How to Safely Release Trauma Stored in the Body
To release trauma from the body safely means working gradually and gently with the nervous system rather than forcing a breakthrough. Somatic approaches, breathwork, movement, and energy-based modalities all offer ways to help the body process what the mind alone cannot resolve. Consistency, a sense of safety, and qualified support make the greatest difference to long-term healing.
Why does trauma get stored in the body in the first place?
Trauma becomes stored in the body because the nervous system prioritises survival over resolution. When an experience overwhelms our capacity to process it, the body freezes incomplete stress responses in place, holding tension, bracing patterns and emotional charge in muscles, fascia and the organs themselves. These stored responses can linger for years, long after the original event has passed.
Dr Peter Levine, the developer of Somatic Experiencing, observed that animals in the wild routinely discharge stress through shaking and trembling after a threatening encounter. Humans, shaped by social conditioning that tells us to stay still and composed, often suppress that same discharge. The energy has nowhere to go, so it settles into the body as chronic pain, anxiety, digestive difficulty, fatigue or emotional numbness.
This is not a character flaw or a sign that something is fundamentally broken. It is the nervous system doing exactly what it was designed to do: keep you alive. The work of healing is simply giving that stored energy a safe path out.
What are the most effective ways to release trauma from the body?
The most effective ways to release trauma from the body combine nervous system regulation with a felt sense of safety. Somatic movement, conscious breathwork, yoga therapy, and energy healing modalities such as the Emotion Code and Body Code are widely used approaches, each working at a different layer of the body’s held experience. No single method suits everyone, and gentle titration (working in small, manageable doses) is key.
Here is a closer look at several well-regarded approaches:
Somatic movement and yoga therapy. Slow, mindful movement invites the body to complete interrupted stress cycles. Yoga therapy, in particular, is tailored to the individual rather than delivered as a generic class, making it a genuinely therapeutic tool rather than purely a fitness practice. Poses that open the hips and the chest are often where held emotion surfaces, and a skilled yoga therapist will guide you to stay present with sensation without overwhelm.
Breathwork. Conscious regulation of the breath directly influences the vagus nerve, which governs the body’s shift between the sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (rest and digest) states. Even simple practices like extended exhale breathing (inhaling for four counts and exhaling for six to eight) can begin to soften chronic tension over time.
Energy healing: Emotion Code and Body Code. These are modalities that work with the premise that unresolved emotional experiences create energetic imprints in the body, what practitioners call trapped emotions. The Emotion Code, developed by Dr Bradley Nelson, uses muscle testing to identify and release these imprints one at a time. The Body Code takes this further, addressing imbalances across multiple body systems: energies, circuits, toxins, pathogens, structural issues and nutrition. Many people find that sessions produce a noticeable lightening of emotional weight, often around experiences that felt too big or too old to approach through talking alone.
Holistic counselling. Pairing body-based work with reflective conversation helps integrate what surfaces during somatic or energy sessions. When the body releases something, the mind often needs space to make sense of the shift. Holistic counselling holds that space with warmth rather than clinical distance.
What should you be careful of when trying to release stored trauma?
When trying to release stored trauma, the most important thing to be careful of is moving faster than your nervous system can integrate. Approaches that push for dramatic catharsis or attempt to re-live traumatic memories in vivid detail can re-traumatise rather than heal. Working within your window of tolerance, the zone where you feel activated but not overwhelmed, is the foundation of safe trauma work.
A few things worth keeping in mind:
Avoid flooding. Going too deep too quickly, whether in breathwork, body-based therapy or energy work, can leave you feeling destabilised for days afterward. A good practitioner will pace the work to your capacity, not their timetable.
Watch for spiritual bypassing. This is the pattern of using healing practices to avoid feeling difficult emotions rather than moving through them. Energy and holistic modalities work best when they complement genuine self-awareness, not replace it.
Stay anchored in professional support. Complementary modalities like the Body Code are not a substitute for medical or psychiatric care. If you are working through significant trauma, maintaining a relationship with a qualified mental-health professional alongside energy healing sessions is a sound and responsible approach.
Rest is part of the process. After any session that touches deep material, the body needs time to integrate. Gentle walks, warm baths, hydration, and quiet time without screens support the integration window.
How does the Body Code support trauma release specifically?
The Body Code supports trauma release by identifying the specific energetic imprints a person’s body is ready to let go of in any given session, rather than applying a one-size-fits-all protocol. Using muscle testing as a form of biofeedback, a practitioner works through a structured map of possible imbalances until the body indicates what is most relevant right now.
Trapped emotions, which are a central focus of this work, are often linked to specific life events: a loss, a betrayal, a period of sustained stress, or even experiences inherited from ancestors (what Dr Nelson refers to as inherited trapped emotions). Releasing these imprints does not erase memory, but many clients describe a reduction in the emotional charge attached to a memory, a sense of the body feeling lighter, more spacious, or more at ease in situations that previously triggered a strong reaction.
Because sessions can be conducted remotely via video call or even by proxy, Body Code work is accessible to people who are housebound, live in rural areas, or simply find it easier to process in their own environment. Sessions at Zoe Bentley Healing are offered online across Australia, meeting you wherever you are.
What does a trauma release journey actually look like over time?
A trauma release journey over time looks less like a dramatic single moment and more like a gradual softening: a steadily growing capacity to feel safe in the body, quieter reactivity to old triggers, and an increased sense of being at home in yourself. Most people notice small shifts first, a night of deeper sleep, a conversation that goes better than expected, a physical tension that has simply stopped being there.
The timeline varies widely. Some people notice meaningful shifts within a handful of sessions. Others are working through layers accumulated over decades, and the process unfolds across months. What matters most is not speed but direction: consistently moving toward greater ease, greater connection, and greater trust in your own body.
Healing is not linear. There will be days when old feelings resurface, and that is a sign of processing, not failure. The most useful thing you can build is a toolkit of gentle practices that help you return to your own steadiness when the waves come: a few minutes of breathwork, a short walk, a session with a practitioner who knows how to hold space without rushing you.
If you are ready to take a step toward releasing what the body has been carrying, Book a Body Code session with Zoe Bentley Healing to support trauma release.