Trauma is when something overwhelming happens, and your body feels unsafe.
There are different kinds of trauma.
One kind is when something shocking happens, like being in a serious accident.
However there are other types of trauma that can develop much less dramatically.
For example, attachment trauma might relate to how secure (loved and wanted) we felt with our caregivers very early in life. If lack of safety in childhood lasts for a long time and includes different kinds of harm, it’s called complex trauma. This can affect emotional regulation and how easy it is to trust others.
Trauma can make your body adapt.
Our bodies adapt to trauma in different ways. Anxiety, tension, or stress can be ways the body remembers that life can be dangerous.
The body can learn to use escape methods like dissociation when things get overwhelming. Over time these adaptations can stick around, even when the original danger is passed. They can begin to cause more problems than they are fixing.
To reverse these adaptations and heal from trauma, we need to do more than just talk about it. We usually need to include our bodies in the healing process. Trauma-focused therapies help with this. Treatments (such as somatic psychotherapy or EMDR) work with how our bodies and memories are connected in the healing process.
