Understanding Trauma and the Path to Recovery
Trauma isn’t just about what happened—it’s also about how those experiences may continue to affect the body and mind, shaping emotions, relationships, and even your sense of self. You might notice patterns of overwhelm or disconnection, or a sense that something inside feels tender or unresolved. If this resonates, you’re not alone.
What is Trauma?
Trauma can occur when an experience feels overwhelming, threatening, or too difficult to process at the time it happened. People may associate trauma with events such as accidents, abuse, violence, or moments where they felt unsafe. But trauma can also arise from experiences that were less obvious yet still left a lasting emotional or physical impact.
Everyone responds to stress differently, and what feels manageable for one person may feel overwhelming for another. Trauma is less about the event itself and more about how the experience affected your sense of safety, connection, or stability.
People sometimes notice ongoing effects of trauma in areas such as:Common signs that trauma may still be present in your life include:
Emotional responses – Feeling easily overwhelmed, anxious, on edge, or flat.
Physical tension – Fatigue, headaches, muscle tightness, or changes in sleep or appetite.
Relationships and connection – Feeling distant from others, finding it hard to trust, or sensing a disconnect within yourself.
If you’re unsure whether what you experienced “counts” as trauma, that’s very normal. Many people seek support simply because something in their life doesn’t feel settled, and they want help making sense of it
How Trauma Affects the Body
Trauma doesn’t just affect thoughts and emotions — it can influence how the body responds to stress and safety in everyday life. When an experience feels overwhelming, the body may shift into protective states such as fight, flight, or freeze. For some people, these patterns can continue long after the event has passed.
Many individuals notice effects such as increased tension, changes in breathing, a constantly “on edge” feeling, difficulty relaxing, or feeling shut down or disconnected. These reactions are the body’s attempts to protect you, even if the original event is long over.
Healing often involves reconnecting with the body in ways that feel safe and manageable. Approaches that gently support awareness of physical sensations, grounding, and emotional regulation can help people feel more settled, present, and connected over time.
Trauma-Sensitive Therapy
Trauma can affect both the mind and the body, so many people find it helpful to work with therapeutic approaches that consider both emotional and physical experiences. Therapists may draw from a range of evidence-informed methods to support regulation, safety, and understanding. These can include Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy, Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR), and other approaches that focus on emotion regulation, grounding, and developing a sense of stability.
Integrating IFS, EMDR, and Other Trauma-Informed Approaches
IFS and EMDR can be used alongside a range of other trauma-informed practices, depending on a person’s needs, preferences, and goals. Some people find it helpful to incorporate body-based approaches—such as Somatic Experiencing® (SE), mindfulness, gentle movement, or breathwork—which focus on supporting regulation and increasing awareness of physical sensations. When combined thoughtfully, these approaches can complement one another by helping individuals tune into their inner experiences, work with emotional responses, and develop a greater sense of steadiness and connection.
Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy
FS therapy understands the mind as consisting of different “parts,” each with its own thoughts, feelings, and roles. Some parts may still be responding to earlier experiences, including those that were overwhelming or distressing at the time. These parts often developed protective strategies to help you cope, and they may continue to influence emotions or behaviours in the present.
In IFS, people are supported to get to know these inner experiences at a pace that feels right for them. This approach encourages curiosity and compassion toward protective and vulnerable parts, helping individuals better understand their internal world and how past experiences may be shaping current patterns.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing)
EMDR is a structured therapeutic approach that involves recalling aspects of past experiences while engaging in bilateral stimulation, such as guided eye movements. This method is understood to support the brain’s natural capacity to process memories that may feel unresolved or emotionally charged.
Research indicates that EMDR may help reduce trauma-related distress for some people, particularly those experiencing post-traumatic stress symptoms (Shapiro, 2018). EMDR is often used as part of a broader, trauma-informed approach and can be combined with other modalities depending on individual preferences and needs.
A Restorative Process
For patterns of distress to shift, it often isn’t enough to simply remember what happened. Healing can also involve reconnecting with the emotional support that may have been missing at the time. If you felt alone, there may be a need for a sense of accompaniment. If you were frightened, a need for protection. If you were shamed, a need for acceptance. If you were hurt, a need for comfort. As Fisher (2017) describes, parts of us that experienced a rupture in safety may continue to wait for the conditions that allow repair.
Recovery is not about erasing the past, but about creating space for a fuller experience of the present. Therapy can support this by offering a safe, collaborative setting to explore and integrate these experiences at a pace that feels manageable. Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy is one approach that may assist with this process for some individuals.
If you’re curious about how an IFS-informed approach might support your trauma recovery, you are welcome to explore working with one of our trauma-informed therapists
References:
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.
Fisher, J. (2017). Healing the fragmented selves of trauma survivors: Overcoming internal self-alienation. Routledge.
Herman, J. L. (2015). Trauma and recovery: The aftermath of violence--from domestic abuse to political terror. Basic Books.
Levine, P. A. (2010). In an unspoken voice: How the body releases trauma and restores goodness. North Atlantic Books.
Payne, P., Levine, P. A., & Crane-Godreau, M. A. (2015). Somatic experiencing: using interoception and proprioception as core elements of trauma therapy. Frontiers in psychology, 6, 93.
Schwartz, R. C., & Sweezy, M. (2020). Internal family systems therapy. Guilford Publications.
Shapiro, F. (2018). Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy: Basic principles, protocols, and procedures. Guilford Publications.
van der Kolk, B. (2014). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Viking.