When Trauma Is Stored in the Body: What’s Really Going On?

 You’ve likely heard the phrase:

“Trauma is stored in the body.”

But what does that actually mean?
Where, exactly, is it stored?
Why does your body react the way it does - without your permission?
And most importantly: How do you release it?

These questions are more than intellectual curiosities.
Without clear answers, trauma survivors often feel lost in their own bodies - misunderstanding their symptoms, blaming themselves for their patterns, and feeling powerless to shift them.

They deserve better.
You deserve better.

Let’s replace vague metaphors with grounded, compassionate science -  through the lens of the nervous system, with the tone of trust and clarity.

Trauma isn’t just a memory stored in your mind.
It’s a patterned imprint held in your body’s procedural memory system- the part of the brain responsible for automatic, non-conscious behaviours.

This happens through three key communication pathways:

• Interoception: sensing your internal body states (heartbeat, breath, digestion)
   
• Proprioception: awareness of your body’s position and movement
   
• Vestibular system: balance and orientation in space
   

When we experience overwhelming events -  especially without enough support or safety -  the nervous system encodes these sensory cues as “danger.”
Over time, this leads to automatic responses that bypass logic.
Your body isn't remembering in a narrative sense -  it's responding as if the threat is still happening.

Let’s talk about neuroception -  your body’s automatic threat detector, coined by Dr Stephen Porges.
For those who’ve experienced trauma, neuroception can become overprotective.
It’s like having a loyal guard dog who now barks at every sound -  including the wind.

This isn’t your fault.
It’s the outcome of neuroplastic changes in your brain.

Trauma doesn’t just affect emotions -  it reshapes key brain systems:

• Amygdala (alarm system) becomes hyperactive, reacting strongly to perceived threats
   
• Hippocampus (context and time) struggles to place the past in the past -  everything feels like now
   
• Insula (body sensations) becomes dysregulated, making internal signals feel overwhelming or confusing
   
• Anterior cingulate cortex (safety detection) can’t accurately assess social cues, leading to misreading situations
   

Together, this creates a body and brain that are stuck in survival mode, even when life is no longer dangerous.

When clients understand the neurobiology of their trauma, something powerful shifts:

• They stop thinking “What’s wrong with me?”
   
• They start saying “Oh, this makes sense now.”
   
• They realise their patterns are adaptations -  not flaws
   

This education is an intervention.

It uses top-down processing -  helping the thinking brain engage and calm the alarm system.
Research shows that understanding what's happening in your body can reduce amygdala reactivity, restore agency, and increase a felt sense of safety.

The real question isn’t how to release trauma -  it’s how to restore communication and regulation in your nervous system.

Trauma integration involves:

• Bottom-up approaches (somatic therapy, breathwork, movement) that speak to the body directly
   
• Top-down tools (education, reframing, narrative processing) that soothe the mind
   
• Relational safety -  co-regulating with a therapist, guide, or trusted other
   

Over time, with repeated signals of safety, your brain rewires.
Your nervous system learns that it no longer has to fight, flee, freeze, or fawn.

When you say, “Why am I like this?”
Your body whispers, “I’ve been protecting you.”

You are not broken.
You are brilliantly adaptive.

And now -  as you learn to understand your nervous system’s language -  you can begin to shift from survival into safe embodiment.

This is what healing really is:
Not forgetting the trauma, but no longer having to live inside it.

When you step into the therapeutic space with me -  whether through counselling, or by integrating yoga into the therapeutic process -  we explore all of this gently, with curiosity and compassion.

Together, we honour your survival patterns while creating new pathways of safety and connection in your body.

With warmth,
Kate