If you’ve ever felt butterflies in your stomach over an upcoming event, you’re well aware of the mind-body connection and how emotions can appear in different parts of the body. Our bodies can carry the weight of our memories, emotions, and trauma. The idea of stored emotions manifesting physically in our systems is not a new hypothesis; it’s a scientific observation with tangible effects. Modern scientific research frequently explores the link between mental and physical health and the mind-body connection. Meanwhile, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has studied the connection between emotions and the body for over two thousand years.
Understanding how stress hormones or states like hyperarousal and disassociation contribute to the physical imprints of emotional trauma is pivotal. The mind-body connection suggests that emotional states can dictate our health, physical comfort, and gene expressions.
To grasp trauma and stored emotions, we must look into how our bodies hold onto past experiences and ways to let them go. It is necessary to explore the somatic element of emotions, how the body holds on to the past, and modalities that can release it. As trauma affects parts of the brain that are preverbal, Accelerated Resolution Therapy explores bodily approaches to healing that are inaccessible through talk and other traditional therapies.
How do emotions get trapped?
We’ve all experienced overwhelming emotions that seemed to outweigh our capacity to handle them in the moment. As a result, these feelings can get stuck and never fully processed or expressed. It’s like the emotional system hitting pause on a