The Role of the Nervous System in Trauma Healing

When we talk about trauma, we often think about emotions and memories. But healing isn’t only about what we think or feel—it’s also about how our nervous system responds.

In our recent webinar, When Trauma Recovery Stalls: What’s Next?, Dr. Kelly Callahan and Dr. Sarah Dropman explored how understanding the nervous system can unlock new pathways for healing. They pose the question for clinicians, “am I supporting the client’s nervous system?”

Trauma Lives in the Body

Trauma isn’t just something that “happens in the past.” It can leave lasting imprints on the nervous system, shaping how the body responds to stress, relationships, and everyday challenges. To start the process of checking in with the nervous system, it can be helpful to reflect on what is happening in the “here and now.”

For example:

  • Some people find themselves in a state of high activation, called hyperarousal. This could look like an elevated heart rate, feelings of anxiousness or panic, racing thoughts, or hyper-vigilance.
  • Others fall into a state of low activation, hypoarousal. This could look like lethargy, numbness, depression, or brain fog.
  • Many oscillate between the two.

These two states are the body’s survival strategies, designed to protect us when things feel overwhelming. They are integral parts of the Polyvagal Theory, a framework that allows us to better understand the functional responses of the nervous system.

The Window of Tolerance

Another important part of Polyvagal Theory is the window of tolerance, which
describes the “zone” between hyper- and hypoarousal where we feel balanced and engaged.

  • Inside the window, we are at an optimal state of arousal. We can think clearly, manage emotions, and connect with others.
  • Outside the window, we tip into hyperarousal or hypoarousal.

Therapy often focuses on helping clients expand their window of tolerance—so they can stay regulated as they work through trauma.

Supporting the Nervous System in Recovery

It’s valuable in trauma recovery to use techniques that recognize the body’s role in healing. The goal is to help clients regain flexibility and choice, bringing them back into the window of tolerance. Supporting regulation can take place in many different areas, and may include practices like the following.

  • Somatic. Movement, orienting within the room, or completing a breathing exercise.
  • Intellectual. Reading, writing, learning something new, or a different creative task.
  • Relational. Visualization of a safe individual, a hug, or connection with an animal.
  • Nature. Walking in the grass or looking and listening out the window.
  • Spiritual. Prayer or yoga.

Moving Toward Healing

Understanding the nervous system is more than science—it’s hope. When clients understand their responses as functional survival strategies, shame begins to ease. From there, healing becomes possible, and trauma work can progress.

 

👉 If you’re ready to explore how trauma has impacted your body and mind, and how to move toward healing, reach out to Mind Therapy Clinic today.

Overcoming Avoidance in Trauma Recovery — Why It Happens and How to Work Through It

When faced with painful memories or overwhelming emotions, many people try to push them away. This response is called avoidance, and it’s one of the most common—and understandable—reactions to trauma. 

In our recent webinar, When Trauma Recovery Stalls: What’s Next?, Dr. Kelly Callahan and Dr. Sarah Dropman explained why and how avoidance shows up, and what therapists and clients can do to gently move past it.

Avoidance Is a Survival Strategy 

Avoidance isn’t laziness, denial, or lack of commitment—it’s the nervous system’s way of protecting us from pain. Compassionately bringing awareness to its functionality is key when addressing avoidance. 

After trauma, people may avoid people, places, things, or internal experiences that are trauma reminders. In the short term, avoidance can bring relief. But in the long run, it often keeps people stuck—preventing the very healing they’re hoping for.

How Avoidance Shows Up in Therapy 

Avoidance can appear in many forms, such as: 

  • Postponing trauma work. Skipping sessions or changing the subject when trauma becomes a part of the conversation. 
  • Using strategies to numb. This may look like using substances or coping with suicidal thoughts, but could also present as dissociation, intellectualization or panic.

These are not signs of failure. They are signs of a nervous system working hard to stay safe.

Working Through Avoidance Safely 

It is vital to approach avoidance in trauma work with compassion. Therapists can help clients address and manage avoidance by: 

  • Destigmatizing it. Using trauma-informed psychoeducation to help clients understand avoidance as a behavior with a function. 
  • Naming it. Thoughtfully identifying avoidance to take the first step toward shifting it. 
  • Praising generously. Validating a client when they approach instead of avoid.
  • Self-reflection. As a therapist, recognizing avoidance in yourself and reflecting on the ways you can approach as well.

Moving Toward Healing 

Avoidance is part of trauma recovery. With the right support, clients can move gently from avoidance into engagement—opening the door to deeper healing. 

At Mind Therapy Clinic, our clinicians are experienced in recognizing and working through avoidance, helping clients feel safe enough to face what they’ve been carrying.

 

👉 If you feel like avoidance is keeping you from healing, contact us today to learn how we can support your journey.

The Power of the Therapeutic Alliance in Trauma Recovery

Healing from trauma takes courage—but it also takes connection. Research consistently shows that one of the most powerful factors in therapy isn’t just the technique being used, but the relationship between client and therapist.

In our recent webinar, When Trauma Recovery Stalls: What’s Next?, Dr. Sarah Dropman and Dr. Kelly Callahan highlighted how essential the therapeutic alliance is for moving trauma recovery forward—and why it can sometimes be the very place where things get stuck.

Why the Relationship Matters

Psychologist Edward Bordin described the therapeutic alliance as having three parts:

  1. Agreement on goals – working toward a shared vision of healing.
  2. Agreement on tasks – clarity about how therapist and client will work together.
  3. Bond – the trust and sense of connection that make therapy safe.

When all three are in place, therapy becomes a collaborative journey. For trauma recovery, that bond is especially important—because trauma often happens in relationships, and healing must also happen in relationship.

The Catch-22 of Trauma and Trust

Here’s the challenge: the very thing needed for healing (trust) is often the hardest thing to build after trauma. Clients may feel wary, distant, or unsure about opening up. Therapists may feel discouraged when progress feels slow.

But this isn’t resistance—it’s part of the process. Trauma impacts attachment, and rebuilding trust takes time, patience, and compassion. The therapist’s role is to recognize the effects of trauma on the alliance and manage the relationship between client and clinician.

Ruptures in the Alliance

From the perspective of the therapist, obstacles in the alliance can show up in many different ways, including but not limited to:

  • Frustration with the client. The therapist may be struggling with negative thoughts about or feel like they are working harder than the client.
  • Feeling unable to help the client. The therapist may be feeling like they are a ‘bad therapist’. This can also happen in tandem with frustration toward the client.
  • Seemingly inconsistent goals between client and therapist. Despite the therapist’s best efforts to listen, engage , and revise the treatment plan, the client may continually disagree with the therapist’s understanding.

How to Strengthen the Alliance and Get Unstuck

Clinicians know that the therapeutic alliance is the foundation of all effective trauma work. Here’s how we nurture it:

  • Destigmatize the effects of trauma. Highlight the symptoms and behavioral patterns that clients exhibit as survival strategies.
  • Cultivate compassion. Recognizing the therapeutic relationship as a potential source of threat for the client.
  • Co-create understanding. Clients are the experts on their own internal experiences, and therapists can offer maps to help them understand what’s unfolding.

Connection as a Path to Healing

When recovery stalls, its often a signal to return to the function: the therapeutic alliance. A strong relationship can provide the stability needed to move into deeper trauma processing. 

At Mind Therapy Clinic, we believe that healing begins with connection. Together, clients and therapists can build the trust that makes recovery possible.

 

👉 If you’re seeking a safe, supportive place to begin or continue your trauma recovery, contact us today.

Trauma Webinar: When Trauma Recovery Stalls… What’s Next?

1.5 CEU Webinar on Trauma Treatment

Trauma can leave lasting imprints that don’t always respond to treatment. Join us on Thursday, August 28th, for a powerful webinar exploring why trauma recovery stalls. You’ll gain insight into the personal, neurobiological, and systemic factors that make recovery complex. Through a nervous system-informed lens and therapy approaches, you’ll learn interventions to help meet your clients’ needs.

Whether you’re an experienced clinician or just building your trauma-informed practice, this webinar will provide tools to deepen your understanding and elevate your work. It’s an opportunity to earn 1.5 free CEs for mental health clinicians, sharpen your clinical insight, and walk away with actionable strategies you can use immediately.

Topic:  When Trauma Recovery Stalls, What’s Next?

Date:   Thursday, August 28, 2025

Time:   10:00 AM to 11:30 AM (PST)

Learning Objectives

  • Describe trauma’s long-term effects, especially the impact of trauma on the nervous system
  • Explain strategies for collaborative engagement and trauma-informed stabilization.
  • Describe different therapy modalities that conceptualize and work with unprocessed trauma.
Register Now

Once you register, you will receive the Zoom link for the webinar. Please be sure to save the date and this link on your calendar, as you’ll need it to join the session.

Presented By:

Kelly L. Callahan, PhD, LCP

Dr. Callahan’s training includes an internship at The National Center for PTSD at Dartmouth Medical School and post-doctoral fellowship at the Victims of Violence Program at Harvard Medical School, and currently provides consultation and lectures on treating trauma. Click here for more.

Sara Drotman, PsyD

Dr. Drotman is the Director of Training and Education at Mind Therapy Clinic and specializes in evidence-based treatments for trauma, depression, and anxiety.  Click here for more on Dr. Drotman.

Continuing Education

Information on Continuing Education Credit for Health Professionals

• CE credits for psychologists are provided by the Spiritual Competency Academy (SCA) which is co-sponsoring this program. The Spiritual Competency Academy is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Spiritual Competency Academy maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

• The California Board of Behavioral Sciences accepts CE credits for LCSW, LPCC, LEP, and LMFT license renewal for programs offered by approved sponsors of CE by the American Psychological Association.

• LCSW, LPCC, LEP, and LMFTs, and other mental health professionals from states other than California need to check with their state licensing board as to whether or not they accept programs offered by approved sponsors of CE by the American Psychological Association.

• SCA is approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing Provider CEP16887) for licensed nurses in California. RNs must retain their certificate of attendance for 4 years after the course concludes.

•For questions about receiving your Certificate of Attendance, contact Jacqueline Perlmutter, Mind Therapy Clinic. For questions about CE, contact Spiritual Competency Academy at info@spiritualcompetencyacademy.com.