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What Is Healing?

Before diving into TRE practice, it's worth pausing to consider a fundamental question: What does healing actually mean?

The word "healing" gets used frequently in discussions of trauma and somatic work, but it can mean very different things to different people. Clarifying what healing is – and isn't – can help set realistic expectations and orient us toward the work ahead.

Beyond "Getting Fixed"​

In our culture, healing is often equated with cure: a return to some imagined previous state of wholeness, as if we could erase difficult experiences and restore ourselves to factory settings. This medical model of healing has its place, but it falls short when applied to trauma and psychological distress.

Healing from trauma is not about erasing what happened or returning to who you were before. Difficult experiences change us, and some of those changes are permanent. The person who has experienced significant trauma cannot simply go back to being the person they were before, any more than a tree that has grown around a wound can become un-scarred.

A Different Definition

Healing is not about erasing the past or achieving perfection. It is about restoring the capacity to be present with life as it is – including its difficulties – without being overwhelmed or shut down.

This distinction is crucial. If we believe healing means erasing trauma's effects, we set ourselves up for failure and disappointment. If we understand healing as expanding our capacity to be with life, we open up possibilities.

Healing as Increased Capacity​

From a nervous system perspective, healing means expanding the window of tolerance: the range of activation within which we can function effectively.

A narrow window means we flip easily between overwhelm and shutdown, with little capacity to stay present when things get difficult. A wider window means we can encounter stress, challenge, and activation while maintaining connection to ourselves and others.

Healing in this sense means:

  • Greater ability to tolerate uncomfortable sensations and emotions without immediately escaping or collapsing
  • More flexibility in how we respond to stress rather than defaulting to rigid patterns
  • Increased capacity to return to baseline after activation
  • Less time spent in defensive states (fight, flight, freeze, fawn)
  • More access to the social engagement system and genuine connection

This kind of healing doesn't mean nothing bothers us or we never get activated. It means we have more room to move, more options in how we respond, and more ability to find our way back to equilibrium.

Healing as Integration​

Another useful frame is healing as integration: the process of bringing together parts of our experience that have been disconnected or split off.

Trauma often creates fragmentation:

  • Parts of the body may become numb or dissociated
  • Certain emotions may be unfelt or unacknowledged
  • Memories may be disconnected from felt experience
  • Beliefs about ourselves may contradict our lived reality

Healing involves gradually bringing these split-off parts back into relationship:

  • Sensation returning to numbed areas of the body
  • Emotions that were frozen beginning to thaw and move
  • Memories integrating with felt sense
  • A more coherent sense of self emerging across time

Integration doesn't mean everything feels good. It means more of our experience is available to us, even the difficult parts. We become less fragmented, less at war with ourselves.

Healing Is Not Linear​

One of the most important things to understand about healing is that it does not follow a straight path. Progress is not steady. There are plateaus, regressions, and times when it feels like nothing is changing or everything is getting worse.

This non-linearity can be deeply discouraging if we expect healing to look like a graph with an upward trend. But it's actually built into how healing works:

Spiralling rather than climbing. We often revisit the same issues at deeper levels over time. What feels like going backwards is actually encountering familiar territory with more capacity.

Integration periods. After significant releases or insights, there are often periods of apparent stagnation where nothing seems to be happening. The system is actually consolidating and integrating what has been processed.

Accessing deeper layers. As we build capacity and safety, material that was previously too overwhelming becomes accessible. This can look and feel like getting worse – symptoms that seemed resolved may return – but it often means the nervous system is ready to work with deeper holdings.

Life circumstances. Healing does not happen in a vacuum. New stressors, losses, and difficulties will affect our state, and that's normal. Healing is not about transcending life's challenges but developing greater capacity to meet them.

What Healing Feels Like​

Healing shows up in different ways for different people, but some common markers include:

  • Increased body awareness: Noticing sensations, tension patterns, and the body's signals more clearly
  • Emotional range: Access to a wider range of emotions, including ones that were previously unavailable or overwhelming
  • Spontaneous releases: Shaking, crying, yawning, or other discharge happening naturally in daily life
  • Changed responses: Reacting differently to situations that previously triggered strong defences
  • More presence: Ability to be with the present moment rather than constantly bracing for the future or stuck in the past
  • Better relationships: Increased capacity for connection, vulnerability, and healthy boundaries
  • Embodied knowing: Less disconnect between what you know intellectually and what you feel in your body
  • Greater choice: More flexibility in how you respond rather than feeling locked into patterns

Healing does not necessarily feel pleasant in the moment. Sometimes it feels like things are falling apart. Old identities may need to be released. Protective mechanisms we relied on may soften, leaving us feeling vulnerable. Growth often involves discomfort.

Healing and Living​

Perhaps most importantly, healing is not a destination but an ongoing process woven into living.

There is no point at which you are "healed" and can stop doing the work. Life continues to present challenges, losses, and difficulties. The nervous system can be re-injured. Old patterns can be reactivated under stress.

But this is not discouraging news. It simply means that healing is not about achieving some final state of perfection but about developing an ongoing relationship with our own nervous system, learning to work with it skilfully over time.

TRE is one tool in this ongoing process. It helps build capacity, discharge held tension, and expand the window of tolerance. But it is not magic, and it is not sufficient on its own. Healing requires multiple approaches, ongoing practice, and patience with the process.

The invitation is to release the fantasy of complete resolution and instead embrace healing as a practice: a way of being in relationship with yourself and your experience that allows for more presence, more flexibility, and more life.

Moving Forward with TRE​

With this understanding of healing, we can approach TRE with realistic expectations:

  • We are not trying to erase trauma or return to some imagined pre-trauma state
  • We are building capacity to be with more of life without being overwhelmed or shut down
  • Progress will not be linear, and that's normal
  • Plateaus, regressions, and difficult periods are part of the process
  • The goal is not perfection but greater flexibility and presence
  • Healing is ongoing, not a destination

This perspective can help you stay with the practice even when it's difficult, recognise genuine progress even when it's subtle, and maintain patience with a process that unfolds in its own time.