Healing Trauma: Why It Stays Locked in the Body - and How to Finally Release It
Trauma isn’t just a bad memory. It’s a disruption that lives in the body - shaping your emotions, your relationships, and your sense of what’s safe. Becca Williams - emotions therapist and plant medicine facilitator - works with what’s underneath.
Becca Williams
Emotions Therapist & Registered Dietitian
Published May 19, 2023 | Last Updated October 9, 2026
What trauma actually is
Trauma is not an emotion.
This is one of the most important things to understand – and one of the least talked about.
Trauma is the wound. Difficult emotions – such as anxiety, shame, grief, and anger – are the imprint trauma leaves in the body. Every difficult emotion you’ve been carrying, every pattern that keeps repeating, every reaction that seems bigger than the moment deserves – these are almost always tethered to something that happened. Something the body couldn’t fully process at the time.
Every experience that touches your life leaves an impression. Most impressions are manageable. Trauma is what happens when the impression is too big, too sudden, too much – and the body has no way to process it.
What makes something traumatic? The intensity of the event. The degree of harm. The unexpectedness – a sudden loss, a betrayal, something that came without warning. The emotional charge present in the moment. How often it happened, and for how long. And perhaps most importantly – whether you had any way to understand what was happening to you.
The subconscious is extraordinarily intelligent. It learned exactly what it needed to learn to keep you safe. The problem isn’t that it’s wrong – it’s that it’s working from old data. For example: avoiding all intimacy because of childhood abuse. Staying small to avoid the danger that came with being visible. Keeping the volume down so nothing can hurt you again. These were brilliant adaptations – but running them automatically, in situations that no longer require them, is what keeps you stuck. My Emotional Liberation method is about updating the system with new information.
How Emotional Liberation works with trauma
Trauma lives beneath the reach of words. You can narrate the story a hundred times without the body releasing what it’s been holding. That’s not a failure of effort – it’s a mismatch of approach.
The body stores trauma as sensation, as activation, as automatic response. It needs to be met at that level – not just understood intellectually.
But we don’t start in the body. We start with awareness.
The first step is cognitive – meaning we start with the thinking brain.
And it’s more substantial than most people expect.
We take a deep dive into each of the seven difficult emotions – what they are, how they work, what they’re signaling, and why they showed up in your life in the first place. Most of us were never given this education. We were told to suck it up. To stop being so sensitive. To smile and get on with it. So the emotional vocabulary simply never developed.
This is remedial work – and I mean that in the best possible sense. We’re filling in what should have been there all along.
The thinking brain wants to understand. And we let it. But we don’t put it in charge. Your deep inner knowing is what leads. The ego gets a seat at the table. Just not at the head of it.
Once you have that map, the deeper experiential work becomes possible.
Traumas and the patterns they create are not your enemies. They are your greatest teachers. That’s the orientation of this work – every pattern holds information, and when you learn to read it, you learn what you need to heal.
Three things make that possible:
- Psycho-Spiritual Inquiry – guided inner exploration that goes beneath the surface story to the emotional imprints underneath. Not re-traumatizing. Not forced recall. Getting underneath – gently, with support – to what the body is still holding.
- Expressive and active movement – the body needs to complete what it started. Moving expressively – rooted in ancient Eastern esoteric practices that have worked with the body for thousands of years – helps the body release what trauma stored and never processed.
- Conscious plant medicine – used with clear intention, proper preparation, and skilled facilitation, plant medicine can soften the protective layers that have been keeping the traumatic material out of reach. More on this below.
In practice: I help you learn to read what your emotions are signaling and where they’re coming from. Then you experientially work with my Psycho-Spiritual Inquiry, expressive movement, and specific breath support – releasing what’s been stored in the tissues, processing it consciously, and letting it go. The body knows how to heal. It just needs the right conditions and a trustworthy guide.
What the research says
An estimated 70% of adults worldwide will experience at least one traumatic event in their lifetime. While most respond with resilience, a significant minority go on to develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). And standard treatment, while effective for many, leaves a substantial number of people with persistent symptoms.[1]
A 2024 meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials found that practices integrating intentional movement with inner awareness consistently reduce anxiety and depression, pointing toward the body as a missing piece in emotional healing.[2]
“Every experience that touches your life leaves an impression. Trauma is what happens when the impression is too big, too sudden, too much – and the body has no way to process it. This work teaches the body how to finally let it go.”
— Becca Williams
Plant medicine and trauma – what’s worth knowing
Both psilocybin and cannabis have a long history of traditional ceremonial use for healing – and now the clinical research is beginning to confirm what practitioners have observed for years.
Psilocybin
Psilocybin temporarily quiets the default mode network , the part of the brain caught in rigid loops of self-narrative, self-criticism, and threat assessment. When those patterns loosen, what trauma locked away becomes more accessible.[3]
A Phase 2 clinical trial published in 2025 investigated single-dose psilocybin for PTSD symptoms, finding it to be safe and well-tolerated with improvements observed out to 12 weeks.[4]
A real-world study of 115 patients receiving psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy in routine clinical care in Switzerland found significant improvements in mental health outcomes across multiple conditions.[5]
Cannabis
Cannabis, held ceremonially and with clear emotional intention in a supported setting with a skilled facilitator, can open access to the difficult emotions that have been defended against for years.
Shame in particular – that deep sense of being defective or being the cause of what happened – often sits at the very core of trauma. With intention, preparation, and skilled support, cannabis becomes a powerful ally. Without those conditions, it can amplify hypervigilance or avoidance.
A 2025 observational study of 269 PTSD patients found significant improvements in symptoms, anxiety, sleep, and quality of life across 18 months of follow-up.[6]
When plant medicine is included in this work, dosing, contraindications, preparation, and integration are all part of what we cover together. You’re never going in unprepared.
Where healing meets real life
Trauma doesn’t just live in the past. It lives in how you move through the present.
In how you respond when someone gets too close. In the relationships you attract and the ones you avoid. In the way your body tightens in certain rooms, around certain people, in certain kinds of silences.
One of the things that happens in this work – your self-awareness starts to outpace your outside life. You see the pattern clearly. But the relationship, the dynamic, the role you’ve played – those don’t update overnight.
This is what some of my students have come to call the shaken snowglobe. The inner landscape is shifting. Old defenses are loosening. But the outer life – the relationships, the dynamics, the roles you’ve played – hasn’t caught up yet. That gap can feel destabilizing. Even frightening.
A lot of healing work ends right here – at the insight. Before the hard part
We don’t stop there.
Once the emotional root starts to move, we work on what that means for how you actually live. How to set a boundary with someone who’s used to having none. How to stay present in intimacy when every instinct says leave. How to trust your own perceptions again after years of doubting them.
The inner work opens the door. Aligning your outer life with your inner awakening – that’s where lasting transformation lives.
Sources
- Benjet, C., Bromet, E., Karam, E. G., Kessler, R. C., McLaughlin, K. A., Ruscio, A. M., Shahly, V., Stein, D. J., Petukhova, M., Hill, E., & Koenen, K. C. (2016). The epidemiology of traumatic event exposure worldwide: results from the World Mental Health Survey Consortium. Psychological Medicine, 46(2), 327-343. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291715001981
- Dong, Y., Zhang, X., Zhao, R., Cao, L., Kuang, X., & Yao, J. (2024). The effects of mind-body exercise on anxiety and depression in older adults: a systematic review and network meta-analysis. Frontiers in psychiatry, 15, 1305295. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1305295
- Carhart-Harris, R. L. et al. (2012). Neural correlates of the psychedelic state as determined by fMRI. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(6), 2138-2143. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1119598109
- McGowan, N. M. et al. (2025). Investigating the safety and tolerability of single-dose psilocybin for post-traumatic stress disorder. Journal of Psychopharmacology. https://doi.org/10.1177/02698811251362390
- Aboulafia-Brakha, T., Buchard, A., Mabilais, C., Alaux, S., Amberger, C., Furtado, L., Seragnoli, F., Briefer, J. F., Thorens, G., Sabé, M., Szczesniak, L., Iuga, R., Zullino, D., & Penzenstadler, L. (2026). Real-world effectiveness and safety of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy: Outcomes from a large-scale compassionate use cohort in Switzerland. Psychiatry Research, 358, 116992. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2026.116992
- Datta, A., Erridge, S., Warner-Levy, J., Clarke, E., McLachlan, K., Coomber, R., Asghar, M., Bhoskar, U., Crews, M., De Angelis, A., Imran, M., Kamal, F., Korb, L., Mwimba, G., Sachdeva-Mohan, S., Shaya, G., Rucker, J. J., & Sodergren, M. H. (2025). UK medical cannabis registry: an updated clinical outcomes analysis of patients with post-traumatic stress disorder. Expert review of neurotherapeutics, 25(5), 599–607. https://doi.org/10.1080/14737175.2025.2490539
Common Questions
Questions people often ask
How long does emotional healing take?+
It depends on what you’re healing from and how long it’s been running. Some people feel significant shifts early in the work, something opens that’s been closed for years. For others, particularly those healing from early trauma or long-held patterns of Shame or Depression, the work is slower and more layered.
What I can tell you is that healing is not linear. And the capacity for change doesn’t have an expiration date. Emotional fluency is a skill. It builds with practice, patience, and the right support. Trust the process and trust yourself.
Can this work help me prepare for a journey I haven’t taken yet?+
Yes, and in my experience, preparation is where the real leverage is. Coming before the journey means you build the foundation first. The Emotional Liberation method conditions the nervous system, builds emotional fluency, and helps you develop the inner vocabulary to work with what the medicine shows you. You go in ready to receive it. And more importantly, ready to hold it afterward.
And if you’ve already journeyed, that foundation can still be built. It’s never too late to do the work that makes the experience mean something.
How long does it take to heal from trauma?+
It depends – and honesty matters here more than reassurance
For some people, the shift happens relatively quickly. For others – particularly those carrying complex, layered, or developmental trauma – the work takes longer. The deeper the roots, the more patient and consistent the process needs to be.
What doesn’t change is the body’s capacity to heal. That doesn’t have an expiration date. What’s been stored can be released
The Emotional Liberation work harmonizes with your needs, whether there are areas in your life that simply need tending to or there are deeper issues you would like to explore in order to process and release.
One of the most powerful aspects of this work is that it happens in community.
Group masterclasses, retreats, and ceremonial gatherings create a dynamic that accelerates healing in ways one-to-one work simply can’t replicate – people learn from one another, and there is profound medicine in witnessing and being witnessed.
If you’re wondering whether this is the right fit for you, the best next step is a complimentary Discovery Session . You’ll complete a client intake form first, then we’ll meet on Zoom to see if we’re a good fit.
I don’t feel much of anything. Is that a problem if I’m functioning fine?+
The fact that you’re asking the question suggests something in you already knows the answer. That recognition is worth paying attention to.
Life isn’t meant to be endured. It’s meant to be felt. Emotional numbness keeps you just functional enough while the real cost stays invisible: a quiet sense of meaninglessness, relationships that feel surface-level, a life that looks right but doesn’t feel like yours.
If you’re wondering whether working with me is a good fit, the best next step is a complimentary Discovery Session . You’ll complete a client intake form first, then we’ll meet on Zoom to explore what’s possible.
How quickly do people notice a difference?+
The timeline varies. Some people feel a significant shift early in the work. For others – particularly those for whom trauma has been a lifelong companion, woven through early experiences and repeated wounds – the work is slower, more layered, and asks for more patience. That’s not a limitation. That’s the nature of healing something that runs this deep.
What I can tell you is that the capacity for change doesn’t have an expiration date.
If you’re wondering whether working with me is a good fit for you, the best next step is a complimentary Discovery Session . You’ll complete a client intake form first, then we’ll meet on Zoom to explore what’s possible.
How does plant medicine support nervous system regulation?+
Plant medicine is always optional – and when it is included, many find that it can be a potent tool. Used with clear intention and skilled support, it can accelerate access to the emotional material that’s been defended against. Cannabis and psilocybin are the medicines I work with – and we cover together everything you need to know before going in.
How long before I notice a difference?+
Many people feel a significant shift early in the work, a quality of stillness, relief, or release they may not have experienced before. But the work is not only about feeling better in the moment. It also involves developing a clearer cognitive understanding of your emotions: what you are feeling, where it comes from, how it affects your nervous system, and the patterns that keep it in place.
Over time, with consistent practice, that understanding becomes more embodied. Eleven minutes a day is enough to begin building new neural pathways and training the nervous system to respond differently. The practice builds on itself. What starts as relief in a session can gradually become greater awareness of your emotional patterns, more choice in how you respond, and a different way of moving through your life.
I understand my emotions intellectually. Why can’t I seem to change them?+
Because understanding and feeling are two different things – and healing happens at the level of feeling.
The nervous system runs its patterns independently of what the thinking mind knows. You can have complete insight into why you react a certain way and still find the same reactions arising. That’s not a failure of intelligence, it’s a description of how the nervous system works. That’s why the Emotional Liberation work engages the nervous system directly – through movement, breath, sound, and psycho-spiritual inquiry.
If you’re wondering whether this work is a good fit for you, the best next step is a complimentary Discovery Session. You’ll complete a client intake form first, then we’ll meet on Zoom to explore what’s possible.
Ready to work with trauma at the root?
Sessions work with the emotional root – through Psycho-Spiritual Inquiry, expressive movement, and conscious plant medicine.
