Your Body Doesn’t Have to Keep the Score: Recover and Heal Childhood Trauma Through Somatic Therapy
Your Body Doesn’t Have to Keep the Score:
Recover and Heal Childhood Trauma Through Somatic Therapy
Many of our behavioural, mental and emotional patterns that we experience in adulthood have their roots in childhood.
However, some of us are affected by what happened in our childhood more than others, regardless of whether we believe we experienced trauma or not. This is because wounding in our formative stages of life has great implications on our whole organism, not just our brain and psyche. While we can understand and accept what happened to us and have a strong will to move on, it’s the body that often still experiences the past as if it’s happening in the present moment, while the autonomic nervous system still reacts habitually the way it learnt to when we were young.
Somatic therapies, especially the ones that incorporate the understanding of childhood development and attachment, have been found highly effective in helping individuals impacted by childhood trauma come out of the repetitive threat response cycle, discover their sense of self and resilience, learn to form healthy relationships and connect to greater well-being.
If you are wondering why you struggle to leave your past in the past and enjoy the present despite all the healing work that you’ve done, this article may give you some insights.
What Is Childhood Trauma?
Childhood trauma refers to a wide range of physical, emotional, and psychological traumatic experiences. A study on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in the 1990s examined abuse, neglect, and household challenges from birth to age 17 and found that children exposed to these experiences have a higher risk of developing physical and mental health issues in adulthood. These findings were pivotal in raising awareness of trauma prevention in children and childhood trauma therapy for adults.
However, not all childhood trauma is the same. Developmental, attachment, and complex trauma refer to specific types of traumatic experiences, and while they overlap, understanding their differences can be helpful.
Different Types of Childhood Trauma
Developmental Trauma
Developmental trauma is linked to experiences that disrupt the normal development of a growing organism. It includes prenatal stress of a baby whose mother is exposed to war, poverty, illness, abuse, harmful substances while she’s pregnant, or if there are complications during birth, as well as early surgeries, or hospitalisation of a newborn. These experiences, which most of us have no explicit memory of, create extreme distress and overwhelm a young nervous system, later manifesting as chronic health issues or psychophysiological symptoms.
In later stages, developmental trauma can be caused by a single traumatic event like childhood sexual abuse or parental loss, but more often than not, it involves ongoing distress—”too much or too little for too long.” It can be as intense as repeated exposure to family violence or as quiet as chronic misattunement or emotional neglect. Such experiences strip the child of the fundamental need for physical and emotional safety, impacting their sense of self, belonging, worthiness and ability to form secure relationships in adulthood. This brings us to the next subcategory…
Attachment Trauma
Childhood attachment trauma relates to the disruptions in early caregiver bonding and relationships. It is believed that our first experiences of relational safety begin well before birth.
However, the ability to form secure attachment generally depends on how consistently primary caregivers provided comfort and attunement in meeting the child’s needs. While occasional misattunement is normal, it is the constant lack of repair that hinders the child’s ability to securely attach, leaving them feeling lonely and unlovable as they grow up. If a child repeatedly experiences inconsistent caregiving, rejection, neglect, or frightening behaviour, they may develop what John Bowlby defined as insecure attachment styles – anxious, avoidant, or disorganised – which shape their relationships later in life.
Complex Trauma
If developmental trauma often leads to attachment ruptures, then complex trauma tends to involve both. It often begins in childhood as a deep, layered wound formed by repeated experiences of neglect and lack of protection over an extended period.
A striking metaphor for this type of trauma would be a car crash that happens again and again throughout months and years, leaving one with accumulated injuries that just don’t get a chance to heal. This type of wounding has significant and long-lasting repercussions on both physical and emotional health, deeply impacting emotional regulation, sense of identity, and the ability to feel safe in the world. However, with the right support, healing is possible, and the past does not have to define the future.
Why Somatic Therapy?
Childhood trauma recovery often requires a multifaceted approach given the immensity of its impact on the brain, psyche, as well as the autonomic nervous system and the body. Yet for a long time, the physical body has been left out of traditional therapies for childhood trauma. Conventional talk therapy methods rely mainly on the cognitive processing of the past, whereas a lot of the memories we hold from our early age are implicit, non-verbal and experienced through the felt sense.
Somatic therapy offers what has been a missing piece in childhood trauma recovery, i.e. a holistic approach that includes the body. After all, the best therapy for childhood trauma is not a single modality but a combination of methods that address the complexity of the body and mind.
What is Somatic Therapy and How it Works
Somatic therapy is an approach (or a combination of approaches) that emphasises the mind-body connection. One of the characteristics of trauma, especially early childhood trauma, is a profound disconnection from oneself, one’s body, and the world at large. Somatic practices in general are incredibly effective at restoring this connection, while somatic trauma therapy focuses on renegotiating and integrating trauma in the body without the need to rely on the story. Some examples of somatic trauma therapy methods are Somatic Experiencing, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Hakomi Method, Bodynamic System, Neuroaffective Touch, Somatic IFS and many more.
How does somatic trauma therapy work?
The tools used in somatic therapy include body awareness, movement, breath, touch, as well as dialogue. In fact, most types of somatic trauma therapy use dialogue to various degrees, however, the intention of the dialogue in somatic work for trauma is quite different from traditional talk therapies. The aim is to help you notice your internal experience in the present moment as you think or talk about a traumatic event, as opposed to just analysing it cognitively.
In somatic work, it is believed that the body has a story to tell that can be quite different from the story of the mind. The goal is to help you integrate these stories. Somatic therapy for childhood trauma treats emotional and psychological scars by healing both the mind and the body simultaneously.
How Does Somatic Therapy Help Heal Childhood Trauma?
Restoring the Mind-Body Connection
As we discussed earlier, trauma disrupts our body-mind connection. Childhood trauma, more specifically, impairs the healthy development of this connection from the start. The absence of sufficient nurturance, attunement and safety during critical developmental stages is perceived by the physiology of a child as an ongoing threat, sometimes without any reference to what the opposite of that threat could feel like. This prolonged stress generates a lot of survival energy in the body that has nowhere to go, and often the symptoms don’t show up until later in life. Physiologically, this trapped survival energy can be experienced as tension, pain, or discomfort. Somatic therapy, Somatic Experiencing in particular, helps to release this trapped energy gradually and safely.
However, somatic therapy for childhood trauma is not just about the release. It’s also about creating a felt sense of safety and allowing what could not be felt fully to be experienced and integrated at the body-mind level in a safe relational container.
For someone who has been cut off from their bodily sensations due to early childhood trauma, slowly becoming aware of the sensations with the support of a trusted practitioner helps reconnect with themselves, their needs and their aliveness in a way that wasn’t possible before, promoting agency and lasting healing.
Healing Attachment and Developmental Wounds
Therapeutic alliance between the client and the therapist is one of the most important aspects of childhood trauma recovery when addressing attachment and developmental wounds. These wounds often have relational ruptures at the very core, and a safe therapeutic relationship helps to rebuild trust and emotional connections.
While there are many body-oriented techniques used in the somatic trauma therapy sessions, such as grounding, body scanning, and movement, co-regulation is one of the most important therapeutic ‘tools’ a practitioner can use. A regulated, non-judgmental and attuned presence of the somatic therapist creates an environment in which their client learns to self-regulate – something that may not have been possible in their childhood.
The Long-Term Benefits of Somatic Therapy for Childhood Trauma Recovery
Creating Emotional Resilience
Difficulty managing intense emotional states is one of the main complaints of our clients with a history of childhood trauma. When emotions are too big to handle, the overwhelmed physiology and nervous system get stuck in a nearly constant state of hypervigilance or shutdown, or bounce between the states of Fight, Flight or Freeze.
If you often find yourself lost in this emotional storm, a skilled somatic practitioner will help you find resources to anchor in the present moment and calm your overactive Amygdala (the alarm system of our brain) through grounding and self-soothing exercises or by bringing attention to objects, activities, people or environment that feel supportive. This stabilises the nervous system, so when strong emotions arise, they can be experienced in small doses and eventually processed. Over time, this can help you regain a sense of control over your emotional experience and not feel as if you are at the mercy of it.
Building a New Relationship with Yourself
One of the key goals in childhood trauma therapy for adults is building long-term resilience and emotional strength by shifting from constantly coping and managing one’s own state and reactions, to actually being able to experience and enjoy life in all its richness. Healing doesn’t mean erasing the past or not feeling difficult emotions anymore. It means expanding one’s window of tolerance and creating more capacity in the nervous system to have a wider range of life experiences without getting stuck in a state of overwhelm.
Somatic healing emphasises the importance of building an intimate relationship with oneself, which is akin to cultivating a wise adult presence to rely on in times of hardship. This inner relationship becomes the foundation for healthy emotional connections with others, greater resilience and overall improved mental health.
How to Get Started with Somatic Therapy for Childhood Trauma
If you’re considering somatic therapy, finding the right practitioner is key. It’s important to work with someone who not only understands childhood trauma but also provides a space where you feel safe, seen, and respected. While there are many great somatic healing practitioners, not all of them have the expertise in childhood trauma or in specific issues you may be dealing with.
Apart from the importance of finding a somatic trauma therapist or practitioner with the right expertise who you trust and feel comfortable with, it is also crucial to have a direction and a therapeutic plan that honours your unique needs and goals. This will help you remain engaged and motivated throughout your healing journey with its inevitable ups and downs.
how long does therapy take for childhood trauma?
Childhood trauma recovery is not a quick process. Somatic therapy works gradually, rewiring the nervous system at a pace that prevents overwhelm or re-traumatization. It is helpful to have realistic expectations, as it usually takes a very minimum of 3-6 months to see any significant improvement, while deeper transformation requires more time, patience and a strong commitment to healing. And while progress takes time, even small shifts can have a ripple effect on your well-being, relationships, and sense of self.
How we can Help
At Back To Your Body, we specialise in attachment and developmental trauma and continuously refine our knowledge in this field. We are dedicated to providing ongoing guidance and compassionate support through the ups and downs of childhood trauma recovery, which is rarely linear or easy, but the lasting results are definitely worth it.
If you have tried other healing approaches but still feel disconnected from your body and held back by your past, we invite you to explore somatic therapy which could be a missing piece in your journey.
Reach out to us to discuss your needs or get an advice and, when you’re ready, book a session to experience this process firsthand. We are here to support you, wherever you are on your path.
I’m Elena Jacinta, a Somatic Experiencing practitioner and founder of Back To Your Body, a virtual somatic therapy practice offering a supportive space to attend to your nervous system and trauma through the body. At Back To Your Body, we help individuals and couples with nervous system regulation, psychosomatic symptoms, shock trauma, developmental/ attachment trauma, systemic and generational trauma.
