Have you ever wondered why certain memories or experiences stay lodged in your body, long after your mind has moved on? Why you freeze up during conflict, shut down when overwhelmed, or feel like you’re constantly bracing for something bad to happen? While we might feel confused or irritated by these responses, they might be your nervous system doing exactly what it was designed to do. From a Somatic Experiencing® lens, trauma isn’t just something that happens to us. It’s something that happens in us. Unresolved trauma lives in the body, in the intricate wiring of our nervous system. That means true healing must include the body and a deeper understanding of the link between trauma and the nervous system. 

How the Nervous System Responds to Threats

The nervous system is our internal alarm and regulation center. It’s constantly scanning for safety or danger in a process called neuroception. When it detects a threat, it activates one of several survival responses. These are often referred to as the fight, flight, freeze, or fawn.

These responses are not conscious choices. They are automatic and biological. The body makes split-second decisions to protect us, even if we aren’t aware of it. When we’ve experienced trauma, the nervous system can become hypersensitive, reacting to everyday stress as if it’s still in danger. These protective responses can get stuck. That “stuckness” can shape how we experience the world and view ourselves and others. 

Fight, Flight, Freeze, and Fawn

This scanning and responding is governed by the autonomic nervous system, which manages our fight, flight, freeze, and fawn responses. Each survival response is an adaptive strategy meant to keep you alive. However, when these responses become chronic, they can impact your mental, emotional, and physical health.

• Fight: You may notice tension in your body, clenching jaws or fists, or an urge to argue or control. This response is your system preparing to confront the threat.
• Flight: Restlessness, anxiety, overworking, or always staying busy can signal a flight response. It’s your nervous system trying to escape.
• Freeze: Numbness, disconnection, or feeling “shut down” are signs of a freeze response. You might feel immobilized or like you’re watching life from the outside.
• Fawn: This involves people-pleasing, appeasement, and prioritizing others’ needs over your own as a way to stay safe.

These reactions often start as temporary solutions, but they can become habitual. If your body is still bracing for a threat that has long passed, it might be because your nervous system hasn’t had the opportunity to complete the stress cycle and return to safety.

Why Trauma Gets Stuck in the Body

Trauma isn’t defined by the event itself, but by how our nervous system experiences and processes (or doesn’t process) that event. If your body doesn’t get a chance to discharge the survival energy activated during a threat, that energy stays stored in the system.

Imagine pressing the gas pedal to get away from danger, but never taking your foot off the gas. Eventually, the engine overheats. That’s what chronic stress, anxiety, and trauma responses can feel like.

In talk therapy, we often make sense of trauma with our minds. However, if we don’t include our bodies in the process, healing can feel incomplete. 

What Is Somatic Experiencing®?

Somatic Experiencing® (SE™) is a body-based approach to healing trauma that works directly with the nervous system. Developed by Dr. Peter Levine, it focuses on restoring the body’s natural capacity to regulate and return to a felt sense of safety.

Unlike therapies that involve retelling painful stories, SE™ invites you to tune into your body’s language: sensations, images, impulses, breath, and movement. By building this awareness slowly and gently, the nervous system is guided to complete those unfinished survival responses.

This might look like:

• Noticing a tightness in your chest when talking about a stressful event
• Following a spontaneous deep breath or sigh
• Allowing a small movement that your body wants to make
• Orienting your eyes to take in the present environment

Each of these moments signals to the nervous system: You are safe now.

Healing Through the Body

Somatic Experiencing® is not about re-experiencing the trauma. It’s about helping the body release stored trauma and remember what safety feels like. It’s about creating a new relationship with your internal world, where sensations aren’t feared but listened to. Where the body becomes a partner in healing, not just a container of symptoms.

In SE™ sessions, clients learn to track sensations and develop the capacity to stay with them. This process is known as building nervous system resilience. Over time, it becomes easier to return to regulation after stress. You begin to feel more grounded, more connected, and more like yourself.

Through SE™, you’ll access the places where trauma has taken root, not just in your memories or thoughts, but in the physical and emotional imprints left in the body. When that stored survival energy gets gently released, it can also bring relief to the emotions attached to it, such as guilt, shame, fear, or anger. This body-first approach understands that healing isn’t only about changing how we think about what happened. It’s about freeing up the felt experience of the event (what the body still remembers), so the mind and emotions can follow. When the nervous system completes what it never got to finish, people often notice that their emotional responses begin to soften, too.

Your Nervous System Isn’t Broken–It’s Communicating

It’s easy to feel like something is wrong with you if you’re stuck in cycles of anxiety, exhaustion, emotional flooding, or numbness. But these are not character flaws. They are the body’s intelligent attempts to keep you safe.

When we view trauma through the somatic lens, we can shift from “what’s wrong with me?” to “what’s happened to my nervous system, and how can I support it in healing?”

Healing is not about fixing something that‘s broken. It’s about creating the conditions for your nervous system to do what it was always meant to do: heal, recover, and return to a felt sense of wholeness.

Somatic Therapy for Individuals | California

If you’re interested in somatic therapy or curious about how trauma and the nervous system are interconnected, I’d love to connect. To get started, please schedule a free consultation. We’ll briefly chat about your needs and answer questions you may have about Somatic Experiencing® and my practice. 

Somatic Experiencing® Consultations for Practitioners

As a certified Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner, I offer consultation sessions for providers who want to bring a somatic lens to their practice and those who are pursuing their SE™ certification. These sessions are collaborative, grounded, and tailored to your therapeutic style and client needs. We’ll explore how trauma and the nervous system interact, and how somatic tools can deepen your work with clients. Reach out today for a free 15-minute consultation. 

Sources

Somatic Experiencing International. “About.” Somatic Experiencing® International. Accessed May 19, 2025.