Healing Trauma Through Your Body, Not Just Your Mind.
Man sitting on the floor, legs crossed, hand on heart.
Understanding Trauma and the Body: Why Healing Goes Deeper Than Talk
Trauma is best described as the lasting effect of a perceived traumatic event. Note, perceived. No one can decide what is or is not traumatic for anyone else. It could be a single distressing event or prolonged exposure to stress, leaving lasting imprints on both the mind and body.
Context matters enormously. What is considered life-threatening changes drastically depending on age, development, and circumstance. A 5-month-old baby left alone at home for five hours is in genuine danger, and the developmental literature is clear on the psychological, emotional, and physical impact of that experience. A 5-year-old left alone for the same amount of time sits in more contested territory, and whether it becomes traumatic depends on a range of nuances including access to safety, food, and comfort. The same event can land very differently depending on the person living it.
Traditional top-down therapeutic approaches often focus on cognitive and verbal processing: the ability to remember and recall traumatic memories. But memory is both fickle and difficult to access, particularly when trauma has been implicitly stored rather than consciously remembered, as is so often the case with early developmental experiences.
The brain's survival strategy is also worth understanding. Part of how we stay safe, both psychologically and physically, during and after traumatic events is by responding quickly, without needing to understand why. Over time, those survival patterns can feel confusing because they were never designed to make logical sense; they were designed to protect. This is why traditional talk therapies that aim to dig into root causes, without equally supportive frameworks around the body and nervous system, can sometimes be re-traumatising rather than relieving.
Approaches that go beyond talk
Incorporating body-based and expressive modalities into trauma therapy can be both powerful and effective. At SJP Wellbeing, somatic awareness runs through the work of every clinician, not as a single technique but as an orientation toward the body as a source of information, a keeper of experience, and a pathway toward healing. Whether that shows up through breath, movement, sensation, creative expression, or the felt sense in a therapy session, the body is always part of the conversation.
Internal Family Systems, or IFS, is one framework that makes this explicit. Developed by Richard Schwartz, IFS understands the mind and body is made up of different ‘parts’, each carrying its own feelings, beliefs, and protective roles. Many of those parts developed in response to difficult or overwhelming experiences, and they hold their burdens not just as memories but as physical patterns in the body. For example, most of us know well what the ‘inner critic’ sounds like, how it thinks and the feelings it carries. Somatic awareness in IFS work means learning to notice where a part lives in the body, what it feels like when it shows up, and how the body shifts as healing moves forward. It offers a way of working with trauma that is curious and compassionate rather than confrontational, meeting each part with the understanding that it developed for a reason, even if its strategies no longer serve the person well.
Brainspotting is a brain-body-based modality that works with the natural neurological processes of the brain by locating what we call "brain spots" through mindful noticing. The phrase "the eyes are the window to the soul" turns out to be more than a cliche. One of the core principles of Brainspotting involves using the position of the eyes to locate a spot that creates somatic activation, or sensations in the body, and then working with that activation to process what language often cannot reach. Our eyes are the only part of our brain that lives on the outside of our bodies, and the eyes can be used to access nervous system, and emotional maps laid down by our traumatic experiences.
Shani Prideaux, Director and Therapist at SJP Wellbeing, draws on both IFS and Brainspotting in her clinical work, often in combination. "When someone is triggered because of the past, the body and nervous system respond as if it is happening now, even if logically it isn't," she says. "Both IFS and Brainspotting help to circumvent the need to explicitly make sense of memories or present experiences. Which is important because our cognitive capacity to file away and accurately make sense of things, is very poor. IFS gives us a way to approach the parts of a person that are carrying old pain with genuine curiosity and care, while Brainspotting gives us a tool to neurobiologically locate, focus, process, and release experiences and symptoms that are typically out of reach of the conscious mind and its cognitive and language capacity. The body is central to both."
Expressive therapies, including art, music, and movement, offer another important avenue for working with trauma and the nervous system. These modalities recognise that trauma does not only affect our thoughts; it permeates the body's physiological responses and even shapes how we perceive those responses. A colleague's frown, meant for no one, can register as rejection or threat, and before long you have a migraine and need to go home. By engaging in creative and expressive activities, people can access and release stored emotions without needing to find words for them. The sensory and rhythmic qualities of these approaches help regulate the nervous system over time, gradually reducing the hyper- or hypo-arousal that so often accompanies trauma.
Leanne Williams, Counsellor and Psychotherapist at SJP Wellbeing, weaves somatic awareness through her work alongside art-based interventions, narrative therapy, and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. For Leanne, the body informs the creative process as much as the mind does. Paying attention to physical sensations, breath, and what shows up in the body during expressive work becomes part of how clients begin to understand their own nervous system responses and build what she describes as a personalised therapy tool bag: practical, creative strategies for regulation that clients can carry into everyday life. For couples, Leanne integrates Gottman Method principles and attachment-based therapy, supporting partners to navigate rupture and repair while remaining connected to their own physiological experience of the relationship.
For Elissa Graves, also a Counsellor at SJP Wellbeing, somatic work is the starting point for many clients who arrive disconnected from their own body's signals. Drawing on body-based approaches alongside Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Elissa's focus is on building the bridge between physical sensation and lived experience. "Many clients present with a tendency to intellectualise their experiences," she says, "which can lead to a disconnection from bodily sensations and emotional responses. Through gentle attunement to the body and increased awareness of the nervous system, clients can notice patterns and responses that may have developed through past experiences, including trauma. This process supports the development of self-awareness and acceptance, while creating space for clients to respond to their experiences with greater compassion and flexibility."
Things you can begin to explore on your own
The body as a storehouse of trauma. Traumatic experiences often result in dysregulation of the nervous system, creating heightened arousal or numbing. These physiological responses become imprinted in the body as patterns of tension, discomfort, or disconnection. Finding ways that feel good to you to move or express those physical sensations when they arise is a meaningful starting point.
The mind-body connection. If something is happening in the mind, it is very likely also happening in the body. Somatic approaches, yoga, and breath-based practices can help bridge that gap. Paying attention to bodily sensations can provide real insight into emotional states and begin to release what has been stored.
Breathwork. Conscious, controlled breathing is one of the most accessible tools for nervous system regulation. Diaphragmatic breathing and breath awareness techniques help the body shift out of threat responses. The Wim-Hof method and various yoga breathing practices are worth exploring if you are curious about where to start.
What you should expect from any trauma therapy
Holistic healing. A therapist who recognises that trauma affects the whole person: mind, body, and spirit. Addressing the physical dimension of trauma makes the therapeutic process more comprehensive and more likely to lead to lasting change.
Empowerment and agency. Therapy that supports you to take an active role in your own healing. Understanding your nervous system and learning to work with your physiological responses, including the parts of you that developed to protect you, builds a genuine sense of agency over your wellbeing.
Integration of traumatic memories. Cognitive understanding has its place, but it needs to be accompanied by integration at a somatic level. Rather than staying caught in cycles of re-experiencing, the aim is to gradually process and release the stored energy associated with distressing events, at a pace that feels safe and manageable.
Shani, Leanne and Elissa work with a range of people from 10+ in clinic in Smithfield, SA, and online around Australia.
We work on the ethos of Therapy . Education . Person First .
You can fill in the waitlist/referral form in the Book Button and our team will be in touch to help you make an appointment.