Trauma: why your body reacts as if it is still happening

You know, logically, that it is over. It happened years ago, or months ago, and you are safe now, and you can say so with complete conviction. And still, a smell, a sound, a particular kind of light, and your body is back there. Heart racing, breath gone, the whole system braced for something that already finished. Or you go numb, or you avoid anything that might bring it back, and the avoiding is quietly shaping your life.

I want to explain why knowing it is over does not help, because the explanation is also the reason EMDR works.

Memory stored in the wrong way

Most memories get filed. Something happens, the brain processes it, usually over the following days and in sleep, and it becomes a memory in the past tense: something that happened, with a date on it, that you can recall without reliving. The processing takes the emotional charge out and files the event where it belongs.

Trauma can interrupt that filing. When something is overwhelming enough, the processing does not complete. The memory stays raw: stored with its original sensations, emotions and physical state intact, and without the date stamp that would mark it as past. So when something triggers it, the brain replays the event in the present tense, with the body's alarm attached, instead of retrieving a record. That is a flashback, and it is why your body reacts as if it is still happening. As far as that part of the brain is concerned, it is.

It is a memory stored in the wrong way, not a character flaw or a weakness, and it can be reprocessed.

Why talking about it is not enough

You may have talked about it, perhaps many times, and found that understanding it did not change what your body does. The part of you that understands is not the part that is firing the alarm. The raw memory sits in a different system, and that system does not update through conversation. It updates through processing, which is what did not happen at the time.

What EMDR does

EMDR, Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing, is recommended by NICE for post-traumatic stress disorder. Instead of talking through the trauma in detail week after week, it uses bilateral stimulation, typically guided eye movements, while the memory is briefly held in mind. This appears to help the brain do what it could not at the time: process the memory, take the charge out, and file it as past. The memory does not disappear; it becomes something that happened rather than something that is happening.

I am accredited with EMDR Europe, and if you want the method itself, the eight phases, what a session looks like, and what it treats beyond PTSD, there is a page on EMDR as a therapy.

You do not have to retell it

EMDR does not require a blow-by-blow retelling. You hold the memory in mind while your brain does the processing. You will say far less about what happened than you fear, and you are never asked to narrate it in detail to prove anything.

The ground first

We do not begin with the memory. The early sessions are assessment and stabilisation: understanding your history, building coping resources, and making sure you feel steady enough to do the work. Reprocessing only starts once you are prepared. A single-event trauma can resolve in a handful of sessions; longer histories take longer, and we review progress openly throughout.

One event or many

Trauma can be years of difficult experiences that built up, a childhood, a relationship, a job, as well as the single catastrophe. EMDR works with both, though the shape of the work differs, and where the history is long, the stabilisation phase is longer too. Online EMDR is well established, and screen-based bilateral stimulation works well.

If the past will not stay in the past, there is more on how I use EMDR for trauma, and the first sessions are about building the ground.