not wanting to be a woman. Dislike of the self.
Anemia: “Yes-but” attitude. Lack of joy. Fear of life. Not feeling good enough.
Ankle: Inflexibility and guilt. Ankles represent the ability to receive pleasure.
Anorexia: Denying the self life. Extreme fear, self-hatred and rejection.
Anxiety: Not trusting the flo...