The Body Keeps the Score: How Trauma Is Stored in the Body and Why Comprehensive Care Matters
- M L
- 7 days ago
- 5 min read
Trauma isn’t just something that happened in the past; it changes your nervous system, metabolism, and even the way your body holds tension and movement patterns. In many veterans, athletes, and individuals with repeated stress or injury, such as blast exposure or impact trauma, these changes accumulate over time. This accumulation is often described by clinicians as allostatic load, the wear and tear the body experiences from chronic activation of stress pathways.
Allostatic load refers to the physiological consequences of chronic exposure to stress hormones and repeated nervous system activation. Over time, this can alter the way the brain functions, how the body responds to future stress, and how various systems communicate with one another.
Here’s how trauma shows up in the brain and body, and how a full-spectrum recovery model supports healing.
Trauma and the Nervous System
Trauma and chronic stress fundamentally alter brain networks involved in fear, regulation, memory, and attention. Research on non-invasive brain stimulation like rTMS (repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation) highlights that modulating neural activity can influence mood and stress responses, and may improve symptoms in disorders like PTSD and depression. rTMS is FDA-approved for conditions including major depressive disorder and has been researched for PTSD, reflecting its potential to support neural regulation when used appropriately.
While rTMS protocols vary and the evidence base is still growing, many studies suggest that stimulation of specific brain regions can influence neural connectivity and the regulation of stress-related circuits.
MeRT (Magnetic e-Resonance Therapy), a specific application of EEG-guided magnetic stimulation, extends this approach by using measured brainwave patterns to tailor stimulation. Early research and clinical experience suggest that guided protocols can support calming hypervigilant networks and facilitating regulatory patterns in people with PTSD, TBI, and other dysregulation states.
How the Body “Remembers” Trauma
The brain doesn’t store trauma in isolation; the body does too. One key to understanding this is fascia.
Fascia is the continuous network of connective tissue that surrounds every muscle, nerve, and organ in the body. It’s not just structural; it houses a large number of sensory receptors and plays an important role in how the body communicates with the brain about internal states like tension, movement, pain, and posture.
Chronic stress and trauma, whether emotional, physical, or from repeated impact injuries, are associated with persistent tension and restrictions in fascia. This can create patterns of tightness, stiffness, and even pain long after the original event has passed. Some research suggests that unresolved trauma and chronic stress may contribute to fascial restrictions which affect movement and nervous system signaling.
What this means in everyday life is more than metaphor: many people describe feeling stuck in their body, they can’t fully relax, they carry tension in predictable areas, or they feel sensations that don’t have a clear physical cause. Understanding fascia as part of the body’s “sensory web” helps clinicians see why physical tension and emotional memory often overlap.
The Vagus Nerve: Bridge Between Body and Brain
The vagus nerve is a major pathway connecting the brain to many bodily systems, including the heart, gut, and lungs. It plays a central role in regulating the autonomic nervous system, the balance between “fight or flight” and “rest and digest” functions. Chronic trauma and stress can disrupt vagal tone, leading to persistent states of hypervigilance, dysregulated heart rate, digestion issues, and poor stress tolerance.
Fascia contributes to this conversation by supporting proprioception and sensory input that feeds into these networks. When fascia tightens in response to trauma, sensory information to the brain can be altered, impacting autonomic regulation and reinforcing a sense of threat even when danger has passed.
Fatigue, Metabolic Stress, and Cellular Disruption
Trauma isn’t just psychological, it affects how the body uses energy. Chronic stress states are associated with hormonal shifts, inflammatory signaling, and metabolic challenges such as oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction. These changes can manifest as fatigue, poor recovery after exertion, cognitive fog, and mood dysregulation.
Metabolic imbalances like impaired methylation pathways and oxidative stress add layers to the allostatic load. They interfere with cellular repair, neurotransmitter balance, and immune signaling. Addressing these requires more than talk therapy or symptom management, it requires targeted biological support and restoration.
Why Comprehensive Care Works
At Brain Treatment Center NoVA, we integrate multiple evidence-based and experience-informed approaches to address the whole person:
MeRT and rTMS
These therapies use targeted magnetic stimulation to support neural regulation, helping modulate brain networks that have become dysregulated due to trauma, stress, or injury.
Functional Health Diagnostics
We use testing to understand oxidative stress, methylation imbalances, nutrient status, and systemic inflammation that contribute to physiological stress and fatigue.
SPIN/OT (Somatic Program for Integrative NeuroBalance)
Fascia, sensory processing, and primitive reflex integration are core parts of how trauma shows up in the body. SPIN includes myofascial release and nervous system regulation work that helps release tension patterns and restore inclusive body-brain communication, supporting both emotional and physical recovery.
Whole Body Nutrition and Lifestyle Support
Optimizing cellular health, inflammatory balance, and metabolic resiliency helps the body repair rather than just adapt.
The Body Really Does “Keep Score”
Neuroscience and body-mind research consistently show that chronic stress, trauma exposure, and cumulative physiological strain don’t stay in one system. They alter connectivity, change sensory signaling, impact metabolism, and shape how the body and brain communicate, sometimes long after the original event has passed.
The good news is that emerging science supports comprehensive, data-guided approaches that don’t just treat symptoms but work to restore regulation at multiple levels. By combining neuromodulation with fascial, metabolic, and nervous system support, healing can become measurable and meaningful.
References:
Foundational Trauma & Allostatic Load
McEwen, B. S. (1998).
Protective and damaging effects of stress mediators.
New England Journal of Medicine, 338(3), 171–179.
McEwen, B. S., & Wingfield, J. C. (2003).
The concept of allostasis in biology and biomedicine.
Hormones and Behavior, 43(1), 2–15.
Van der Kolk, B. A. (2014).
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma.
Viking Press.
Trauma, PTSD, TBI & Brain Dysregulation
Bremner, J. D. (2006).
Traumatic stress: effects on the brain.
Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 8(4), 445–461.
Stein, M. B., et al. (2012).
Magnetic resonance imaging studies of PTSD.
CNS Spectrums, 17(4), 179–184.
VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guideline for the Management of PTSD and Acute Stress Disorder.
rTMS / Neuromodulation & Brain Regulation
George, M. S., et al. (2010).
Daily left prefrontal transcranial magnetic stimulation therapy for major depressive disorder.
Archives of General Psychiatry, 67(5), 507–516.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/210608
Philip, N. S., et al. (2019).
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation for PTSD.
American Journal of Psychiatry, 176(11), 905–912.
VA Health Services Research & Development.
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for Mental Health Conditions.
https://www.hsrd.research.va.gov/publications/esp/tms-mh.cfm
Fascia, Body-Based Trauma & Somatic Storage
Schleip, R., et al. (2012).
Fascia as a sensory organ.
Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, 16(4), 496–502.
Stecco, C., et al. (2018).
The fascial system and its role in pain and movement.
Journal of Anatomy, 233(5), 611–624.
Schwartz, A. (2018).
The vagus nerve, fascia, and trauma.
Dr. Arielle Schwartz Blog.
https://drarielleschwartz.com/fascia-and-the-vagus-nerve-dr-arielle-schwartz/
Vagus Nerve & Autonomic Regulation
Porges, S. W. (2007).
The polyvagal perspective.
Biological Psychology, 74(2), 116–143.
Thayer, J. F., & Lane, R. D. (2009).
Claude Bernard and the heart–brain connection.
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 33(2), 81–88.
Metabolic Stress, Mitochondria & Trauma
Picard, M., et al. (2018).
Mitochondrial psychobiology.
Biological Psychiatry, 84(11), 812–819.
Morris, G., et al. (2018).
The role of mitochondria in neuroimmune and neuropsychiatric disorders.
Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry, 83, 155–170.
Occupational Therapy, Somatic Work & Regulation
Schaaf, R. C., et al. (2014).
An intervention for sensory difficulties in children with autism.
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 44(7), 1493–1506.
Ogden, P., Minton, K., & Pain, C. (2006).
Trauma and the Body: A Sensorimotor Approach to Psychotherapy.
W.W. Norton & Company.
Comments