How Trauma Impacts the Nervous System

Your Nervous System: The Foundation of Safety and Connection

Your nervous system is constantly working behind the scenes to help you survive, connect, and navigate the world around you. It governs your automatic responses—how your heart beats, how you breathe, how alert or calm you feel, and even how safe you feel in relationships.

The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is responsible for these responses and includes two primary branches:

  • The sympathetic nervous system, which mobilizes you for action when there is danger (fight or flight).

  • The parasympathetic nervous system, which helps you rest, digest, and return to safety (via the vagus nerve).

But there’s more nuance. Polyvagal Theory, developed by Dr. Stephen Porges, expands our understanding of the parasympathetic system by introducing three distinct nervous system states that shape how we respond to the world.

The Three Main States of the Nervous System

Ventral Vagal (Social Engagement & Connection)

  • When you feel safe and supported, your ventral vagal state is active.

  • You can engage with others, think clearly, feel grounded, and experience joy or calm.

  • Your body feels regulated—your breathing is steady, your muscles are relaxed, and your emotions are manageable.

Sympathetic Activation (Fight or Flight)

  • When your nervous system detects a potential threat, it shifts into sympathetic arousal.

  • You might feel anxious, restless, angry, panicked, or overwhelmed.

  • Your heart rate increases, your muscles tense, and your focus narrows for survival.

Dorsal Vagal Shutdown (Collapse or Freeze)

  • If a threat feels inescapable or overwhelming, your system may shut down into dorsal vagal response.

  • You might feel numb, disconnected, foggy, helpless, or immobilized.

  • This state can be quiet and invisible on the outside, but inside, it feels like giving up or shutting down.

These states aren’t under conscious control—they’re biological responses meant to protect you. Your nervous system shifts between them automatically based on whether it perceives safety, danger, or life threat.

How Trauma Disrupts the Nervous System

Trauma—especially chronic, developmental, or relational trauma—can condition your nervous system to stay in protective states long after the actual threat has passed. When safety wasn't possible, your body adapted to survive. Over time, this can lead to:

  • Hyperarousal: feeling constantly on edge, easily startled, or always bracing for something bad to happen

  • Hypoarousal: feeling shut down, disconnected, unmotivated, or chronically tired

  • Emotional dysregulation: big swings in mood, difficulty calming down, or feeling emotionally numb

  • Relationship difficulties: trouble trusting others, feeling unsafe even in supportive relationships

  • Physical symptoms: chronic pain, headaches, digestive issues, or fatigue

These aren’t signs of something wrong with you—they’re signs of a nervous system doing its best to keep you safe.

Trauma Therapy Helps Your Nervous System Heal

The good news is that the nervous system can change. With the right support, it can learn new patterns, access regulation, and develop greater capacity for presence and connection.

Trauma-focused therapy works with—not against—your nervous system. Rather than focusing only on thoughts or behaviors, we gently attend to the body’s patterns of survival and help restore balance and flexibility.

Therapy may include:

  • EMDR therapy, to help reprocess traumatic memories and reduce emotional reactivity

  • Somatic and Polyvagal-informed interventions, to increase awareness of your body’s signals and support regulation

  • Parts work, to build compassion for protective inner parts like the inner critic or hypervigilant parts

  • Mindfulness and grounding tools, to reconnect with the present moment and a sense of safety

With time, you may begin to:

  • Spend more time in your ventral vagal state—feeling connected, calm, and confident

  • Recognize and respond to signs of sympathetic or dorsal activation with more choice and self-compassion

  • Reconnect with your body and relationships in a way that feels safe and empowering

Nervous System Healing Is Possible

Trauma doesn't have to define your life. Your nervous system isn't broken—it’s wise and adaptive, and it can learn that it no longer has to live in the past. You can feel more grounded, more present, and more you.

I’m here to support that process with care, gentleness, and attunement.

👉 Schedule a free consultation to see if trauma therapy is the right next step for you.