Healing from past trauma can feel overwhelming. As someone who’s walking this lifelong path, and has healed from numerous intense experiences – both personally and professionally – I want to share honest answers to the questions I hear most often.

While everyone’s journey looks different, understanding these basics can help you take those first important steps toward healing, no matter where you’re starting from.

Can you ever heal from childhood trauma?

Absolutely. But we must be mindful that ”healing” looks different for every one of us.

Also, we recognize that healing is a lifelong journey.

I know. That sounds… disheartening. You probably read it like, “Man. I’m going to be dealing with ‘this’ for the rest of my life?”

I understand, but please don’t view it that way. Know that we heal in STAGES. The first stages are often most uncomfortable, but VERY SOON, the pain lessens and we feel a lot better.

Ex:

Remember the last time you cut your finger? Yikes! That hurt.

It was probably throbbing, begging to be dealt with.

Okay. So then… you had to clean it. (You knew you did, or else it’d get infected. That would be a much bigger problem. Sometimes even leading to early death [blood infection]!)

So you went ahead, bit the bullet, and cleaned it. Maybe you used some peroxide.

It stung like a b#%*h, but only lasted a few seconds. Whew.

Then… that throbbing pain started going away. Nice.

Then you had to wrap it to protect it from the elements, so it could do what it needed to do to naturally heal.

The pattern is similar when healing emotional wounds.

There is a process of:

  • severe pain (throbbing) >
  • initial cleansing >
  • sharper/intensified pain >
  • immediately reduced pain >
  • continued pain reduction >
  • no more pain, but probably a scar.

The point is, the sooner you start your healing journey (or advance it, if you’re already on your way) … the sooner you WILL feel better.

So no, you will not have to deal with ‘this’ for the rest of your life. You’ll deal with a far lesser version of it as your healing progresses.

Consider asking yourself, “How would I like to feel, and what will my life be like, when I’m feeling more ‘healed’?”

This helps you know what to look for, as an important measure to know if the modality you’re using is working.

It’s also important to remember that not every healing stage is comfortable. But it IS necessary for healing. (Remember the cut analogy.) Check out “signs you ARE healing from trauma” as ideas of what to expect.

Can the brain heal from childhood trauma?

Yes. This is the concept of “neuroplasticity” at work. Basically, scientists now know that our brains are constantly learning in every single moment. That’s great news. Because it means that, the more we do things to go in the direction we want, the faster and easier it becomes.

For instance, let’s say we have a fear of speaking in public.

The more we simply let ourselves feel that fear when it’s time to speak — without doing anything in the moment to relieve that anxiety — the stronger that fear becomes.

But if we do simple things right when we’re feeling afraid — like relax our muscle tension, or practice deeper breathing — we start to reverse that cycle.

Our nervous system starts learning it’s safe to speak publicly. And it learns to RELEASE that fear.

One of the most important keys, though, is not waiting until after the scary event is over.

And not relying only on stress management tools before the event either.

Remember: The brain is learning in every single moment. According to the concept of neuroplasticity, it’s either learning to reinforce existing patterns, or it’s UNlearning those and building new ones.

The more we allow ourselves to repeat old patterns without creating change RIGHT IN those learning moments … the more we reinforce those uncomfortable patterns.

Make sense?

In “How to Heal from Childhood Trauma–Without Opening Old Wounds,” I explain how each key part of the brain is affected by traumatic experiences, and outline strategies to reverse all of them.

How do you reverse childhood trauma?

We know that traumatic experiences we have as children create brain changes. For instance:

  • an underactive hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, and cingulate,
  • an overactive amygdala, and
  • a dysregulated insula.

So, to reverse the impacts of childhood trauma, we can apply healing strategies that address those specific things.

We can do intentionally things that:

  • activate the underactive areas,
  • deactivate the overactive ones, and
  • help better regulate the insula.

Make sense?

The strategies I teach in our free “heal from trauma” guide are examples. So are all the services I offer.

How do you treat childhood trauma in adults?

This is a great question. I’m approaching this as a Natural Wellness Expert and Performance Strategist… as well as a healing human just like you, who understands the mechanisms of reducing these symptoms.

The first key is to recognize that it’s affecting you. You’re here, so you’re on the right track.

The second key is to accept it. Again, right track.

The third is to start trying to resolve it strategically. Not doing some meditation or yoga all willy nilly, and expecting that to magically “fix it.”

It took quite some time to get to this state. So please be patient with your journey and recognize/respect the time and intentional effort it will require to get out from under it. Again, you’re doing great.

That said, I believe that the keys to healing it are related to what it took to get there. This is my own personal methodology. Others have other ways of doing it, and neither is “right” or “wrong.” It’s about finding what’s working for you.

(Notice I did not say finding “what works.” Much of it “works.” It’s about finding what’s compatible with YOU, that works. See the difference?)

My particular approach is to:

  • Recalibrate (increase your interoception),
  • learn to self-regulate (your emotions and behavior),
  • restructure your nervous system to think more productively and positively,
  • reacquaint with the real you, and
  • use low-effort tools that balance the stress response.

See “Actionable Resources for Healing Childhood Trauma” for specific strategies.

What happens if childhood trauma is not resolved?

Anytime we have unprocessed emotions and raw emotional wounds from the past … they affect EVERYTHING: Our work, our relationships, and the overall quality of our day to day lives.

  • Our bodies store harmful emotional energy and begin to transmute that into disease if not addressed.
  • We may be more emotionally reactive to triggers.
  • We may experience memory problems.
  • We may develop chronic anxiety.
  • We may have intrusive thoughts.
  • We may relive the event.

Or we might have many other symptoms of unresolved trauma.

Please see our YouTube playlist, “Why Can’t I Move Forward?” Basic Brain Function for Entrepreneurs,” to understand the ways child trauma affects our lives as adults, and as business owners specifically.

How do I let go of childhood pain?

This answer is different for every human and depends on many factors.

Some of us feel like we need to talk about it, to “air it out,” especially if we didn’t have a willing ear as a youth.

Some of us don’t want to talk about it at all, preferring healing strategies that don’t even bring the trauma to mind.

The modalities we offer use the latter method — relief without having to revisit the trauma in any way.

But if you need to get the hurts off of your chest and close those wounds, then trauma therapy would be a wonderful companion to the strategic healing process used at Energetic Harmony℠.

How do you know if you have repressed childhood trauma?

Again, this answer can be different for everyone. Please work with your therapist to unpack this.

Some common signs might be thoughts, emotions, or behaviors we can’t seem to understand — or stop.

It’s also super common to have intense fears that may or may not make sense to us.

For instance:

You may be afraid to make sales calls, even to previous, well-known clients, because we have a strong fear of rejection.

You might be prone to “procrastinate” and avoid healthy people or activities, instead seeking “right-now” comfort over long-term success.

You may have intense, unsettling nightmares that we may or may not remember. And some of them may recur.

You may be extremely emotionally reactive, to a level even beyond your logical understanding.

Repressed childhood trauma can manifest in our businesses and lives in a number of ways. Again, please see the YouTube playlist, “Why Can’t I Move Forward?” for more insight.

Can childhood trauma cause anger issues?

Absolutely… although, may I suggest reframing the word “issues” to something more compassionate to your situation?

Childhood trauma can certainly lead to increased emotional reactiveness. It might manifest as outbursts of anger or crying, for instance, or even self isolation.

The most important thing to remember is that childhood trauma causes key brain areas to become overactive, others to become underactive, and the connections between the areas to become weaker.

This can manifest as us having emotional or behavioral responses that don’t always make sense to us.

Again, the Basic Brain Function for Entrepreneurs playlist offers more insight.

What are the long term effects of childhood trauma?

In “The Biological Effects of Childhood Trauma” (De Bellis, M. D., & Zisk, A., 2014), scientists confirm that chronic childhood trauma—particularly interpersonal, intentional, and/or chronic experiences—is associated with greater risk of substance dependence, PTSD, PTSS, depression, anxiety, and social withdrawal.

In fact, we’ve been talking about the long-term effects throughout this entire article. The impacts are numerous, varied, and different for every human.

The important thing is that those effects can be lessened and reversed. Come learn about the modalities we offer to help you get relief from past trauma and start feeling more in control.