Somatic Experiencing and Energy Work: Trauma Stored in the Body

BY NICOLE LAU

"The body keeps the score." This phrase, from trauma researcher Bessel van der Kolk, captures a fundamental truth: trauma isn't just stored in your mind or memories—it's stored in your body.

Your muscles hold tension from the fight you couldn't finish. Your nervous system stays stuck in hypervigilance from the danger that's long past. Your fascia remembers the impact, the violation, the freeze response.

Talk therapy can help you understand your trauma. But to truly heal it, you need to work with the body. This is where somatic experiencing (a body-based trauma therapy) and energy work (chakra healing, Reiki, etc.) come together.

This is your complete guide to understanding trauma in the body and healing it through somatic and energetic approaches.

How Trauma Gets Stored in the Body

The Survival Response

When you experience trauma, your body activates survival responses: fight, flight, or freeze.

• Fight: Your body prepares to fight off the threat (adrenaline, muscle tension, aggression)
• Flight: Your body prepares to run (increased heart rate, energy to legs, panic)
• Freeze: When fight or flight aren't possible, you freeze (immobilization, dissociation, shutdown)

The problem: If you can't complete the survival response (you can't fight back, you can't escape, you're forced to freeze), that energy gets stuck in your body.

Incomplete Survival Responses

Animals in the wild shake off trauma after a threat passes. Humans don't.

When a gazelle escapes a lion, it literally shakes and trembles to discharge the survival energy. Then it goes back to grazing, trauma-free.

Humans suppress this discharge. We're told "calm down," "don't cry," "be strong." So the survival energy stays trapped in our bodies—sometimes for decades.

Where Trauma Lives in the Body

• Nervous system: Stuck in fight/flight/freeze, hypervigilance, dysregulation
• Muscles: Chronic tension, especially jaw, shoulders, hips, psoas
• Fascia: Connective tissue holds trauma, creates restrictions
• Organs: Digestive issues, heart problems, reproductive issues
• Energy body: Chakra blockages, aura tears, energetic armor

What Is Somatic Experiencing?

Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a body-based trauma therapy developed by Peter Levine.

SE works by:

• Tracking body sensations (not just talking about trauma)
• Completing incomplete survival responses
• Discharging trapped survival energy
• Restoring nervous system regulation
• Renegotiating trauma through the body

Key principle: You don't need to retell the trauma story. You work with the body's sensations and responses.

How SE Works

1. Resourcing: Establish safety and resources before touching trauma
2. Titration: Work with small amounts of trauma at a time (not flooding)
3. Pendulation: Move between activation (trauma) and settling (resources)
4. Discharge: Allow the body to release trapped survival energy (shaking, trembling, crying, yawning)
5. Completion: Complete the survival response that was interrupted

Energy Work for Trauma

Energy work addresses trauma in the energy body—chakras, aura, meridians.

How Trauma Affects the Energy Body

• Chakra blockages: Trauma blocks specific chakras (see Article 1)
• Aura tears: Trauma can tear or weaken the aura
• Energetic armor: The body creates protective energetic shields
• Cord attachments: Trauma can create energetic cords to perpetrators or traumatic events
• Soul fragmentation: Parts of the soul leave during trauma (see Article 2)

Energy Healing Modalities for Trauma

• Reiki: Channeling universal energy to heal and balance
• Chakra balancing: Clearing and restoring chakra flow
• Cord cutting: Releasing energetic attachments
• Aura repair: Healing tears and strengthening boundaries
• Soul retrieval: Calling back fragmented soul parts (shamanic work)

Integrating Somatic Experiencing and Energy Work

SE and energy work are complementary. Together, they address trauma at multiple levels.

SE Addresses:

• Nervous system dysregulation
• Incomplete survival responses
• Physical body sensations and tension
• Trauma stored in muscles and fascia

Energy Work Addresses:

• Chakra blockages and imbalances
• Energetic imprints of trauma
• Soul-level wounds and fragmentation
• Spiritual/energetic protection and boundaries

Together They Provide:

• Complete body-mind-spirit healing
• Physical discharge + energetic clearing
• Nervous system regulation + chakra balancing
• Grounded, embodied, holistic trauma recovery

Somatic Practices for Trauma Release

The Shake and Discharge Practice

Allow your body to shake and release trapped survival energy (10-15 minutes).

1. Stand or lie down
2. Start gentle movement: Bounce, sway, or shake your hands
3. Let it build: Allow the shaking to spread through your body
4. Don't control it: Let your body shake however it wants (this might look weird—that's okay)
5. Allow sounds: Crying, yawning, sighing—let it out
6. Slow down gradually: When your body feels complete, slow the movement
7. Rest: Lie down and rest afterward

Note: This can bring up emotions. That's normal. Let them flow.

The Psoas Release

The psoas muscle (hip flexor) holds trauma, especially freeze response.

Gentle psoas release (15 minutes):

1. Lie on your back, knees bent, feet flat
2. Place a small pillow or rolled towel under your lower back
3. Breathe deeply into your belly
4. Visualize your psoas softening and releasing
5. Stay for 10-15 minutes
6. Move slowly when you get up

The Grounding and Orienting Practice

Helps regulate the nervous system and bring you into the present (5 minutes).

1. Sit or stand, feet on the ground
2. Feel your feet on the floor (press down gently)
3. Look around the room slowly
4. Name what you see: "I see a window. I see a plant. I see a chair."
5. Notice: "I am here. I am safe right now."

The Pendulation Practice

Move between activation (trauma) and settling (resources) to build resilience.

1. Find a resource: Think of something that feels safe/good (person, place, memory)
2. Feel the resource: Notice how your body feels (warmth, relaxation, openness)
3. Touch the trauma gently: Think briefly about the traumatic event
4. Notice activation: Feel the body's response (tension, heat, constriction)
5. Return to resource: Go back to the safe feeling
6. Repeat: Pendulate back and forth, building capacity

Energy Practices for Trauma Release

Chakra Clearing for Trauma

Clear trauma from affected chakras (20 minutes).

1. Identify which chakra holds the trauma (see Article 1)
2. Sit comfortably, place hands on that chakra
3. Visualize the chakra's color (e.g., red for root, orange for sacral)
4. See the trauma as dark, heavy energy in the chakra
5. Breathe in light, breathe out darkness
6. Visualize the chakra clearing and brightening
7. Affirm: "I release this trauma. This chakra is clear and balanced."

Cord Cutting Ritual

Release energetic cords to traumatic events or people (15 minutes).

1. Sit in meditation, ground yourself
2. Visualize the person or event you're cutting cords from
3. See the energetic cords connecting you to them (like ropes or threads)
4. Call in Archangel Michael or your guides for support
5. Visualize cutting the cords with a sword of light
6. Say: "I release these cords. I reclaim my energy. I am free."
7. Seal your energy field with protective light

Aura Repair Visualization

Heal tears in your aura from trauma (10 minutes).

1. Sit or lie down, close your eyes
2. Visualize your aura (energy field around your body)
3. Notice any tears, holes, or weak spots
4. Visualize golden healing light filling and repairing the tears
5. See your aura becoming whole, strong, and radiant
6. Affirm: "My aura is healed. My boundaries are strong. I am protected."

Combining Somatic and Energy Work

The Integrated Trauma Release Practice (30 minutes)

1. Ground (5 min): Feet on floor, orient to room, feel safe
2. Resource (5 min): Connect to something that feels good
3. Somatic work (10 min): Shake, release, pendulate between trauma and resource
4. Energy work (10 min): Clear affected chakra, cut cords, repair aura
5. Integration (5 min): Rest, breathe, allow the healing to settle

Working with a Practitioner

When to Seek Professional Help

• Severe trauma (abuse, assault, combat, etc.)
• Complex PTSD
• Dissociation or freeze response
• Self-practice feels too overwhelming

Finding the Right Practitioner

Somatic therapist:

• Certified in Somatic Experiencing (SE), Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, or similar
• Trauma-informed and experienced
• You feel safe with them

Energy healer:

• Trained in trauma-informed energy work
• Ethical, boundaried, doesn't make false promises
• Refers to therapists when appropriate

The Body's Wisdom

Your body knows how to heal. It just needs support and permission.

When you work somatically and energetically:

• You complete what was interrupted
• You discharge what was trapped
• You restore what was broken
• You reclaim what was lost

The Deeper Truth

Trauma lives in your body until you release it. You can talk about it for years, understand it intellectually, but until you work with the body, it stays stuck.

Somatic experiencing and energy work give your body what it needs: the chance to complete the survival response, discharge the trapped energy, and heal at the deepest levels.

Your body has been holding this for you. Now you can help it let go.

Next: Sexual Trauma and the Sacral Chakra—reclaiming your power.