How Trauma Affects Your Body
🌿 Trauma does not just affect the mind. It can also change the way a person experiences their body.
When someone goes through a traumatic event, the brain may respond by disconnecting from overwhelming sensations, emotions, or memories. This process, known as dissociation, is a survival response designed to protect us.
It can feel like numbness, zoning out, losing track of time, or feeling disconnected from yourself and your surroundings.
While dissociation can be protective during trauma, it can become challenging when it continues long after the danger has passed.
In therapy, the goal is not to force reconnection.
Instead, it is a gradual process of helping people feel safe enough to return to their body, one step at a time.
Through grounding techniques, breath work, mindful movement, and other evidence-based approaches, people can learn to recognise when they feel overwhelmed and build their capacity to stay present.
Over time, the body can become a source of safety, self-trust, and information rather than something that needs to be escaped.
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Nicole Cutting
CBT Psychotherapist
Specialisation: Trauma & PTSD, Anxiety, Self-Esteem, Domestic Abuse, Women's Issues
Regulatory Body: BABCP
Based in: Northallerton, North Yorkshire, UK
