How Trauma Is Stored in the Body—And How to Release It
For a long time, trauma was only recognised as something experienced by those who had been through extreme situations—war, abuse, or life-threatening events. But as our understanding of trauma has evolved, we now know that trauma isn’t just about what happened to you, but about how your nervous system responded to an overwhelming experience.
Some people experience what we call "big T" trauma—major, life-altering events—but no one is immune to small T trauma—the chronic stress, emotional neglect, or repeated experiences that subtly shape our nervous system responses over time. In reality, trauma exists on a spectrum, and most of us have accumulated emotional imprints that affect how we feel, react, and navigate life.
The problem? Most of us were never taught how to process these experiences in real-time. Instead of learning how to regulate our nervous system and discharge emotions effectively, we were often told to "move on," "stop overreacting," or "just think positively." But emotions don’t disappear simply because we ignore them. Instead, they become stored in the body and subconscious mind, shaping our beliefs, behaviours, and even our physical health.
My work focuses on giving people the tools to finally release these stored emotional imprints—helping them regulate stress, rewire limiting patterns, and experience more ease and freedom in life.
Where Trauma Lives: The Nervous System’s Role
Your nervous system is responsible for how you feel, react, and experience the world. When we encounter a stressful or traumatic event, the body responds in one of three ways:
Fight – Hyperarousal, anxiety, anger, defensiveness.
Flight – Avoidance, restlessness, overworking, perfectionism.
Freeze – Shut down, dissociation, feeling stuck or numb.
In a balanced nervous system, once the stressor has passed, the body naturally regulates itself back to a state of safety and ease. However, when a stressful experience is too overwhelming—or happens repeatedly—the body doesn’t return to balance. Instead, the nervous system stays on high alert (hypervigilance, anxiety, chronic stress) or gets stuck in shutdown (numbness, fatigue, depression).
Over time, unresolved trauma can manifest as:
✔ Chronic anxiety or overthinking
✔ Difficulty relaxing or switching off
✔ Unexplained stress responses or triggers
✔ Emotional numbness or disconnection
✔ Physical symptoms like tension, fatigue, or digestive issues
Because trauma is stored in the body and subconscious mind, we can’t think our way out of it. Instead, we need to work with the body and nervous system to create real, lasting change.
How to Release Trauma From the Body
If you’re stuck in stress, anxiety, or emotional overwhelm, the key to releasing trauma is learning how to regulate your nervous system and rewire subconscious patterns.
Here’s the approach I use:
1. EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) – Releasing Emotional Charge
EFT, or tapping, is a science-backed method that helps calm the nervous system by sending signals to the amygdala (the brain’s fear centre). Research shows that EFT can lower cortisol (the body’s stress hormone) by up to 43% in just one session (Church et al., 2012).
By tapping on specific acupressure points while focusing on an emotion or memory, EFT helps disrupt the body’s automatic stress response and reduce the emotional charge stored in the nervous system. This allows the body to releasestored trauma rather than staying stuck in it.
Important: If you are working with past trauma—whether big or small—it’s always best to do so with a trained practitioner. While EFT can be a fantastic self-help tool, I recommend using it on your own primarily for in-the-moment stress relief rather than for deeper trauma processing.
If children were given these tools early on, they wouldn’t need to revisit and release stored emotional stress later in life—they would already have processed it in real-time. This is the long-term vision: a world where emotional regulation is taught as naturally as learning to walk or talk.
2. Matrix Reimprinting – Rewiring the Subconscious Mind
While EFT helps clear emotional stress in the moment, Matrix Reimprinting takes this further—working with past experiences to rewire subconscious beliefs at the root.
Every experience we hold onto carries an emotional imprint. If a past experience was overwhelming or painful, the subconscious mind stores it not just as a memory, but as a belief system—such as “I am not safe,” “I’m not enough,” or “I have to be in control.”
In Matrix Reimprinting, we revisit past memories (not to relive them, but to change how they are stored). By working with the subconscious in a gentle, guided process, we can release emotional stress from the body and rewire limiting beliefs into ones that serve us.
This process allows you to:
✔ Heal emotional wounds at the root
✔ Shift long-held patterns of fear, self-doubt, or unworthiness
✔ Reprogram subconscious beliefs to align with confidence, safety, and ease
Again, because this work engages deep subconscious material, it is most effective when guided by a trained practitioner.
3. Somatic Practices – Completing the Stress Cycle
Because trauma is stored in the body, it needs to be released through the body.
Both EFT and Matrix Reimprinting are somatic techniques—they work with the body's energy system and nervous system to shift emotional patterns at their core. However, additional somatic practices can also help release stored trauma, including:
Breathwork – Helps regulate the nervous system and shift from stress mode to relaxation.
Movement – Walking, stretching, or shaking out tension helps discharge stored energy.
Vocalisation (Humming, Singing, or Sighing) – Stimulates the vagus nerve, which regulates stress responses.
When practiced consistently, these tools help retrain the nervous system to feel safe—reducing emotional reactivity, anxiety, and overwhelm.
Final Thoughts: Healing Is a Process, Not a Quick Fix
If you’ve ever felt stuck in anxiety, stress, or self-sabotaging patterns despite knowing what you need to do, it’s not because you’re broken—it’s because the nervous system and subconscious mind need a different approach.
Working with your biology—rather than against it—is the key to real, sustainable change. When you learn how to regulate your nervous system and reprogram subconscious patterns, you stop managing stress and start transforming it.
If you’re curious to explore this work deeper, I’d love to support you.
Download My Free EFT Tapping Guide → To learn how to use this tool as the-moment stress or emotional relief
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Change is possible. And it starts with learning how to work with your mind and body—so you can finally feel free.