How Somatic Therapy Helps Heal Trauma Stored in the Body

Why Healing Must Include More Than Just the Mind

“Trauma is not what happens to you. It’s what happens inside you as a result of what happened.” – Gabor Maté

Many of the clients I serve, whether grieving, caregiving, or processing long-held pain, come to me with a common question: 

“Why do I still feel this way even though I’ve talked about it a lot?”

The answer is often found not in the mind, but in the body.

As Dr. Bessel van der Kolk writes in his seminal work, The Body Keeps the Score, trauma imprints itself on our physiology. It alters our nervous system, our posture, our breath, our sleep, our digestion, and our sense of safety in the world. Trauma doesn’t just live in memory, it lives in muscle, nerve, and cell.

What Happens in the Body During Trauma

When we experience something overwhelming, emotionally, physically, or spiritually, the body activates its survival system: fight, flight, freeze, or fawn.

But when there’s no resolution, when we can’t escape or express or recover, the survival energy gets stuck.

Some of the most common trauma imprints I see include:

• Hyperarousal: racing heart, shallow breathing, panic, emotional reactivity

• Hypoarousal: numbness, fatigue, disconnection, brain fog

• Physical symptoms: jaw clenching, gut issues, chronic pain, migraines

These aren’t “random.” They are the body’s wisdom, unfinished responses to a moment when you didn’t get to run, scream, cry, or be comforted.

RESOURCE: What is trauma? The author of “The Body Keeps the Score” explains | Bessel van der Kolk

Trauma as an Incomplete Stress Response

In an ideal world, the body completes the cycle, fight the threat, flee from danger, freeze and then thaw when safety returns. But trauma disrupts that natural rhythm.

When the nervous system stays in high alert or collapses into shut-down, the body can’t return to homeostasis, its natural baseline of balance. This creates a kind of internal looping, where past danger is felt as present threat.

This may show up later in life as:

• Anxiety or depression with no clear cause

• Sleep disturbances or autoimmune conditions

• Somatic flashbacks (emotional floods without mental images)

• Disconnection from one’s own body or emotions

Common Phrases That Signal Somatic Trauma

You might be carrying trauma in your body if you’ve ever said things like:

• “I feel like I’m always bracing for impact.”

• “I can’t relax, even when I want to.”

• “I don’t feel like I’m really in my body.”

• “My mind knows I’m safe, but my body doesn’t believe it.”

These phrases aren’t just metaphors. They are body-truths. Your nervous system is trying to protect you, even if the danger has passed.

The Body’s Wisdom

One of the first truths I share with clients is this:

Your body is not broken. It’s brilliant.

That jaw tension? It once helped you stay quiet.
That racing heart? It once helped you escape.
That numbness? It once helped you survive when feeling was too much.

Trauma symptoms are not flaws, they are survival strategies. When we stop pathologizing the body and start listening, healing becomes possible.

RESOURCE: 6 ways to heal trauma without medication | Bessel van der Kolk

Dr. Bessel van der Kolk’s Core Concepts

Dr. van der Kolk’s work revolutionized how we understand trauma. Here are key ideas from The Body Keeps the Score that deeply inform my practice:

• Trauma is stored in the body, not just the mind.

• Words alone are not enough, healing requires bottom-up approaches.

• Somatic tools like breath, movement, sound, and rhythm access the deeper layers of trauma.

• Recovery begins when we reclaim ownership of our bodies, when we feel safe to be inside ourselves again.
  
  
  

Gentle Somatic Invitations for Healing

In my work with clients, especially those who are grieving or holding complex trauma, I use gentle somatic practices to reintroduce safety to the nervous system.

You can begin with:

• Noticing your breath without trying to change it

• Placing your hand over your heart or belly and simply being there

• Rocking gently side to side while seated or standing

• Naming a sensation aloud: “There’s tightness in my throat,” or “I feel heat in my chest”

• Somatic journaling: Track how your body reacts in different environments, conversations, or emotional states

These small practices help build capacity for self-awareness and regulation, without overwhelm.

My Role as a Trauma-Informed Grief Coach and End-of-Life Doula

As a certified professional, I am not here to fix you, but to witness you, in all your wholeness.

• I help you track your body’s signals with compassion, not shame.

• I hold space for grief that shows up in waves, flashbacks, or silence.

• I invite movement, breath, stillness, or ritual, not as prescriptions, but as possibilities.

• Whether you’re mourning a loved one, a pet, your health, or a part of yourself long buried, I walk beside you, somatically and soulfully.
  
  
  

Your Body Is Not the Enemy

You don’t have to fight your body anymore.
It carried you through everything you didn’t know how to survive.
It still carries your truth. It still carries your healing.

When you learn how to tap into your “body’s language”, you begin the journey home back to your most authentic self.

Written by Sabrina Steczko
Certified End-of-Life Doula | Trauma-Informed Grief Guide | Somatic Wellness Specialist | Mental Health Advocacy