Dissociation develops when abuse happens without protection, power, or escape.
In those conditions, the brain and body do exactly what they are designed to do: they reduce awareness to protect against overwhelming threat. Dissociation isn’t a choice or a flaw, it’s an adaptation.
For many survivors, dissociation continues long after the abuse has ended. Not because they’re stuck, but because the body and brain don’t update simply through insight. Knowing you’re safe now isn’t the same as feeling safe.
This is where trauma-informed treatment matters.
Through approaches like EMDR, the brain and body are given the chance to process what happened in a way that doesn’t overwhelm the system. Over time, the body can learn that it no longer needs to shut down in order to survive and that being present can be safe.
When dissociation begins to ease, it’s not because someone is trying harder. It’s because their system has experienced enough safety to let go of an old survival response.
If dissociation still shows up for you, it doesn’t mean you’re failing at healing. It means your system learned a powerful way to survive. But it can learn something new.
#dissociation #nervoussystemhealing #trauma #traumahealing #traumarecovery
Rhythmic, predictable movement gives the nervous system cues of safety.
You don’t need a hammock to get this effect. There are other ways to support regulation like:
• Walking at a steady pace
• Rocking gently in a chair
• Alternating foot taps on the floor
• Slow, repetitive stretching
• Bilateral tapping (left–right) on your legs or arms
This isn’t about “calming down”. It’s about giving your nervous system something predictable to follow.
✨ If you want more gentle, trauma-informed tools like this, my free grounding guide is linked in my bio.
#nervoussystemregulation #nervoussystemreset #complextrauma #traumahealing #traumarecovery
Trauma doesn’t only live in memories. It lives in nervous systems.
When trauma isn’t processed, the brain stays organised around survival. Threat detection remains high.
The nervous system struggles to stand down.
Over time, that survival state shapes behaviour, relationships, and parenting - not intentionally, not consciously, but consistently.
Research across attachment theory, developmental neuroscience and stress physiology shows that trauma can be transmitted across generations not as stories, but as patterns:
hypervigilance
emotional suppression
people-pleasing
rage or shutdown
Children don’t learn safety from what we say. They learn it from the nervous systems they grow up around.
Breaking that cycle isn’t easy work. It often means being the one who feels what others couldn’t, notices what was normalised, and stays present instead of disconnecting.
And it is frightening.
But change doesn’t happen through avoidance - it happens through interruption.
But the brain is not fixed.
Neuroplasticity means the nervous system can rewire in response to safety, regulation, and repair.
This isn’t about blaming previous generations.
It’s about understanding the biology and choosing to do something different with it.
If this landed, you’re not “too sensitive” or “too much”.
You might be the one where the pattern finally shifts.
✨ Want to know more? Book a free initial consult. Link in bio.
#generationaltrauma #intergenerationaltrauma #trauma #complextrauma #traumahealing
