What is Trauma?

As Gabor Maté states, "trauma is not what happens to you, but what happens inside you as a result of what happens to you."

During an overwhelming experience, when there isn't enough safety, support, regulation, or resources, the instinctive survival impulses driven by the brainstem and limbic system - to mobilize, run, cry/reach out for support, defend, or express - become inhibited.

When these protective responses can't complete, the stress response cycle remains unfinished, and the body holds onto patterns of bracing, shallow or restricted breathing, elevated stress hormones, and chronic muscular tension.

What we call "stored trauma" is not the memory of the event itself - it's the physiological imprint of unresolved survival responses.

Trauma affects multiple brain regions that control survival, emotion, and cognition:

• Amygdala (Threat Detection)

The amygdala becomes hyperactive, constantly scanning for danger. Even when you're safe, it triggers heightened vigilance, fear, and startle responses, keeping the body on edge.

• Hippocampus (Context + Time Encoding)

The hippocampus struggles to place events in the past. This means the body may react as if the original threat is still happening, contributing to flashbacks, hyperarousal, and a sense of ongoing danger.

• Prefrontal Cortex (Executive Function + Regulation)

Under chronic stress, the prefrontal cortex is less active. This reduces your ability to reason, plan, regulate emotions, and make clear decisions, leaving the survival-driven brain in control.

• Vagus Nerve & Brainstem (Autonomic Control)

Governs reflexive survival behaviours - fight, flight, freeze. When trauma is unresolved, these circuits remain activated long after the danger has passed, limiting access to safety and social engagement.

Imagine your nervous system is a smoke detector. During trauma, it went off to keep you safe. But sometimes it never receives the signal that the smoke has cleared.

So it keeps beeping, keeping your body on high alert - even when you're completely safe.

This is why, even years later, your body still remembers:

• Shoulders tight, jaw clenched, psoas and pelvic floor braced

• Heart racing, shallow breath

• Digestion slowed, difficulty sleeping

• Feeling jumpy, irritable, shutdown, or drained for no clear reason.

It's not "all in your head". Your body is still protecting you, holding onto the survival responses it never got to complete.

This is why relaxing feels absolutely impossible. You may know you're safe, but your body doesn't feel it.

Healing isn't just about changing your thoughts

- it's about helping your nervous system complete what it started and learn to feel safe.

This might look like:

• Shaking, crying, moving, or speaking Stretching, yawning, or sighing

Supporting your body and mind in reconnecting so your nervous system can finally sense safety

• Co-regulation with a trusted person, nature, animal, or higher power

• Building capacity to tolerate sensation, emotion, and presence

When this happens, tension in your muscles softens, your breath deepens, and the smoke detector finally stops beeping.

 So, I will say again; "trauma is not what happens to you, but what happens inside you as a result of what happens to you."