Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental condition that can develop after experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event. Not every traumatic event causes PTSD. What is important is how the person is supported after the traumatic event (shock).

This article examines how traumatic experiences lead to the development of PTSD and how body psychotherapy can help overcome PTSD symptoms.

Traumatic Events and PTSD

Physical Activation in Response to an Event

Biologically, the goal of high activation is to mobilise a lot of energy to ensure survival. The physical response consists of high levels of autonomic nervous system arousal for fight or flight and then return to a safe environment. Safety consists above all in physical survival and good social contact with safe people.

• Escape – The person would flee to safety and in the process of fleeing (running away) would use up the energy.
• Combat – Alternatively, the energy could be expended in combat, even after which the person could return to safety.

How Trauma Manifests itself Physically

When the shock energy remains bound in the body, the body stores the memory of its reaction to the traumatic event. The danger to the body thus continues and the nervous system remains on constant alert, muscles may stay stuck in a state of tension of flaccidity. The reaction to this is symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (trauma symptoms).

This is often the case for people in the modern world. If flight or fight is not possible, the survival energies are not used. At the same time, there is often a lack of a broader social network to absorb the shock, since close relatives are often affected themselves.

Animals living in nature are less likely to be traumatised. On the one hand, they live (without culture and technology) closer to the typical dangers to which their body was exposed in the history of evolution, which means that prey animals often fall victim to predators (and are not saved). If the animal can free itself from the situation, the high traumatic energy will actually be discharged in flight or fight, or physically tremble after waking up from immobility. The animal then returns to the safe pack (and not to the apartment / nuclear family).

If the high activation in the shock event cannot be used up or dissipated in a safe environment, the stress gets stuck in the body.

Example: Car Accident

First of all, there is a physical trauma that leads to physical injuries. Modern medicine works wonders in saving lives and treating the body, but psychological traumatisation can still occur:

• It is not possible to run away or fight with the car, the accident is completely unexpected.
• The defensive movements (e.g. protection from the impact) are often not yet complete.
• During patient transport, the body is immobilised, the high physiological energy cannot be discharged through movement.
• During treatment in the hospital, there is often no loving, safe person present and a timely feeling of safe contact is not possible.

Therefore, sometimes the traumatic energy remains stored in the body. This can then manifest itself in symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (e.g. high arousal, sleep disturbances, recurring memories and avoidance of the situation).

Example: Hospitalisation in Childhood

When children are hospitalised, the real problem is often the lack of a loving parent or other caregiver. The child remains alone in the hospital, possibly with a serious illness or after an accident.

• In this situation, the child could develop a strong fear of being abandoned.
• Acting out the high activation state of fear of abandonment is not possible for the child because a tantrum would lead to further rejection by the hospital staff.
• This leaves the child alone in its traumatisation and it is not possible to return to the secure attachment in the near future.

As a result, trust maybe lost to the parents who supposedly left the child alone. Such early traumas can affect relationships with people at large and overshadow beliefs about themselves (“I’m not worth it”) or the world (“the world is cruel”) decades later. On the physical level, symptoms of an overactive nervous system often manifest themselves (e.g. high blood pressure, heart problems, etc.)

Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are the after-effects of unresolved shock in the body and nervous system.

How Body Psychotherapy Can Help Overcome Trauma

Body Psychotherapy can support working with PTSD without having to endlessly talk about the experience and without reliving the pain of the trauma. Body psychotherapeutic methods such as Bodynamic® and Somatic Experiencing® aim to support processing trauma stored in the body. This bodily integration allows a new perspective on the traumatic events. This can help reduce symptoms such as flashbacks, nightmares and anxiety.

Overview

Body Psychotherapy techniques work with the following steps to enable the release trauma from the body:

Safety, Calming & Managing PTSD Symptoms

• Effects of Trauma
  Post-traumatic stress occurs when an overwhelming event exceeds the mind and body’s natural capacity to cope. Symptoms include:
  • A loss of safety: Trauma can deeply our natural sense of safety and our embodied sense of self. The body may no longer feel like a secure place to inhabit, either because it was unable to protect us during the traumatic event, or because it now carries pain, tension, or injury.
  • Reliving the Experience: Common PTSD symptoms include intrusive memorie, e.g. unwanted thoughts, vivid flashbacks, or distressing nightmares. These symptoms draw us back into the event.
  • High level of Alertness: Instead of gradually calming over time, the nervous system remains stuck in a high-alert state. The body remains primed for danger, leading to persistent hypervigilance, exaggerated startle responses, irritability, and difficulty relaxing. Even ordinary sounds or situations can trigger intense fear or physical tension, as the nervous system continues to react as though the threat has not passed.
• Approach in Body-Psychotherapy:
  • The first step in body-oriented trauma therapy is helping the nervous system settle so that a sense of internal safety can begin to form.
  • Furthermore, learning practical coping strategies (e.g. grounding, breathing, and sensory techniques) can help to reduce the intensity of PTSD symptoms like flashbacks, intrusive memories, and sudden surges of fear.
  • At the same time, therapy also focuses on strengthening external safety. This may mean identifying places, routines, and relationships that feel genuinely supportive, and gradually increasing contact with people and environments that foster stability and calm.

Strengthening the Body Ego – Boundaries, Centering & Sense of Reality

• Effects of Trauma:
  • Violated boundaries: When our physical or emotional boundaries were disregarded or invaded, it can leave us unsure where our limits are or how to assert them.
  • Loss of inner center: Trust in our own impulses, intuition, and inner guidance may weaken. We may feel scattered, empty, or disconnected from who we were before.
  • A shaken sense of reality: Trauma often shatters our previous understanding of the world (“How could this happen?”), leaving us ungrounded and disconnected from our former sense of stability.
• Approach in Body-Psychotherapy
  • Body psychotherapy works gently and gradually to rebuild these capacities. Through mindful movement, grounding practices, breath awareness, and boundary-focused exercises, we cultivate a renewed sense of presence in the body. Over time, this restores body awareness, strengthens the felt sense of personal boundaries, and helps us reconnect with a stable inner center.

Awakening the Body – Get Healthy Energy and Tension in the Body

• Effects of Trauma
  • As part of the trauma, our nervous system or part of our body may have given up. The result are individual flaccid muscles or overall lack of energy. This is a protective response to impending unavoidable danger when fighting, fleeing, or negotiating is no longer possible.
• Approach in Body-Psychotherapy
  • During body psychotherapy, the nervous system can be awakened to bring it back into balance. Collapsed muscles are gently encouraged to become active again.
  • This enables the next step, the biological completion of movements or states of activation.

Biological Completion – Body Movements & Nervous System Response

• Effects of Trauma
  • The physiological response to the shock (muscle tension, high nervous system activation) follows a specific pattern that is sometimes disrupted. – In this case, the trauma gets stuck in the body.
• Approach in Body-Psychotherapy
  • These sequences can be completed in body psychotherapy. – Be it by releasing the activation of the nervous system (slowly bit by bit or by fast movements like running away from fear) or by completing the protective movements.

Repositioning toward Life and Post-Traumatic Growth

• Effects of Trauma
  • Focusing on trauma symptoms and past events narrows our perspective – we stay stuck in the past.
  • As a result, the challenges, choices, and possibilities of the present moment can feel remote and difficult to fully engage.
  • Trauma makes it challenging to envision a future that is not defined by what happened in the past.
• Approach in Body-Psychotherapy
  • By reconnecting with bodily sensations, natural impulses, and emerging desires, we begin to re-learn how to trust our inner signals. This helps us make decisions based on what we genuinely need and want, rather than on fear or avoidance.
  • This allows to reclaim a sense of agency, recognizing that we can shape our lives, set meaningful goals, and respond to opportunities with increasing confidence.

Ultimately, trauma therapy aims to promote the conditions for post-traumatic growth: developing one’s own identity, discovering new strengths, and finding a deeper meaning in life.