Have you ever noticed your heart racing during a situation that isn’t actually dangerous, or felt your stomach twist before an ordinary conversation? We tend to dismiss it as stress or nerves, though at times it is something deeper, as our body holds memories our mind has tried to leave behind.
When we think about trauma, we often connect it to the mind, the memories that come back unwelcome, emotions that feel too heavy, or thoughts we have trouble releasing. But trauma isn’t just a mental or emotional experience; it’s physical too. Trauma can live in the body quietly or loudly, and oftentimes in ways we don’t realize are connected.
What is Trauma?
As Bessel van der Kolk puts it in The Body Keeps the Score, “Trauma is not just an event that took place sometime in the past; it is also the imprint left by that experience on mind, brain, and body.” Even when the mind wants to move on, the body often holds on.
The body has its own language. When it doesn’t feel safe, it speaks through the nervous and immune systems. Stress activates the Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and sympathetic nervous system, releasing hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. In short bursts, these help us cope. But when the body stays in this state too long, muscles stay tense, the heart races, breathing becomes shallow, and pain or fatigue can set in. For some, the system goes into overdrive, always alert and restless. For others, it shuts down, leading to numbness or disconnection. Both are ways the body tries to protect itself.
Can Trauma Affect the Gut?
The gut is another place where trauma often leaves its mark. Our gut, more formally known as the enteric nervous system (and sometimes called the “second brain”), is highly responsive to emotional and physiological stress. When the body remains in a state of alert, the gut-brain axis can become dysregulated, leading to nausea, appetite changes, or IBS-like symptoms. Sleep is also commonly affected.
Elevated stress hormones and persistent sympathetic activation can make it difficult to fall asleep, cause frequent awakenings, or prevent deep restorative rest. Even after a full night in bed, the body may feel as though it never truly shut down. Over time, living in this heightened state of vigilance strains the immune system, contributing to chronic inflammation, fatigue, and increased susceptibility to illness. What begins as the body’s attempt to stay safe can, over time, become the very pattern that keeps it unwell.
Perhaps most striking are the moments when the body remembers what the mind has pushed away. A racing heart, trembling hands, or a sudden heaviness in the chest can appear without warning, echoing the emotions of the past. These sensations may not seem logical, but they are real and they matter.
Healing From Trauma
Healing begins when the body starts to feel safe again. As that sense of threat decreases, the parasympathetic nervous system re-engages, helping the body shift from survival to regulation. As van der Kolk writes, “if the memory of trauma is encoded in the viscera, in heartbreaking and gut-wrenching emotions, in autoimmune disorders and skeletal/muscular problems, and if mind–brain–body therapies can bring the body back into feeling safe, then the whole organism can reorganize itself and heal.”
Stress hormones will begin to stabilize, heart rate and breathing will regulate, and systems such as digestion, sleep, and immunity start to recover. In the brain, the amygdala’s heightened alarm quiets while the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus regain balance, allowing the body to recognize that danger has passed.
Over time, this process helps reset the stress response, reduce inflammation, and strengthen vagal tone, which supports calm and connection. Fortunately, there are several ways to process trauma and restore balance to our nervous system, such as different types of therapy, including EMDR. Other things that help are supportive relationships and mindfulness practices.
Through consistent experiences of safety, the nervous system learns it no longer needs to live in a defensive mode, allowing the body to rest, repair, and trust safety again.