Understanding the Link Between Trauma and the Nervous System: How Trauma is Processed
Trauma is a deeply impactful experience that affects not only our emotions and thoughts but also the very core of our physical being. While we often focus on the mental and emotional aspects of trauma, it’s important to recognize the significant role the nervous system plays in how trauma is experienced, stored, and processed. In this blog, we will explore how trauma is intricately linked to the nervous system and how it processes traumatic events.
What is Trauma?
Trauma can be defined as a response to an event or series of events that overwhelms a person’s ability to cope. These events can be acute, such as accidents or assaults, or chronic, like long-term abuse or neglect. There aren’t set events that are traumatic and those that aren’t – it is about the individual event and how someone experiences and responds to what happens. Trauma can lead to lasting emotional, psychological, and physical effects. But how does the body process these overwhelming experiences, and why do they have such a lasting impact?
The Nervous System: Our Body’s Response Mechanism
To understand trauma, we first need to take a closer look at the nervous system. The nervous system is responsible for managing and controlling all the body's responses, including how we react to stress. It is made up of the central nervous system (CNS), which includes the brain and spinal cord, and the peripheral nervous system (PNS), which transmits signals between the CNS and the rest of the body.
Within the nervous system, the autonomic nervous system (ANS) plays a key role in the body's response to threat or danger. The ANS is divided into two main branches:
Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS): Often referred to as the “fight or flight” system, the SNS activates when we perceive danger. It prepares the body to face a threat by increasing heart rate, dilating the pupils, and redirecting blood flow to vital organs and muscles.
Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS): The PNS is the “rest and digest” system, which calms the body after a threat has passed, helping to return the body to a state of balance.
In a trauma situation, the SNS is activated, preparing the body to either fight, flee, or freeze in response to danger. However, if the trauma is overwhelming or prolonged, the nervous system may become dysregulated, making it difficult to return to a state of calm and balance.
The Body’s Response to Trauma: The Stress-Response Cycle
When a person encounters a traumatic event, the body’s stress response system is activated. The sympathetic nervous system kicks in to help us survive the event. This can manifest as:
Increased heart rate and breathing
Tense muscles
Heightened alertness
For some, this response might be short-lived. Once the danger is over, the parasympathetic system kicks in to restore calm. However, when trauma is intense or long-lasting, the nervous system’s ability to return to a relaxed state can be impaired, leading to what we know as chronic stress or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The Freeze Response: When the Body Gets Stuck
Sometimes, in the face of an overwhelmingly traumatic event, the body may enter a “freeze” response, which is another form of trauma response. This is a protective mechanism where the body essentially shuts down, unable to move or react. This response can happen when escape or fighting isn’t perceived as possible.
The freeze response can be particularly problematic. While it may have been adaptive in a life-threatening situation, when it’s triggered over and over, the nervous system can become stuck in this state, preventing the person from processing the traumatic experience.
How Trauma is Stored in the Nervous System
One of the most profound ways trauma impacts the body is through the storage of traumatic memories. Trauma doesn’t just affect the mind—it also affects the body at a cellular level. When a person experiences trauma, the event is often stored in the nervous system as a fragmented memory. These memories might not be processed fully or coherently, which can cause physical and emotional symptoms to persist long after the event itself.
Neuroscientific research has shown that the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for memory formation, is often impaired in trauma survivors. This leads to difficulties in organising and storing memories in a coherent way. Instead of being able to recall the event as a memory, survivors of trauma may re-experience it as though it's happening in the present—leading to flashbacks, intrusive thoughts, or hypervigilance.
The body itself can also "store" trauma through tension in the muscles, chronic pain, or other physical symptoms. Over time, these physical sensations can become reminders of the trauma, further perpetuating the cycle of stress.
Gestalt Therapy and Trauma: Understanding Blocks in the Gestalt Cycle
Gestalt therapy, a form of psychotherapy that emphasizes personal responsibility and the present moment, offers a unique perspective on trauma. One of the key concepts in Gestalt therapy is the Gestalt cycle—a framework for understanding how people process and experience their needs, desires, and feelings.
The Gestalt cycle of experience involves several stages:
Sensation: The first step in any experience is us receiving a stimuli from our environment.
Awareness: Recognizing the need or sensation.
Mobilisation: Becoming emotionally or physically engaged with that need.
Action: Planning and taking steps to fulfil the need or resolve the issue.
Contact: Carrying out the action and interacting with others or the environment in response to the need.
Satisfaction: The process of having met the need and feeling fulfilled.
Withdrawal: Returning to a state of balance or rest after the need has been addressed.
However, trauma can create blocks in the Gestalt cycle, preventing the natural flow of experience. When trauma occurs, it often disrupts one or more stages of the cycle, causing an individual to become "stuck" in the cycle. These blocks can manifest in various ways:
Desensitisation: The person may numb or desensitise to their feelings to avoid the pain of the trauma, which results in the trauma never coming into their awareness to address it or process it.
Unresolved awareness or avoidance: The person may be unable to acknowledge the trauma, leading to avoidance behaviours.
Energy blockages: Instead of mobilising energy to process or act upon the trauma, the person might feel immobilised, anxious, or shut down emotionally, preventing them from moving through the cycle. They may have beliefs that stop them feeling capable of taking action, therefore never getting to the action stage.
Stagnation in action: In some cases, the trauma creates a feeling of helplessness or fear of action, which prevents the person from taking steps to resolve the situation or address their needs.
Incomplete resolution: Trauma often prevents closure. This lack of resolution can cause the trauma to stay in the body and mind, making it difficult for the individual to move forward or engage with life fully.
In Gestalt therapy, the focus is on helping individuals become aware of these blocks and working through them. The therapist helps the client “complete” the Gestalt cycle by identifying where the block is occurring and facilitating the emotional or physical release needed to move forward. This process often involves bringing awareness to the body, emotions, and unresolved feelings associated with the trauma, which helps the individual integrate their experiences in a healthier, more balanced way.
Understanding Polyvagal Theory and the Vagus Nerve
The vagus nerve is part of the parasympathetic nervous system, which helps the body relax and return to a state of calm after stress. Polyvagal theory divides the autonomic nervous system into three distinct states:
Social Engagement System: This is the state where we feel safe, calm, and connected. It is mediated by the ventral vagal complex, a part of the vagus nerve that supports facial expressions, vocal tone, and eye contact, which are all essential for social interaction.
Sympathetic Nervous System (Fight or Flight): When faced with danger or stress, the body shifts into this state, preparing for action (fight or flight). This involves increased heart rate, rapid breathing, and heightened alertness.
Dorsal Vagal Complex (Freeze or Shutdown): This is the more extreme survival response, often called the "shutdown" or "freeze" response, which happens when the body feels overwhelmed by danger and might immobilise or dissociate as a way to cope.
Polyvagal Theory and Trauma Healing
When someone experiences trauma, the nervous system may become stuck in one of the survival modes (either fight-or-flight or freeze). This can manifest as chronic anxiety, hypervigilance, or dissociation, all of which are common symptoms of trauma. Polyvagal theory helps to explain this, as trauma often involves dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system, where the body is unable to return to a state of safety.
Healing the Nervous System: Moving from Survival to Thriving
Healing trauma involves working with the nervous system to restore balance and break free from the cycle of fear and stress. The use of the polyvagal theory involves fostering the vagal tone — essentially the flexibility and responsiveness of the vagus nerve. When the vagus nerve functions well, the body can more easily move between states of calm (social engagement), action (fight or flight), and rest (freeze or shutdown). Here’s how polyvagal theory can help with trauma recovery:
Promoting Safe Connection: Since the ventral vagal system (the part of the vagus nerve related to social engagement) helps us feel safe in connection, trauma healing often involves creating environments or relationships where the person can feel secure and connected. This can include therapeutic settings or working with a trauma-informed therapist who provides a sense of safety and trust. Safe connection helps regulate the nervous system, promoting calm and engagement.
Regulating the Nervous System: Practices such as deep breathing, mindfulness, meditation, and grounding exercises can stimulate the vagus nerve and help bring the body back into a state of relaxation. For example, slow, controlled breathing can activate the parasympathetic nervous system (including the vagus nerve), helping to move someone out of fight-or-flight mode and into a calmer state. This is especially useful for individuals with trauma histories who experience frequent hyperarousal.
Resilience and Flexibility: Trauma can create a "stuck" feeling in the nervous system, where the person is unable to shift out of a high-alert state. Polyvagal theory emphasizes the importance of strengthening vagal tone — the capacity for the nervous system to quickly shift between states — which is crucial for healing. By learning techniques to strengthen vagal tone, individuals may become more resilient to stress and more adaptable in the face of trauma triggers.
Engaging the Body in Healing: Polyvagal theory recognizes that the body holds a lot of the trauma, and healing can occur through body-based practices like yoga, bodywork, and somatic experiencing. These methods can help release trauma stored in the body and help the person regain control over their autonomic nervous system. Somatic therapies, for instance, encourage individuals to feel and sense their physical body, which can promote safety and self-regulation.
Understanding and Integration: Finally, polyvagal theory helps trauma survivors understand why they react the way they do. By understanding the biology behind their trauma responses, individuals can approach their experiences with more compassion and less self-blame. This cognitive understanding of the nervous system can help them integrate their experiences and shift toward healing.
Final Thoughts
Trauma and the nervous system are deeply connected. Our bodies are designed to respond to danger in a way that promotes survival. However, when trauma overwhelms this system, it can have a lasting impact on both the body and the mind. Understanding how trauma is processed in the nervous system can help us better support those who have experienced it, guiding them toward healing and recovery.
Gestalt therapy offers an additional layer of support by addressing the blocks in the trauma experience, helping individuals move through the disrupted stages of the Gestalt cycle. By addressing the nervous system's response to trauma, and utilising the framework of Gestalt therapy, we can help individuals reconnect with their bodies, process past events, and regain a sense of safety and balance. Healing from trauma is a journey—one that involves restoring not just the mind but the entire body, helping individuals move from surviving to thriving.
If you or someone you know is struggling with the effects of trauma, reaching out to a professional who understands the physiological impacts of trauma and the principles of gestalt therapy is an essential first step toward healing.
