Somatic Psychology: How Trauma Lives in the Body and How Healing Becomes Possible
There is a quiet intelligence within the body that remembers what the mind may struggle to explain.
Somatic psychology rests upon the understanding that human beings are not minds carried around by bodies, but embodied beings whose thoughts, emotions, memories, and physiology are intimately woven together. Our stories are written not only in words, but also in body, breath, posture, sensation, movement, and the rhythms of the nervous system. Our systems experience a whole rainbow of sensations, continuously, throughout our life, sometimes the overload on them can create a blockage, which can be accessed by, well, working with the somatic experience.
Rather than asking merely “What happened to you?”, somatic psychology also asks, “How did your body learn to survive what happened?”
Research in trauma and embodiment suggests that overwhelming experiences are often stored not only as narrative memories but as patterns of physiological activation, muscular tension, emotional responses, and implicit procedural memory (Payne et al., 2015).
For many people, this understanding brings a profound sense of relief, when their symptoms are not evidence that they are broken, but rather an evidence that their bodies adapted. For someone who have self experience a profound transformational journey this very realization took me out of victim mentality and into understanding that even in the hardest moments, there was resourcefulness, resilience and intelligence of adaptation. What needed to be done is re-adaptation to new circumstances and ownership of my life experience.
How Trauma Lives in the Body
Psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk famously observed that “the body keeps the score.” Although trauma eventually becomes part of the past, the nervous system may continue to behave as though danger is still present (van der Kolk, 2014). Trauma is not defined solely by what happened. It is also defined by what the body was unable to complete, process, or integrate. When survival responses become interrupted or chronically activated, the body may continue to express the unfinished experience through:
- chronic muscle tension
- digestive disturbances
- sleep difficulties
- hypervigilance
- anxiety and panic
- emotional numbness
- dissociation
- fatigue
- chronic pain
- difficulty feeling safe or connected
- feelings of shame and self-blame
As Janina Fisher explains, symptoms are often best understood as adaptations rather than pathology (Fisher, 2021). What once protected us can later become the source of suffering. Seen through this lens, healing becomes less about fighting ourselves and more about understanding the wisdom hidden inside survival.
The Window of Tolerance
Psychiatrist Daniel Siegel introduced the concept known as the window of tolerance (Siegel, 1999). Within this window, the nervous system is sufficiently regulated to allow us to think clearly, feel emotions, remain connected, and respond to life with flexibility. Trauma, however, tends to narrow this window. I remember vividly how the smallest happenings, a household disagreement or minor inconvenience, would send me into a spiral of anxiety, even panic. That was a hyperarousal state, as I came to understand much later –
When activation becomes too intense, the nervous system may move into hyperarousal, characterized by:
- anxiety
- racing thoughts
- panic
- irritability
- anger
- insomnia
- restlessness
- hypervigilance
Janina Fisher describes these states as sympathetic overactivation (Fisher, 2017).
At the opposite extreme lies hypoarousal, a state of nervous system collapse characterized by:
- emotional numbness
- dissociation
- exhaustion
- brain fog
- feeling disconnected from the body
- lack of motivation
- difficulty speaking
- feeling absent or unreal
These states are not failures but are protective responses. We naturally fluctuate up and down, there is a need to run from a predatory animal, or to duck in combat, or hide if there is a need for that. Pure, natural response. Our job as caretakers of our bodies which experienced prolonged stress, trauma and were tough, essentially, that world is not safe, is to create safety and regain healthy flow of the nervous system. The work of somatic healing is not to force calmness, but to gradually expand the body’s capacity to remain present without becoming overwhelmed. Imagine a picture of a driftwood on surface of water, it is able to go with the waves.
Signs the Nervous System May Need Regulation
Sometimes the body needs support in slowing down., hese are signs that down-regulation may be helpful include:
- racing thoughts
- muscular tension
- shallow breathing
- panic
- irritability
- inability to rest
- persistent alertness
At other times, the body needs support in coming back into connection, signs that up-regulation may be helpful include:
- exhaustion
- collapse
- numbness
- dissociation
- feeling frozen
- lack of energy
- brain fog
Somatic approaches teach us that both states deserve compassion and understanding that neither state represents weakness, but the body’s attempts to protect life.
Complex Trauma and Developmental Wounds
Complex PTSD extends beyond the symptoms traditionally associated with post-traumatic stress. When I first heard the term, I was really confused, because my story didn’t involve big traumatic events (which I later began to understand actually wasn’t true, but that is a story for another day), normally described as grounds for ptsd,
According to the ICD-11 framework and contemporary trauma literature, complex trauma frequently involves disturbances in:
- emotional regulation
- relationships
- self-worth
- identity
- trust
- attachment
(World Health Organization, 2019)[link].
For many individuals, the deepest wounds are not created solely by painful events, but by what was absent.
Protection.
Attunement.
Safe connection.
Being seen.
Being comforted.
Being allowed to exist exactly as one is.
As Janina Fisher writes, traumatic attachment experiences shape the nervous system itself and influence how we experience ourselves and others throughout life (Fisher, 2021)[link].
Trauma and Neurodivergence: Which Came First?
An important question receiving increasing attention within trauma research concerns the relationship between complex trauma and neurodivergence. Autism, ADHD, sensory sensitivity, and trauma frequently overlap.
Researchers have found elevated rates of PTSD symptoms among autistic individuals and increased vulnerability to traumatic stress (Rumball et al., 2020)[link] . Here you can read about the phenomenon of brooding rumination. Here about childhood trauma and neurodivergence. Similarly, individuals with ADHD appear to experience significantly higher rates of PTSD than the general population (Morris et al., 2025)[link]. Some add a side classification of AuHD, mix of traits of autism and ADHD. This does not mean that trauma causes autism or ADHD. Nor does it mean that neurodivergence is simply trauma – rather, the relationship is complex and often bidirectional.
The question, therefore, is not whether the egg or the chicken came first.
The deeper question is:
“What happened, what was needed, and how can this nervous system be supported now?”
Interoception: Learning to Listen to the Body
One of the most important capacities in healing is interoception—the ability to perceive the body’s internal sensations.
Research suggests that trauma can interfere with this natural awareness, making it difficult to recognize hunger, emotions, boundaries, or signals of safety (Mehling et al., 2012)[link]. Somatic therapies seek to restore this connection gently and healing often begins with very simple questions:
“What do I notice?”
“What happens inside when I slow down?”
“Can I remain with this sensation without needing to change it?”
Over time, the body learns that it no longer has to remain organized around survival.
-a bringing back to present moment-
Healing Through the Body
Modern trauma research increasingly supports the importance of body-based approaches alongside cognitive therapies.
The work of Bessel van der Kolk, Peter Levine, Pat Ogden, Janina Fisher, Arielle Schwartz, Stephen Porges, Ruth Lanius, and Abi Blakeslee points toward a shared understanding:
Healing is not achieved by insight alone and understanding matters.
But lasting change occurs when the nervous system itself begins to experience safety.
when the breath softens, the shoulders release, emotions become bearable: and can even be accessed! When connection no longer feels dangerous, because finally the nervous system is capable of holding more than in survival. Then the life can be felt again. The most symbolic in the archetypes of healers is Chiron, the Wounded centaur, who is representing, that healing doesn’t have to be about absence of wounds, but the gradual remembrance that the body which once carried our suffering also carries our capacity for restoration. With sufficient safety, patience, and compassionate witnessing, the body can learn something new. It can learn that the danger has passed, that life is once again allowed to unfold. And that newly built expression of life exists on a cornerstone of wisdom, of liven experience, resilience forged in fire. That is what I call the journey of the Lion Heart, and the path is not pretty. This is not healing in love and light and spiritual bypass, but through the symbolic thorns on roses, in tears, in loneliness of being on path that is unjust and can feel unbearable. Yet, on the top of the thorn climb is the rose, a life which is not taken for granted, a life so fragrant and beautiful every cell of the body, learned anew, cries joy of living. And that is a very true and possible path out of shadow realms.
References
Blakeslee, A. (2022). What Happened to You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience and Healing. Contributions on implicit memory and attachment trauma.
Payne, P., Levine, P. A., & Crane-Godreau, M. A. (2015). Somatic Experiencing: Using Interoception and Proprioception as Core Elements of Trauma Therapy. Frontiers in Psychology.
van der Kolk, B. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score.
Fisher, J. (2017). Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors.
Fisher, J. (2021). Transforming the Living Legacy of Trauma.
Siegel, D. J. (1999). The Developing Mind.
World Health Organization (2019). ICD-11 Complex PTSD Framework.
Rumball, F. et al. (2020). Relationship Between Autism and PTSD. Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
Mehling, W. et al. (2012). The Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness. PLOS ONE.
Schwartz, A. (2018). The Complex PTSD Workbook.