What happens in trauma therapy? The Three Stages of Trauma Healing
Experiencing something traumatic (whether relational, physical, emotional, generational, or another form) can fragment one’s ability to make sense of space and time. Trauma makes it so we might not experience sensations, images, behaviors, feelings, and in a logical timeline. We can be transported back to the moment of the traumatic event, or have memory gaps from that time yet experience reactions to stressors in the current time that seem disproportionate. The phases of trauma healing have been carefully researched and practiced to help realign our nervous systems to our current reality. Thus, putting back together our fragmented pieces and reorienting to our whole, true selves.
Recently, I was privileged to partake in the The Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy Certificate (ISTT) through The Embody Lab, to learn more about using the wisdom of our bodies to heal from trauma symptoms. Trauma healing unfolds in distinct stages that support nervous system regulation, emotional safety, and long-term recovery.
Stage 1: Establishing Safety and Stability
Stage 2: Trauma Processing, Integration and Meaning Making
Stage 3: Reconnection and Expansion
These stages align with widely accepted trauma recovery models used in trauma-informed and somatic therapy.
Stage 1: Establishing Safety and Stability
Establishing safety and stability in one’s body is essential before beginning trauma processing. Somatic resourcing refers to using tools to regulate your nervous system to a place where it can notice safety. It’s when our bodies and minds feel regulated and safe without needing to always make a conscious effort. It’s the place from which we can handle processing memories without becoming overwhelmed. We need to know we are safe, in our current reality, not back in our traumatic event.
Dr. Justine Grosso, founder of Mindbody Therapy and Wellness, has shared that in her experience, some people may want to move into trauma processing too quickly. Both practitioners and clients alike may feel they are ready, but when it comes time, people become inundated or overwhelmed. Processing trauma without proper somatic resourcing first can lead to re-traumatization, dissociation, panic, and shutdown.
Therapist and clients can work together to create a somatic toolkit to help clients feel resourced, stable, and ready to process trauma memories. A somatic toolkit includes practices that help you feel grounded, stable, and regulated when encountering stressors. Some examples of activities that can go in your somatic toolkit:
Orienting: Using your senses to orient to your current environment, reminding yourself you are safe.
Body Scan for relieving tension. A guided meditation can be helpful, but you can do this anywhere!
Arm Sweeps - with gentle yet firm pressure, move one hand down the length of the other arm, starting at the shoulder. Switch until you feel soothed.
Small Movements when feeling trapped or frozen (try moving your tongue, fingers, and toes to begin)
Belly Breathing: In belly breathing, the emphasis is on unclenching your belly, making sure breath can travel freely all the way into your core.
Stage 2: Processing Trauma Without Overwhelm: Integration and Meaning-Making
The traditional second stage of trauma healing is “trauma processing.” An important component of processing the trauma memory is making meaning of the experience within the context of your life now. Just re-processing trauma, without first, proper resourcing, and second, without context, can leave you feeling unmoored.
It is important to not rush into this second phase, and clinicians need to know the signs that someone is ready to process and make sense of trauma.. Here are a few signs someone is ready to move into Stage 2:
They have range and flexibility of the autonomic nervous system’s rhythms. They can experience proportionate reactions to stressors without leaving their window of tolerance.
They have attunement with their bodily sensations, and can be present with them and gather information from them.
They have the capacity to feel, name, and express emotion with containment (they are not completely flooded with the memory or feeling).
They have the ability to seek, allow, and sustain co-regulation and boundaries. They are not in complete isolation or over-extending themselves.
If you, or your client, is not able to embody these important cues for safety, it likely means that they are in need of more safety and stabilization before diving into Stage 2.
Stage 3: Reconnection and Expansion
Reclaiming Identity, Pleasure, and Agency After Trauma
In Stage 3, it is time to reconnect with ourselves and the world in a new way. For example, if you have learned through the healing process that one of your trauma responses is people-pleasing, a form of fawning, reconnection may look like setting better boundaries with loved ones so love and care feels reciprocal and safe.
You may also experience post-traumatic growth in this phase. While experiencing trauma should never be framed as “positive,” post-traumatic growth identifies that humans can find a renewed sense of strength and resilience humans after experiencing a traumatic event. It’s a reminder that we are more than the worst things that have happened to us, and that healing from those experiences can empower us to find our strongest selves.
Trauma Healing Is Not Linear
Trauma healing, like all forms of growth in non-linear. It can take years, and there can be months where you may feel like we are through Stage 2 or onto Stage 3, and times when you return to earlier stages. But remember, your nervous system is resilient and flexible, and the important thing is to give yourself grace, compassion, and the reminder to keep going. You are strong, capable, and worthy.
If you’d like to try somatic psychotherapy trauma symptoms, anxiety, or depression and live in North Carolina, contact a therapist at Mindbody Therapy here.
References
NICABM. (n.d.). Trauma: How to help your clients understand their window of tolerance. https://www.nicabm.com/trauma-how-to-help-your-clients-understand-their-window-of-tolerance/
The Embody Lab. (2025). Integrative somatic trauma therapy certificate [Online certificate program]. https://learn.theembodylab.com/products/certificate-program-integrative-somatic-trauma-therapy-2025
