S2 E11: Trauma Is Not Stored in the Body

Send us Fan MailIn Season 2, Episode 11 I am sharing some thoughts based on my clinical research and upcoming book on how to support trauma, especially with regards to how popular discussing this conversations has become  in the last few months in social media. This is invitation to reframe how we talk about trauma.There’s a phrase that has become incredibly popular in trauma culture:“The body keeps the score.”And while I understand why this idea resonates with so many people, I want to invite a deeper and more nuanced conversation. These are ideas that are presented in my upcoming book to be release in the end of 2026 entitled Somatic Touch: An integrative approach to physical and psychosomatic trauma.Because I don’t actually believe trauma is “stored” in the body in the simplistic way it is often talked about.I don’t think trauma sits trapped in the tissues like a toxin waiting to be released.What I think is happening is far more complex, relational, and honestly, far more fascinating.What we call trauma is often an adaptive neurobiological pattern.A learned survival physiology.A predictive response shaped by environment, attachment, development, physiology, and relationship.And yes — it absolutely shows up in the body.But that is different than saying trauma is physically stored there like an object.This distinction matters.Especially for practitioners.Especially for neurodivergent folks.Especially for anyone who has felt harmed, overwhelmed, or pathologized by certain trauma narratives.Because many people have come to believe they are carrying hidden trauma trapped inside them that must somehow be excavated, discharged, or released through shaking, catharsis, or emotional excavation.And I want to question that framework.Not to dismiss trauma.Not to dismiss suffering.But to invite us into a more holistic and embryological understanding of how human beings actually develop and regulate.From an osteopathic and embryological lens, the body is never just tissue.For more go to my Substack for full text.