The Vagus Nerve and Trauma Recovery

Your Body Has a Built-In Healing Path

If you've ever felt like your body just won’t calm down, or like you’re walking around in a fog you can’t shake, you’re not broken. You’re experiencing a nervous system in distress. The good news? Your body holds a powerful key to recovery: The Vagus Nerve.

This nerve is more than just a biological structure, it’s the foundation of how we feel safe, connect, and heal. Trauma disrupts it. But with care and somatic tools, we can restore it. As a trauma-informed grief coach and doula, I teach my clients how to work with, not against, their bodies by awakening this incredible pathway.

Let’s explore how.

What Is the Vagus Nerve?

The vagus nerve (Latin for “wandering”) is the longest cranial nerve in the body. It runs from your brainstem, down your throat, through your heart and lungs, into your gut. It’s like a superhighway connecting your emotional, digestive, cardiovascular, and respiratory systems.

It’s also the anchor of your parasympathetic nervous system, the branch responsible for calm, rest, and regulation.

The vagus nerve has two primary branches:

• Ventral Vagal (Safe/Social):
  Governs feelings of connection, calm, compassion, and social engagement. This is where healing and relationships thrive.

• Dorsal Vagal (Shutdown/Freeze):
  Activated in overwhelm. Think fatigue, dissociation, numbness, or immobilization. This is a protective state but when chronic, it becomes a barrier to healing.
  
  

How the Vagus Nerve and Trauma Recovery Connect

When we face trauma, whether it's sudden loss, long-term stress, or childhood adversity, the vagus nerve becomes dysregulated.

Trauma shifts us into survival mode:

• Fight or flight (sympathetic overdrive): racing thoughts, tension, panic, anger

• Freeze (dorsal vagal shutdown): foggy mind, depression, fatigue, emotional numbness

This dysregulation weakens our vagal tone, which is our body’s ability to return to calm after stress. Instead of bouncing back, we stay stuck in “protection” mode. We lose access to connection, joy, and presence.

Clients often say:

“I feel like I’m here, but not really here.”
“I’m exhausted, but I can’t sleep.”
“Nothing feels safe, not even my own body.”

That’s trauma speaking, not failure.

Why This Matters for Recovery

Healing trauma isn’t just about talking, it’s about restoring regulation.

To truly heal, the nervous system must learn that it’s safe now, even if it wasn’t safe then. Vagal activation is how we do that.

A well-toned vagus nerve allows you to:

• Feel safe inside your body

• Rest and digest without tension

• Connect with others without fear

• Shift out of overwhelm and into presence

Trauma healing becomes more possible when the body feels supported. That’s why somatic grief work, which includes nervous system tracking and vagus nerve activation, is central to my approach.

Resource: The Vagus Nerve and Strategies to Strengthen Vagal Tone

Somatic Practices to Stimulate the Vagus Nerve for Trauma Recovery

These gentle, evidence-informed tools help reawaken the vagus nerve and return the body to safety.

1. Breathwork
   Slow breathing, especially longer exhales, activates the parasympathetic system. Try: Inhale for 4, exhale for 6.

2. Humming or Chanting
   Vibration through the throat stimulates the vagus.
   Try soft humming, “Om,” or singing to your pet.

3. Cold Water on the Face
   Activates the mammalian dive reflex, calming heart rate and panic.
   Use a cool cloth or splash cold water when anxious.

4. Gentle Touch
   Place your hand over your heart or belly and simply breathe.
   Touch tells your body: “I’m here. I’m safe.”

5. Rocking, Swaying, or Walking
   Rhythmic movement soothes the nervous system and simulates maternal rocking.

6. Crying or Laughter
   Both are natural vagal releases. Don’t suppress them, let them flow.

In my grief coaching and doula sessions, we often integrate these tools into rituals, sound work, or quiet presence.

Dr. Bessel van der Kolk’s Insights on Vagus Nerve and Trauma Recovery

Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps the Score, reminds us 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 on inside ourselves.”

He emphasizes that safety must be felt, not just understood.

By engaging the vagus nerve, we don’t just talk about safety, we feel it. This is the cornerstone of somatic trauma recovery.

Role of a Somatic Grief Coach or Doula in Vagus Nerve and Trauma Recovery

My work is about witnessing and regulating, not fixing.

As a somatic grief guide, I help clients:

• Track their nervous system without judgment

• Learn and practice vagal toning tools in safe, supported ways

• Offer co-regulation through breath, vocal tone, and steady presence

• Create rituals of safety before entering deeper emotional layers

This prepares the body to hold grief, memory, and trauma without being overwhelmed by it.

Safety Is a Sensation, Not a Thought

You can’t talk your way out of trauma but you can feel your way to safety.

The vagus nerve is your body’s built-in recovery pathway. When you learn to work with it, not against it, healing doesn’t feel like struggle. It feels like returning home to yourself.

“You are not too much. You are not lazy.
You are a nervous system in need of regulation and you deserve that care.”

Start small. One breath. One hum. One hand on your heart.
Your vagus nerve is listening, pay attention to your body's wisdom.

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