The Biology of Trauma: How Epigenetics and Neuroplasticity Support Our Path to Healing
Trauma leaves its deep imprint not only on our psyche, but also on our bodies. Early experiences of trauma, especially in childhood, shape the way our brain, nervous system, and even our genes adapt to keep us safe. These adaptations are brilliant survival strategies in the moment, yet they often come with long-term consequences. Later in life, we often find ourselves stuck in states of hypervigilance, may struggle with addiction or chronic illness, experience depression or other symptoms.
This article explores what happens in the body and brain when we experience trauma. It also examines how recent research in epigenetics and neuroplasticity sheds new light on both the impacts of trauma and the possibilities for healing. While the focus is on biological and neurological processes, it cannot be separated from the psychological dimension, i.e. the way trauma shapes our sense of self, our emotions, and our relationships.
What happens when we experience trauma
When our body perceives danger, the nervous system activates different survival responses to protect us. For short-term danger, this system works very well. But when the threat is too overwhelming, or repeated, as in childhood trauma or chronic stress, we can reach a tipping point where we do not have sufficient inner resources for self-regulation and protection.
Consequently, the following is happening:
a) Inside the brain:
The amygdala, our brain’s alarm system, becomes hyperactive. When it senses danger, it triggers the hypothalamus to release stress hormones and activate the autonomic nervous system.
At the same time, the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain which normally helps us regulate our emotions and think clearly, starts to shut down (Fisher, 2021). This ensures that our instinct can act faster than reasoning in a life-threatening moment.
The hippocampus, which integrates our memories into coherent stories, also becomes disrupted. Instead of a continuous narrative, traumatic memories often remain fragmented. Therefore, later in life, we may experience flashes of images, sudden intense emotion, or body sensations that feel as if they are happening now, but have little to do with the present moment (van der Kolk, 2014).
In moments of intense threat, our survival responses shift toward the brainstem (our “reptilian brain”). It controls our automatic fight, flight, freeze, or collapse responses. As this part of the brain does not distinguish past from present, it simply reacts to whatever it perceives as danger. Therefore, a trigger later in life can cause the same feelings and reactions to arise as during the original traumatic event.
The result is that our brain is caught between hyperactivation and shutdown, meaning that we are overwhelmed by our internal alarm signals, while at the same time we are unable to integrate the experience. Therefore, we remain wired for survival and lose the healthy connection to ourselves, others and our environment (Fisher, 2021).
b) The nervous system:
The stress response activates the sympathetic branch from our autonomic nervous system (ANS), which increases our heart rate, quickens breath, tenses muscles, and floods our body with adrenaline (classic fight-or-flight mobilization).
When escaping or resistance is impossible, the parasympathetic part of our nervous system is activated and triggers a freeze response. Consequently, our heart rate slows, our body becomes numb or heavy, and our awareness detaches from what is happening to us (Porges, 2022) to protect ourselves from the unbearable experience.
Over time, if these responses are repeated or unresolved, the nervous system can become dysregulated. We may fluctuate between hyperarousal (anxiety, vigilance, reactivity, agression…) and hypoarousal (numbness, exhaustion, collapse, isolation…), unable to regulate our emotions and bodily sensations.
c) Psychological and emotional consequences
Psychologically, trauma creates a sense of inner fragmentation. Because the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus are shutdown during traumatic events, our memories are not fully integrated. Therefore, past trauma can feel like as something happening now, showing up as flashbacks, body memories, or sudden experiences of fear and panic attacks without an obvious trigger (van der Kolk, 2014).
Emotionally, trauma generates feelings of shame, helplessness, disconnection and loneliness. We may feel cut off from ourselves and others, struggling with trust and safety. Yet these feelings are natural consequences of how our psyche and body respond to overwhelming threat.
Epigenetics: Trauma written in biology
When we experience trauma, it does not just affect our brain, nervous system and psyche, but it can also leave deep imprints in our biology. Epigenetics is the study of how life experiences, including trauma, can influence how our genes are expressed without changing the underlying DNA sequence itself (Cao-Lei et al., 2022). Think of epigenetic processes like switches or dimmers that can turn genes on or off, or adjust how strongly they are active.
Some of the main processes include:
DNA methylation: small chemical tags attach to DNA, usually reducing activity of certain genes.
Histone modification: changes in the proteins that DNA wraps around, which can make genes easier or harder to access.
Non-coding RNA regulation: RNA molecules that do not make proteins but influence whether genes are active or silent.
These processes affect many aspects of our biology. Trauma can leave lasting epigenetic marks on the systems that manage stress hormones, as well as on areas of the brain involved in learning, memory, and flexibility (Cao-Lei et al., 2022; Thumfart et al., 2022). This means that after trauma, it can be harder to regulate stress, process emotions, or adapt to new situations.
Epigenetic changes are also involved in the transmission of trauma effects across generations. Children of people who have experienced severe trauma may inherit altered stress regulation patterns, influenced both by prenatal factors and by parental biology (Yehuda & Lehrner, 2018). Animal studies similarly show that parental stress and caregiving behaviors can shape the biology of offspring through epigenetic modifications.
In short, trauma becomes biologically embedded, influencing systems that govern our survival, stress responses, and cognitive and emotional functioning. Understanding this helps us see trauma not just as a psychological experience but as a biological imprint that is written into the body. Yet because these processes involve switches that can turn on or off, our biology is flexible and responsive.
Healing from a biological perspective
Through trauma-informed therapy, somatic practices, and healthy relational experiences we can slowly build more inner resources for regulation and presence. On a biological level, the healing process is marked by neuroplasticity, which allows our brain to form new connections. At the same time, epigenetic changes can be reversed, for example, by downregulating genes associated with chronic stress (Thumfart et al., 2022; Cao-Lei et al., 2022). In other words, healing is possible due to the incredible flexibility and plasticity of the biology of our bodies.
Healing through awareness and integration
Trauma fragments our psyche (Ruppert, 2019) and parts of us hold the pain, fear, hoplessness or survival responses that never had a chance to be expressed. Based on available research on constellation work and my personal experience with IoPT, I have found a deep understanding of how self-awareness, expression, and embodiment of our internal dynamics and parts are the underlying mechanisms that help us to safely explore, process and integrate trauma and painful experiences.
Moreover, research on other trauma-focused therapies shows that emotional processing and regulation support an increased activity and connectivity in areas of the brain such as the prefrontal cortex (Manthey et al., 2021). This means that as we process our experiences safely, the brain learns to calm its stress response and respond to life with more flexibility and clarity.
Relational and somatic healing
Healing also happens through healthy relationships with other people. When we feel seen, accepted, and understood, our brain registers safety. The prefrontal cortex strengthens its ability to regulate the emotional centers of the brain, and in this way calms overactive survival responses and allows for more openness and trust (Manthey et al., 2021; Peckham, 2023).
These neural changes do not happen in isolation, because the body and brain are in constant dialogue. As the prefrontal cortex learns to regulate the stress response, somatic awareness, grounding practices, and gentle movement can help the autonomic nervous system to discharge stored tension and suppressed bodily sensations. This process supports both nervous system regulation and cellular repair. Studies have shown that effective trauma therapy can lead to changes in DNA methylation in stress-related genes like the glucocorticoid receptor (NR3C1), which plays a key role in regulating the body’s stress system (Wilker et al., 2023).
Energy, frequency, and the quantum field
Quantum physics shows that our cells, thoughts, and emotions all vibrate on certain frequencies as pure energy. From this perspective, we can say that trauma creates density or stagnation in our system, which is an interruption in the natural flow of our life energy and coherence.
When we become more self-aware, release suppressed feelings, and engage in embodied practices, this energetic charge begins to move. Therefore, healing can be described as a process of restoring flow, where energy reorganizes itself, and our body, psyche, and nervous system can slowly return to their natural state of connection.
Our body remembers
All the above discussed layers, i.e. psychological, somatic, relational, and energetic, belong together. Healing cannot be reduced to one dimension, it happens when we address the whole human being.
Unfortunately, our current medical and psychological systems often separate the body from the psyche, focusing primarily on symptoms rather than their deeper roots. This approach overlooks how severely trauma shapes our biology, our genes, and our relational patterns across generations. We urgently need more research and the recognition of integrative and holistic therapeutic approaches that focus on trauma as both a biological and psychological phenomenon that cannot be understood or healed in isolation. The growing evidence from the fields of epigenetics and neuroplasticity invites us to listen more closely to our inherent nature and to the wisdom of the body.
While trauma leaves imprints in our body and psyche, those imprints are dynamic and responsive to change. Our biology itself reflects this truth, because we are wired not only to survive, but also to repair, renew, and evolve. 🌱
✍🏻 Questions for Self-Reflection:
How has reading about the biology of trauma changed the way you understand your body’s reactions or emotional patterns?
In what moments do you notice yourself disconnecting, shutting down, or going into high stress activation, and what might those reactions be protecting you from?
What unspoken stories or experiences might live in your family system, and how might they have shaped your body’s way of relating to safety or connection?
What does your body need more of right now (movement, stillness, touch, rest, expression…)?
If this article resonated with you, I would love to hear your reflections. You are warmly invited to share a comment below or send me a message, your voice and perspective matter! And if you feel called to explore your own healing journey more deeply, I offer deep trauma-sensitive therapy and self-exploration sessions both online and in Oslo. Wherever you are on your path, I am here to support you with care, warmth, and presence. ❤️
Thank you for being here.
With warmth,
Julia
References
Cao-Lei, L., Saumier, D., Fortin, J., & Brunet, A. (2022). A narrative review of the epigenetics of post-traumatic stress disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder treatment. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 13, 857087.
Fisher, J. (2021). Transforming the living legacy of trauma: A workbook for survivors and therapists. New Harbinger Publications.
Manthey, A., Sierk, A., Brakemeier, E.-L., Walter, H., & Daniels, J. K. (2021). Does trauma-focused psychotherapy change the brain? A systematic review of neural correlates of therapeutic gains in PTSD. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 12(1), 1929025.
Peckham, H. (2023). Introducing the Neuroplastic Narrative: a non-pathologizing biological foundation for trauma-informed and adverse childhood experience aware approaches. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 14, 1103718.
Porges, S. W. (2022). Polyvagal theory: A science of safety. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, 16, 871227.
Ruppert, F. (2019). Who am I in a traumatised and traumatising society? Green Pharmacy Balloon Publishing.
Thumfart, K. M., Jawaid, A., Bright, K., Flachsmann, M., & Mansuy M. M., (2022). Epigenetics of childhood trauma: Long term sequelae and potential for treatment. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 132, 1049–1066.
van der Kolk, B. A. (2014). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Viking.
Wilker, S., Vukojevic, V., Schneider, A., Pfeiffer, A., Inerle, S., Pauly, M., Elbert, T., Papassotiropoulos, A., de Quervain, D., & Kolassa, I.-T. (2023). Epigenetics of traumatic stress: The association of NR3C1 methylation and posttraumatic stress disorder symptom changes in response to narrative exposure therapy. Translational Psychiatry, 13(1), Article 14.
Yehuda, R., & Lehrner, A. (2018). Intergenerational transmission of trauma effects: Putative role of epigenetic mechanisms. World Psychiatry, 17(3), 243–257.