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How Trauma Lives in the Body

Trauma is not just psychological. It literally lives in the body.

Somatic Symptoms of Trauma​

Chronic muscle tension: Tight shoulders, neck, jaw. Braced abdomen. Locked pelvis. Held breath.

Postural patterns: Protective postures (hunched, curled), collapsed posture (shutdown), rigid posture (hypervigilance).

Breath patterns: Shallow chest breathing, held breath, irregular breathing.

Chronic pain: Headaches and migraines, back pain, fibromyalgia, unexplained body pain.

Digestive issues: IBS, stomach issues, difficulty digesting (vagus nerve involvement).

Immune dysregulation: Chronic inflammation, autoimmune conditions, frequent illness.

Energy and sleep: Chronic fatigue, insomnia or disturbed sleep, feeling tired but wired.

Body Memories​

Trauma can be stored as body memories: implicit, somatic memories without narrative content.

Characteristics: Felt as sensations, tensions, or postures. May not have associated narrative memory. Can be triggered by body positions, movements, or sensations. Pre-verbal trauma (before language) is stored this way. May emerge during bodywork, TRE, or other somatic practices.

Example: During TRE, you might suddenly feel intense fear or tightness in your chest without knowing why. This could be a body memory surfacing for release.

Armouring​

Wilhelm Reich coined the term "armouring" to describe how chronic muscle tension serves as protection against overwhelming emotion and sensation.

How armouring works: Muscles chronically contract to "hold in" emotions. Creates a protective shell. Reduces feeling (which can feel safer). Becomes habitual and unconscious.

Cost of armouring: Reduces aliveness and vitality. Restricts breathing and movement. Takes constant energy to maintain. Eventually causes pain.

TRE and armouring: TRE directly addresses armouring by releasing chronic muscular tension and allowing the held energy underneath to discharge.

The Role of Fascia in Trauma Storage​

Recent understanding of fascia – the connective tissue that surrounds and penetrates every muscle, organ, and structure in the body – reveals another layer of how trauma lives in the body.

What Is Fascia?​

Fascia is a continuous web of connective tissue that surrounds every muscle fibre, muscle group, organ, and bone. It creates a three-dimensional web throughout the entire body, contains more sensory nerve endings than the skin, is highly responsive to stress and emotion, and can hold tension patterns for years or decades.

Think of fascia as the body's "fabric": a continuous sheet that can become tight, restricted, and bound when we experience stress and trauma.

How Fascia Holds Trauma​

Physical restriction: When we experience threat, the fascia tightens protectively. In chronic stress or unresolved trauma, this tightness persists, creating restricted movement patterns, areas of density or "binding," compensatory patterns throughout the body, limited range of motion, and chronic pain without clear structural cause.

Sensory memory: Fascia is richly innervated with mechanoreceptors and nociceptors (pain receptors). It can hold sensory memories of traumatic events, patterns of bracing and protection, and embodied responses that trigger automatically.

Emotional holding: Research suggests that emotional states influence fascial tone. Fear and anxiety increase fascial tension. Safety and connection allow fascial softening. Chronic emotional states create chronic fascial patterns. Release of fascial restriction can trigger emotional release.

Fascial Chains and Whole-Body Patterns​

Because fascia is continuous, tension in one area affects the entire system.

Example: Chronic jaw tension (from held anger or fear) can create neck and shoulder tightness, affect breathing patterns, contribute to low back pain, and influence pelvic floor tension.

This is why trauma "stored" in one area often manifests elsewhere in the body.

TRE and Fascia​

TRE's effectiveness may be partly explained by its impact on fascial tissue:

Tremoring creates micro-movements that hydrate and mobilise fascial tissue, release fascial adhesions and restrictions, stimulate mechanoreceptors in fascia, and allow reorganisation of tension patterns.

The wave-like quality of tremors moves through fascial chains. Release in legs can travel up through pelvis, spine, shoulders. Whole-body tremoring addresses the continuity of fascial system. Allows systemic release rather than just local.

TRE activates the body's natural fascia-release mechanism. Animals tremor after threat, likely releasing fascial tension. This is part of the body's innate recovery system. TRE reactivates this natural process.

Implications for Practice​

Understanding fascia helps explain several TRE phenomena:

Why release takes time: Fascial patterns built over years need time to reorganise. Hydration and reorganisation of tissue happens gradually. Multiple sessions allow progressive release of layers.

Why tremors spread: Fascial continuity means release in one area affects others. The body works with fascial chains, not isolated muscles. Whole-body tremoring reflects fascial connectivity.

Why emotional release happens: Fascia holds emotional patterns somatically. Physical release of fascial restriction can trigger emotional release. Body and emotion are inseparable at the fascial level.

Why hydration matters: Fascia needs water to be pliable and responsive. Dehydrated fascia is more rigid and resistant. Drinking water supports fascial release.

Integration with Other Approaches​

This fascial understanding explains why TRE works well with:

  • Myofascial release and massage: Directly address fascial restrictions
  • Yoga and stretching: Lengthen and mobilise fascial tissue
  • Rolfing and structural integration: Systematically release fascial patterns
  • Movement practices: Keep fascia mobile and responsive

These modalities can complement TRE by working with fascial tissue from different angles.