The Body Keeps the Score: How Trauma Lives in Your Body

Psychological trauma is the organism's response to an experience that overwhelms its capacity for integration. It is not the event itself that defines trauma but the way the nervous system processes it — or, more precisely, fails to process it. Bessel van der Kolk, a Dutch-American psychiatrist and author of The Body Keeps the Score (2014), revolutionised our understanding of trauma by demonstrating, after more than thirty years of clinical research and neuroimaging, that traumatic experiences are not stored as orderly narrative memories but as fragmented bodily sensations, automatic nervous-system responses, and chronic muscular patterns. Peter Levine, creator of Somatic Experiencing, reached similar conclusions from ethology: wild animals discharge traumatic energy through trembling and shaking; human beings, socially conditioned to suppress those responses, trap that energy in the body. Gabor Mate completes the picture by connecting unprocessed trauma with autoimmune diseases, chronic pain, and addiction.

Overview: where trauma lives in the body

Why is trauma not just a memory?

Van der Kolk explains that the traumatised brain shows three fundamental alterations. First, the amygdala — the brain's alarm system — becomes hyperactive and fires danger responses to stimuli that are not threatening. Second, the medial prefrontal cortex — the area responsible for contextualising experience and deciding whether the alarm is real — loses its regulatory capacity. Third, Broca's area, responsible for putting experiences into words, partially shuts down during flashbacks, which explains why many traumatised people "cannot talk" about what happened to them.

Bowlby already intuited this when he described "internal working models": they are not conscious beliefs but implicit patterns — encoded in the body — that dictate how we approach or withdraw from others.

How does bodily trauma manifest in relationships?

The traumatised body reacts before the mind has time to think. In relationships, this translates into:

• Fight responses: disproportionate irritability, shouting, verbal aggression at a mild criticism.
• Flight responses: needing to escape the conversation, changing the subject, leaving the house when tension rises.
• Freeze responses: going blank, feeling "not present," inability to respond emotionally.
• Fawn responses: compulsively pleasing the other person to avoid conflict, losing all personal opinions.

Peter Levine notes that these responses are not conscious choices but survival programmes activated by the autonomic nervous system. Judging someone for their traumatic response is like judging them for their knee-jerk reflex.

Why is talk therapy not always enough for trauma?

Van der Kolk makes a statement that challenges traditional psychology: talking about trauma may not be sufficient and can even be counterproductive if it reactivates bodily sensations without providing tools to regulate them. "The body keeps the score even when the mind tries to forget," he writes. This does not mean talk therapy is useless — narrative matters — but it needs to be complemented with approaches that include the body.

Gabor Mate agrees: "It's not what happened to you, it's what stayed inside you because of what happened." And what stayed inside does not live only in thoughts; it lives in the tension of the diaphragm, the rigidity of the hips, the inability to breathe deeply.

Which therapies integrate the body in trauma healing?

• EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing): created by Francine Shapiro. Uses bilateral stimulation to facilitate reprocessing of traumatic memories. Van der Kolk recommends it as one of the most effective therapies.
• Somatic Experiencing (SE): developed by Peter Levine. Works with bodily sensations to complete survival responses that remained unfinished.
• Trauma-informed yoga: Van der Kolk has extensively researched how yoga — specifically, conscious reconnection with the body — reduces PTSD symptoms more than some medications.
• Neurofeedback: direct training of brainwave patterns to restore nervous system self-regulation.
• Movement therapy: dance, martial arts, qigong — any practice that allows the body to express what words cannot.

How to recognise that your body is storing trauma

Signs that go beyond classic psychological symptoms:

1. Chronic pain without a clear medical cause: especially in the neck, lower back, and jaw.
2. Bodily hypervigilance: inability to relax even when you are safe.
3. Disproportionate reactions to sensory stimuli: a door slamming, a tone of voice, a smell that "transports" you.
4. Difficulty sensing the body: not knowing whether you are hungry, cold, or need rest.
5. Chronic muscular tension: especially in the diaphragm, which restricts breathing.

Levine describes this as "trapped energy": the body wanted to flee or fight, could not, and that energy remained frozen in the tissues.

What can you do today to begin releasing bodily trauma?

1. Breathe consciously for 5 minutes a day: inhale for 4 counts, exhale for 6. The longer exhalation activates the vagus nerve and takes the nervous system out of alert mode.
2. Scan your body: when lying down, mentally travel through each area of your body and notice where there is tension without trying to change it.
3. Move with intention: you do not need a gym. Walking, dancing in your living room, or stretching consciously allows the body to discharge accumulated energy.
4. Seek professional support trained in trauma: not all therapists are trained in somatic approaches. Ask specifically about EMDR, Somatic Experiencing, or therapeutic yoga.

At LetsShine.app, we understand that relationships are lived in the body as much as in the mind. When your nervous system regulates, your ability to be present with the other person transforms. It is not about thinking differently but about feeling differently — and that begins in the body.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the body really "keep" trauma or is it a metaphor?

It is not a metaphor. Van der Kolk has documented with neuroimaging that trauma modifies the structure and functioning of the brain, alters autonomic nervous system regulation, and manifests in measurable chronic muscular patterns. Peter Levine adds ethological evidence showing that traumatic energy is literally trapped in the body.

Can I release trauma through exercise alone?

Exercise helps regulate the nervous system, but it is not sufficient on its own. Traumatic discharge requires awareness: it is not enough to move the body; you need to connect movement with internal experience. This is why somatic therapies are more effective than generic exercise.

Is bodily trauma inherited?

Epigenetics suggests it can be. Studies with descendants of Holocaust survivors show alterations in the expression of stress-related genes. Gabor Mate and Rachel Yehuda have extensively researched this intergenerational transmission.

How many EMDR sessions are needed to treat trauma?

It depends on the complexity. A single-event trauma (an accident, for example) can be resolved in 3 to 8 sessions. Chronic relational trauma — especially from childhood — requires a longer process because there is no single event to reprocess but rather a sustained pattern.

Can LetsShine.app help me identify somatic patterns?

LetsShine.app can help you identify emotional and relational patterns that may be connected to bodily trauma responses. While it does not replace somatic therapy, it can be the first step towards awareness of your automatic reactions and understanding what your body is storing.