Trauma, Chronic Stress, and the Body: How Somatic Therapy Supports Healing

Trauma—especially when experienced early in life or over long periods—can shape our lives in profound and lasting ways. It influences how we think, feel, and connect with others. But it also leaves deep imprints on the body.

Many people carry trauma from childhood adversity, relational wounds, emotional neglect, or chronic stress. Even when we don’t remember a specific event, our bodies may still be carrying the story.

Understanding how trauma affects our physiology helps us make sense of anxiety, overwhelm, or physical symptoms that seem to come out of nowhere. This post explores how trauma impacts the nervous system, its connection to chronic health issues, and how somatic therapy can support the body to move toward ease—without so much effort.

How Trauma Affects the Body

When we experience threat or distress, the body’s survival systems activate. The nervous system shifts into a fight, flight, or freeze state to keep us safe. This response is adaptive in the moment, but when it becomes chronic, it can create long-term dysregulation.

In cases of developmental trauma—such as emotional neglect, abuse, or unstable caregiving—the nervous system can get “stuck” in survival mode. Even when the external danger is gone, the internal signals remain activated.

This chronic state, sometimes called “overriding mode,” may lead to:

• Heightened anxiety or hypervigilance

• Chronic muscle tension and shallow breathing

• Sleep and digestive disturbances

• A persistent sense of unsafety or numbness

  
  

Trauma isn’t just something that happens to us—it lives in the nervous system, muscles, breath, and posture. Without addressing the body, many of these symptoms persist despite our best efforts.

The Link Between Trauma and Chronic Health Issues

Many people living with unresolved trauma experience physical symptoms that don’t always make sense medically. These may include:

• Chronic fatigue

• Headaches or migraines

• Digestive issues (IBS, reflux, bloating)

• Autoimmune flare-ups

• Heart palpitations or cardiovascular concerns

  
  

These are not imagined or exaggerated. While trauma is not the sole cause, it plays a significant role in the body’s capacity to regulate and recover. Chronic stress activates the HPA axis, elevates cortisol levels, and increases inflammation—all of which contribute to a wide range of health conditions.

The body under threat isn't focused on healing—it's focused on survival. Recognizing this connection allows us to take a more compassionate and integrated approach to our health.

Living in Overriding Mode

When someone lives in a trauma-activated state, it may feel like:

• Always bracing for something bad to happen

• Being “on edge” even in safe environments

• Trouble focusing or staying present

• Emotional shutdown or sudden overwhelm

• Feeling disconnected from the body or others

  
  

These patterns can quietly impact relationships, work, and overall well-being. But they are not flaws—they are adaptive survival strategies that once served a purpose.

The path to healing begins when we learn to recognize these states and gently support the nervous system in returning to balance.

The Role of Somatic Therapy: Rewiring the Body for Safety

While self-regulation tools are helpful, healing often goes deeper in the context of a safe, attuned relationship. This is where somatic therapy can be profoundly supportive.

Somatic therapy is a body-centered approach that helps the nervous system gradually shift from survival to safety—not by forcing change, but by creating the conditions where change can naturally unfold.

Unlike traditional talk therapy, which focuses on cognitive insight, somatic therapy works with the felt sense—the body’s internal language of sensation, impulse, breath, and posture. These expressions often carry the unspoken history of trauma, and also the possibility for healing.

In my work as a somatic therapist, I often witness this shift in clients: a movement from overriding activation into a gentler easefulness, from chronic tension to embodied presence. It’s not instantaneous—but over time, with safety, presence, and support, that shift becomes possible.

For example, a client recently shared that, for the first time, they could find a sense of settling inside themselves—instead of feeling like adrenaline was constantly plugging into their body.

These moments of quiet restoration may seem small, but they are profoundly meaningful on the path to healing.

Somatic therapy supports clients in:

• Recognizing fight, flight, freeze, or fawn states

• Tracking and tolerating sensation without overwhelm

• Unwinding muscular and energetic holding patterns

• Cultivating internal safety and emotional resilience

• Reconnecting with the body’s natural rhythms of rest and connection

  
  

The aim isn’t to “fix” the body—it’s to support it in remembering how to be in the world with less effort and more ease.

Science-Informed Tools for Nervous System Regulation

Somatic therapy often includes simple, practical tools that support the body in regulating itself over time:

• Grounding practices (feeling your feet, orienting to your environment)

• Slow, conscious breathing to support parasympathetic activation

• Gentle movement or trauma-sensitive yoga

• Somatic tracking (noticing and staying with sensations)

• Self-touch or containment (hand on heart, holding a pillow, etc.)

  
  

These practices are backed by emerging research in neuroscience, trauma psychology, and polyvagal theory. They help expand what’s often called the “window of tolerance”—the range of emotional and physiological states we can experience without becoming dysregulated.

Final Reflections: From Survival to Regulation

Trauma shapes how we move through the world—but it doesn’t have to define us. When we understand that trauma lives in the body, we stop blaming ourselves for feeling anxious, shut down, or disconnected. These are not signs of weakness—they are the body’s way of surviving what was once overwhelming.

Through somatic therapy, we learn to meet ourselves differently—not with pressure, but with curiosity and care. We learn to listen to the body’s messages and support it in coming back to balance.

Healing isn’t about efforting—it’s about allowing.It’s about remembering that your body isn’t the problem—it’s the pathway.

So as you reach the end of this post, take a quiet moment and ask yourself:

How’s your breath right now? What does your body want or need in this moment?What would ease feel like—just a little?

There’s no right answer—only the invitation to listen. And that’s where healing begins.

About the Author

Jane Kwok‑Yee Leung is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and certified Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner with over 20 years of experience supporting individuals through trauma, chronic stress, and emotional overwhelm.

Jane is deeply passionate about somatic work and the body’s innate capacity to heal. In her practice, she helps clients reconnect with their inner resilience—not by forcing change, but by creating the conditions for the body to feel safe, seen, and supported.

She believes the body holds deep wisdom, and that when we learn to listen to it with care, profound shifts can unfold—often more gently than we expect.

She offers sessions in both English and Cantonese and brings a cross-cultural, relational lens to her work.