Trauma is an invisible wound that’s triggered by a distressing experience, and it can affect the nervous system and the body, says clinical hypnotherapist Kinneri Parekh. She says that understanding this mind-body connection can help explain why emotional wounds can affect people long after the original event has passed.
“The word 'trauma' comes from the Greek word 'trauma', meaning 'wound'." We often think of a wound as something we can see on the body, but psychological trauma is an invisible wound,” she explains.
Kinneri cites physician and trauma expert Gabor Maté, who described trauma as “what happens inside you as a result of what happens to you.”
She further cites psychiatrist and trauma researcher Bessel van der Kolk, who stated that trauma occurs when an experience overwhelms a person’s ability to cope. In such moments, the brain and nervous system shift into survival mode, triggering the body’s fight, flight or freeze response to protect and to keep us alive. Heart rate increases, breathing changes, muscles tense and stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol are released to help the body respond to danger.
She notes that these responses subside once the threat has passed. However, she says unresolved trauma can leave the nervous system in a prolonged state of alertness.
“The conscious mind may know that the danger is over. It may recognise that the event happened years ago or know that it wasn’t our fault. But the subconscious mind can hold protective patterns formed during the traumatic experience,” she says.
When those patterns are unprocessed, she adds, the nervous system continues to perceive danger as if the threat were still present. The body hasn’t yet received the message that it’s safe. This is how trauma is stored in the body. The body continues to live with the protective patterns that were created to help us survive.
As a result, the nervous system remains on high alert, continuously activating the body's stress response and releasing stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. This prolonged stress response can affect emotional wellbeing and put strain on different body systems.
“These hormones are essential in moments of real danger, but detrimental to health if released for prolonged periods. This chronic state of survival stresses the body, affecting the immune, digestive, cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems, as well as our emotional wellbeing,” she says.
Kinneri explains that research in psychoneuroimmunology has shown that chronic stress influences interactions between the nervous and immune systems (though health is influenced by many factors like genetics, nutrition, lifestyle, and environment). The body and mind, she points out, are in constant communication.
When the nervous system remains in a prolonged state of survival, it affects our thoughts, emotions, immunity, and physiological processes.
“The body communicates through sensations such as a tight chest, a knot in the stomach, tense shoulders, frequent headaches, digestive discomfort, fatigue, restless sleep or a racing heart. It’s the body’s way of saying that ‘I’m carrying more than I can manage,'" she says.
Emotional patterns such as anxiety, irritability, shutting down during conflict or constantly trying to please others can indicate a nervous system that remains on high alert.
A regulated nervous system, she says, recognises when you are safe. And unresolved trauma may mistake today's situations for yesterday's dangers. Our emotional and physical reactions reveal where we are still holding on to fear, hurt or protective patterns from the past.
“From a medical perspective, any physical symptom or health concern should always be appropriately assessed by a qualified healthcare professional to determine their underlying cause and ensure appropriate treatment,” she encourages.
From a complementary health and wellbeing perspective, she adds, the connection between the mind, emotions and body is also important to recognise. Chronic stress, unresolved emotional experiences and a dysregulated nervous system can influence our physical and emotional wellbeing. By addressing these underlying subconscious emotional patterns and supporting nervous system regulation, many people experience improvements in their overall health and quality of life.
The medical perspective focuses on diagnosing and treating disease, while complementary health supports the body's natural capacity for healing by addressing the emotional and psychological factors that may contribute to well-being.
Derived from her hypnotherapy practice, she says unresolved emotions such as fear, grief, anger or shame may be reflected in chronic muscle tension, shallow breathing, difficulty relaxing, physical discomfort, and stress-related symptoms. These aren’t medical diagnoses, but possible signs that emotional experiences are still affecting the nervous system.
“For instance, a person who has spent years suppressing anger may notice persistent jaw tension or teeth clenching. A person who has carried a heavy emotional burden for much of their life may experience tightness in the neck and shoulders,” she describes.
Others, she continues, may notice a tight chest when living with fear or anxiety or digestive discomfort during periods of emotional distress. Learning to notice bodily sensations with curiosity rather than fear can help people better understand their emotional responses, Kinneri says.
She further notes that when something significant happens, our brain immediately begins to interpret what it means, which is influenced by our past experiences, beliefs, conditioning and previous emotional wounds.
“The meaning we attach to an experience gives rise to our thoughts, which evoke emotions such as fear, sadness, anger, guilt or helplessness,” she says.
Then, the nervous system prepares the body to respond to what it perceives is happening. The body doesn’t respond only to the event but also to the meaning our mind has given to that event. She observes that this is why two people can experience the same event yet respond differently. The event may be the same, but the meaning each person gives it is shaped by their unique life experiences, beliefs and nervous system.
How the body responds is its way of expressing that our nervous system has detected something significant. In moments of distress, the sensations inform how our mind, emotions, and nervous system are responding to an experience.
Kinneri recommends paying attention to the sensations and feelings to recognise what is happening within. We can pose these questions to ourselves: “Can I stay with this feeling?” “What emotion might be present here?” and “What does this feeling remind me of?”
These questions, she says, aim to invite curiosity rather than judgement and to help us shift from fighting our body’s signals to understanding them.
“As we learn to listen with compassion, the body becomes more than a collection of symptoms. It becomes a guide, pointing us towards emotions that may need to be acknowledged, processed and integrated,” she says.
When those emotions are met with awareness and safety, the nervous system relaxes and no longer needs to remain in a state of protection. This then helps the body relax. In her work, she also uses clinical hypnotherapy to help clients process unresolved emotional experiences and develop healthier responses to stress.
“Deep therapeutic interventions, such as clinical hypnotherapy, work with the subconscious mind, where many of our learned emotional responses, beliefs and protective patterns have developed,” she suggests.
In a safe therapeutic environment, unresolved emotional stress can be explored, processed and integrated, allowing individuals to gain clarity and a new understanding of the past.
She notes that once understood, the emotional stress that shaped one’s automatic thoughts, behaviours and survival responses begins to lose its control. Experiences that once felt threatening are no longer interpreted through the same lens of fear, helplessness or overwhelm.
The nervous system no longer feels trapped in patterns of protection; instead, it begins to recognise that the original danger has passed. As unresolved emotions are safely processed, the nervous system no longer needs to remain in a constant state of protection. The body begins to soften and muscles relax, breathing becomes easier, and many people experience an increased sense of calm and well-being. Some also notice improvements in stress-related physical symptoms as the body is no longer carrying the same emotional burden.
Conscious practices such as deep breathing, meditation, journaling and mindful movement can help regulate the nervous system.
Kinneri discloses that her own experience of trauma inspired her to specialise in the field. Her subconscious had learnt that staying in a constant state of vigilance was the safest way to protect her. She began experiencing migraines, back pain and digestive problems.
“Staying in control meant staying constantly alert, always anticipating what might go wrong, always trying to prevent it, and always taking responsibility for the wellbeing of those around me,” she says.
Through therapy and hypnotherapy training, she says, she processed unresolved emotional experiences, experienced improvements in her physical health, shifted her long-held beliefs and survival patterns, gained a new understanding of her past, and developed a greater sense of calm.
Her migraines, back pain, and digestive health improved. Her thinking became less fear-driven, her perception of herself and the world became better, and she felt calm, resilient, and emotionally free.
Healing, she says, isn’t about fighting the body’s symptoms but helping the nervous system recognise that the danger has passed.
“When the nervous system learns that it’s finally safe, the body no longer has to keep protecting us in the same way,” she says.
