Why the Nervous System Holds the Key to Healing Trauma
Introduction
If you’ve ever felt your heart race, palms sweat, or body freeze when nothing dangerous was actually happening, you’ve experienced the nervous system’s response to trauma. Many people ask, “Why do I still feel unsafe when I know I’m not in danger?”
The answer: trauma reshapes the nervous system. Understanding how this system works — and why it holds the key to recovery — is the first step toward real healing.
The Nervous System: Your Survival Wiring
The nervous system controls how your body reacts to stress. When trauma happens, it can get “stuck” in survival mode.
There are two main branches:
Sympathetic Nervous System (fight or flight): Activates during danger. Increases heart rate, pumps adrenaline, prepares the body to act.
Parasympathetic Nervous System (rest and digest): Calms the body after danger. Slows heart rate, restores balance.
In trauma survivors, this balance breaks. The sympathetic system often stays overactive, while the parasympathetic system struggles to bring calm.
Polyvagal Theory: Why Trauma Feels Stuck
Dr. Stephen Porges’ Polyvagal Theory explains how the vagus nerve — a long nerve connecting the brain, heart, and gut — regulates feelings of safety.
Ventral Vagal (safe/social state): We feel calm, connected, able to engage.
Sympathetic (fight/flight): The body prepares to escape or defend.
Dorsal Vagal (freeze/shutdown): The body numbs out, conserving energy.
Trauma pushes the nervous system out of the safe zone. Survivors swing between fight/flight and freeze, even when no threat exists.
How Trauma Shows Up in the Nervous System
Hyperarousal: Constant anxiety, irritability, hypervigilance.
Hypoarousal: Numbness, exhaustion, emotional shutdown.
Physical Symptoms: Digestive issues, headaches, muscle pain, and sleep problems.
Research from the National Institute of Mental Health shows trauma survivors often have higher baseline cortisol (stress hormone) and altered heart rate variability — both markers of a nervous system stuck in survival mode.
Why Healing the Nervous System Is Key
Many therapies fail when they only focus on thoughts. Why? Because trauma lives in the body as much as the mind. Until the nervous system learns safety again, the brain continues to signal danger.
By directly calming and retraining the nervous system, trauma therapy helps survivors move from survival → safety → connection.
Trauma Therapies That Reset the Nervous System
Somatic Therapy: Uses movement, body scans, and sensations to release stored trauma energy.
EMDR: Helps the brain reprocess trauma, which reduces overactivation of the amygdala and nervous system.
Breathwork & Mindfulness: Studies show slow breathing increases vagal tone, signaling safety to the body.
Yoga & Movement Therapy: Improve heart rate variability, reducing the body’s stress reactivity.
Practical Nervous System Tools You Can Try Today
Box Breathing: Inhale 4 seconds → hold 4 → exhale 4 → hold 4.
5-4-3-2-1 Grounding: Name 5 things you see, 4 feel, 3 hear, 2 smell, 1 taste.
Cold Water Splash: Activates the vagus nerve, calming stress response.
Safe Connection: Talking to a trusted friend or therapist co-regulates the nervous system.
Final Thoughts
Your nervous system is not broken — it’s overprotective. Trauma taught it to stay on guard, but with therapy, it can learn safety again.
At Golden Roots Therapy, we specialize in helping clients in Saint Paul, Mahtomedi, and the East Metro reset their nervous systems through trauma-informed, evidence-based care.
If your body feels stuck in survival mode, schedule a consultation today.
