Understanding Trauma: The Silent Storm Within


Understanding Trauma: The Silent Storm Within
By Phiona Hutton– Trauma Support in Havant & Online


Trauma is not just something that happens to us, it’s something that can live within us. It weaves itself into the fabric of our nervous system, our mind, and even our body. Whether it stems from childhood experiences, accidents, loss, violence, or neglect, trauma doesn’t always announce itself loudly. Often, it sits quietly, shaping the way we think, feel, and behave until something, sometimes seemingly small, wakes it up.





Types of Trauma

Trauma can manifest in many forms:

  • Acute Trauma: A single distressing event such as an accident or attack.
  • Chronic Trauma: Repeated and prolonged exposure to distress, like domestic violence or ongoing abuse.
  • Complex Trauma: Often beginning in childhood, this includes multiple and varied traumatic experiences, especially within relationships or caregiving environments.
  • Developmental Trauma: Trauma that affects a child’s development due to early attachment wounds, neglect, or abuse.
  • Vicarious Trauma: Experienced indirectly by those who support or witness others in distress (e.g. therapists, emergency workers).
  • Collective Trauma: Shared traumatic events like war, pandemics, or natural disasters that affect groups or communities.



What Happens to the Mind and Body During Trauma?

During a traumatic event, the brain switches into survival mode. The amygdala, the part of the brain that detects threat, becomes overactive. Meanwhile, the prefrontal cortex, responsible for rational thought, shuts down. This is why people often can’t “think straight” during trauma.

The body reacts too. The nervous system engages in:

  • Fight: Anger, aggression, hypervigilance.
  • Flight: Anxiety, restlessness, avoidance.
  • Freeze: Numbness, disconnection, paralysis.
  • Fawn: People-pleasing as a survival strategy.




Trauma in the Body: The Lingering Impact

Trauma doesn’t always leave scars on the outside. It can remain stored in the body’s memory for years, resurfacing as:

  • Chronic pain
  • Digestive issues
  • Fatigue
  • Sleep disturbances
  • Panic attacks

When unresolved, trauma can profoundly affect daily life, including:

  • Relationships: Difficulty trusting, fear of abandonment, overreacting to conflict.
  • Parenting: Being overly protective, emotionally unavailable, or triggered by your child’s needs.
  • Work: Burnout, imposter syndrome, struggling with authority.
  • Social Life: Isolation, social anxiety, fear of judgment.




Dissociation, Addiction, and Other Trauma Responses

When the pain is too much, the mind sometimes protects itself through dissociation, a sense of detachment from self or reality. Others may turn to addiction, to substances, food, work, or relationships, to numb the pain.

Trauma survivors often appear "high-functioning." They may excel professionally or socially while battling a storm of inner turmoil. Triggers, even subtle ones like a tone of voice or a certain smell, can send the nervous system into overdrive, launching a trauma response that feels out of proportion to the moment.




Polyvagal Theory: A Path to Healing

Polyvagal Theory, developed by Dr. Stephen Porges, helps us understand how trauma affects the nervous system. It identifies three states:

  • Ventral Vagal (Safe & Social): Calm, connected, present.
  • Sympathetic (Fight or Flight): Anxious, angry, or overwhelmed.
  • Dorsal Vagal (Shutdown): Numb, disconnected, depressed.

Healing involves helping the nervous system find its way back to ventral vagal safety. This is where trauma-informed therapy becomes vital.




Healing Through Trauma-Informed Therapy

Working with a trauma-informed therapist provides a safe space to gently explore your story without re-traumatization. Therapy may include:

  • Talking Therapy: Building understanding and language around your experience.
  • EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique): Tapping to release emotional blocks.
  • IEMT (Integral Eye Movement Therapy): Using eye movement to reduce the emotional charge of traumatic memories.
  • Breathwork: Calming the nervous system and releasing stored trauma.
  • Bach Flower Remedies: Supporting emotional balance with natural plant essences.
  • Eco-Therapy: Reconnecting with nature as a grounding, healing force.
  • Creative Therapy: Using art, music, or movement to express and release trauma.

Healing trauma, especially complex trauma, is not a quick fix. It may take months or years to gently unravel the layers, restore safety, and rebuild your relationship with yourself and others.



Childhood Trauma: The Foundation

Children are especially vulnerable to trauma. Even experiences that seem minor to adults, like a parent yelling or frequent moves, can have lasting impacts on a developing nervous system. Left unprocessed, childhood trauma often shows up in adulthood through relationship struggles, mental health issues, or physical symptoms.


Trauma Affects Everyone

Trauma doesn’t discriminate. Adults and children alike can suffer. Recent traumas. such as accidents, assaults, or bereavement, can re-activate past wounds, especially when they echo earlier experiences.


Support with Phiona, In Havant or Online

If you’re experiencing trauma, you’re not alone. Whether you’re dealing with long-held pain or recent distress, Phiona offers trauma-informed support in person in Havant or online via secure sessions. With a holistic and compassionate approach, Phiona draws from a range of therapies to support your journey back to calm, balance, and wholeness.


Let’s find the path to healing, together.


Whether you're dealing with stress, anxiety, trauma, bereavement or looking to break habits, reframe fears, or phobias. Phiona can help you develop approaches to overcome these barriers that prevent you from living life to the fullest. Helping you navigate life’s challenges and take the next step towards a brighter, calmer future.


If you feel you would like support, and you feel therapy may be the answer. I offer 15 minute complimentary  consultations, for you to have the chance to discover how therapy might support you. Visit my website for more information. 


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#TraumaHealing #ComplexTrauma #PolyvagalTheory #TraumaTherapistHavant #InnerChildHealing #HolisticTherapy #EFT #IEMT #CreativeTherapy #Breathwork #TraumaInformedCare #BachFlowerRemedies #ChildhoodTrauma #NervousSystemHealing #EcoTherapy #TherapyTakesTime #HealingJourney #EmotionalHealth #PhionaHealing


 

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