Brain and Trauma

🧠 How the Brain Reacts to Trauma or Loss — A Simple Explanation

When someone experiences trauma or deep loss, their brain and body react as if they are in immediate danger—even if the event is in the past. This happens because the brain is wired to protect us.

🔥 Fight, Flight, Freeze, or Shut Down

• When danger is sensed, the brain triggers automatic responses like fighting back, running away, freezing, or dissociating (mentally shutting down).

• These are survival responses—not choices.

🧠 Key Brain Areas Involved:

• Amygdala: Acts like an alarm bell. It senses threat and activates stress responses.

• Hippocampus: Helps us make sense of time and memory. Trauma can disrupt its ability to label memories properly, making it feel like the trauma is still happening now.

• Prefrontal Cortex: Helps with thinking and decision-making. Under trauma, this area can become less active, making it harder to think clearly or calm down.

🧩 What Trauma Can Do:

• The brain stores trauma memories differently—often without a clear beginning or end.

• These memories can be re-triggered by anything that reminds the person of the trauma (a smell, sound, place, etc.).

• The person may feel “stuck” in the past or disconnected from their current self.

🌱 The Good News: The Brain Can Change

• Our brains are neuroplastic, meaning they can reorganize and heal.

• Lifespan Integration (LI) therapy supports healing by helping the brain:

  • Integrate past experiences into a coherent life story.

  • Strengthen a sense of continuity and connection over time.

  • Build a more stable and resilient “core self.”

🧘‍♀️ Healing Happens Through:

• Repetition of memory “Time Lines” (a core part of LI therapy).

• A safe, attuned relationship with a therapist.

• Gently revisiting memories with new emotional resources—proving to the body that the danger has passed.
  
  1. Understanding the Effects of Trauma on the Brain

  National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN)
  This article explains how trauma—especially in childhood—can change how the brain develops. It highlights why connection and consistency are essential to healing.
  🔗 https://www.nctsn.org/resources/understanding-trauma-and-childhood-trauma

  2. How Trauma Affects the Brain

  National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine (NICABM)
  This page includes simple graphics and breakdowns of how trauma impacts brain systems like the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex. A helpful visual tool for understanding why you may feel “stuck” or triggered.
  🔗 https://www.nicabm.com/trauma-how-trauma-affects-the-brain/

  3. This Is Your Brain on Trauma

  Psychology Today
  This short, accessible article describes what happens in the brain during and after trauma, and why healing takes time. A good read if you’re wondering “Why do I react this way?”
  🔗 https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-superhuman-mind/201708/this-is-your-brain-trauma

  4. The Neurobiology of Trauma

  The Trauma Foundation
  Offers a general overview of trauma’s effect on the nervous system and brain responses. Highlights how trauma shows up in body sensations and why somatic and memory-based therapies are effective.
  🔗 https://traumafoundation.org/resources/neurobiology-of-trauma/

  5. Trauma and the Brain – Summary of The Body Keeps the Score

  BrainLine.org
  Summarizes key concepts from Bessel van der Kolk’s groundbreaking book. Explains how trauma gets stored in the body and brain, and introduces the idea of memory integration—central to LI therapy.
  🔗 https://www.brainline.org/article/trauma-and-brain