The Nervous System and Trauma: How to Understand, Recognize, and Regulate Dysregulation
As a therapist who works closely with trauma survivors, one of the most important things I help clients understand is this: your nervous system is not broken—it’s doing exactly what it was designed to do to keep you safe.
Trauma can leave deep imprints, not just emotionally but physiologically. Many survivors find themselves overwhelmed by emotions, shutting down, or feeling stuck in patterns they can’t seem to change. At the heart of these experiences is often a nervous system that’s been pushed past its limit and never got the chance to fully reset.
This blog explores why the nervous system plays such a crucial role in trauma recovery, how to recognize the signs of dysregulation, and, most importantly, what you can do to begin gently bringing your system back into balance.
Trauma and the Nervous System: A Survival Response
When we talk about trauma, we're talking about something that overwhelms your ability to cope—something that makes you feel helpless, terrified, or frozen. That could be a single traumatic event or a series of experiences over time, such as childhood neglect, emotional abuse, or ongoing unsafe environments.
In those moments, your body did exactly what it was supposed to do: it protected you. That protection came through the autonomic nervous system, which governs automatic functions like heart rate, breath, and digestion.
Here’s how it responds in the face of threat:
Fight or Flight (Sympathetic Nervous System): Your body mobilizes. You might feel anxious, angry, hyper-aware, or ready to run.
Freeze or Shutdown (Parasympathetic Nervous System, Dorsal Vagal Branch): If escape isn’t possible, your body might go numb or collapse into a state of shutdown.
These responses are adaptive in the moment. The challenge comes when the nervous system gets stuck in those states, long after the threat has passed.
Many trauma survivors live with a nervous system that never fully resets. Instead, it stays hypervigilant, easily triggered, or chronically shut down. This is called nervous system dysregulation—and it’s not your fault.
Signs of a Dysregulated Nervous System (Especially After Trauma)
Dysregulation can show up in many different ways, and trauma survivors often cycle between different states. These signs are your body’s way of asking for support:
Signs of Hyperarousal (Stuck in “Fight or Flight”)
Anxiety or panic attacks
Racing heart or shallow breathing
Trouble sleeping or staying asleep
Feeling jumpy or on edge
Difficulty concentrating
Irritability, anger, or emotional overwhelm
Intrusive thoughts or flashbacks
Signs of Hypoarousal (Stuck in “Freeze” or “Shutdown”)
Numbness or emotional disconnection
Low energy, chronic fatigue
Depression or hopelessness
Dissociation (feeling disconnected from your body or surroundings)
Social withdrawal
Difficulty making decisions or taking action
These aren’t signs of weakness or something “wrong” with you. They’re survival responses. As a therapist, I often say: Your body remembers what your mind may have tried to forget.
Regulating the Nervous System: A Path Toward Healing
The beautiful truth is that our nervous systems are plastic—they can change. They can learn safety again. And while trauma may have hijacked your sense of stability, regulation is possible.
Here are some gentle, trauma-informed ways to begin regulating your nervous system:
1. Start With Safety
Before anything else, your body needs to feel safe—physically, emotionally, and relationally.
Notice when you feel safest: Is it under a blanket? Around certain people? In nature?
Set boundaries that protect your emotional space.
Remind yourself: “I’m safe right now” when old patterns surface.
Creating micro-moments of safety adds up. Your nervous system doesn’t heal in big leaps—it heals in consistent, small doses of safety.
2. Grounding for Hyperarousal
When your system is on high alert, grounding helps bring you back to the present.
5-4-3-2-1 Technique: Notice 5 things you see, 4 you can touch, 3 you hear, 2 you smell, 1 you taste.
Name what’s real: “It’s 2025. I’m in my home. I’m safe right now.”
Weighted blankets or pressing your feet into the floor can also signal safety to your body.
3. Gentle Activation for Shutdown States
If you're in freeze or dissociation, the goal is gentle reconnection—not forcing yourself to "snap out of it."
Rocking your body slowly side to side
Squeezing a stress ball or tapping your fingers rhythmically
Light movement like walking, stretching, or shaking
The idea is to bring energy up, slowly and safely.
4. Breath as a Bridge
Your breath can help you move between states. It’s one of the few automatic functions you can consciously control.
For calming: Inhale for 4, exhale for 6–8. Long exhales tell your body, “I’m okay now.”
For energizing: Try short bursts of quick inhales and exhales through the nose (breath of fire) if you're feeling flat.
Even just noticing your breath—without trying to change it—can create a space between reaction and response.
5. Connection is Medicine
Trauma is often isolating. Healing happens in safe connection.
Spend time with people who make you feel seen, not judged.
Let someone know when you’re struggling. You don’t need to explain everything—just saying “I’m having a hard time right now” can be enough.
Therapy itself is a form of co-regulation. When your nervous system connects to a calm, attuned therapist, it begins to learn what safety feels like again.
6. Somatic and Trauma-Informed Therapy
If you feel stuck, therapy that focuses on the body and nervous system can be life-changing.
Somatic Experiencing helps release trauma stored in the body.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) helps process traumatic memories without re-traumatizing.
Polyvagal-informed therapy works directly with the nervous system’s response patterns.
A trained therapist can guide you gently through this work, at your pace.
You’re Not Broken—You’re Protecting Yourself
I can’t say this enough: If you’re a trauma survivor and your nervous system feels chaotic, numb, reactive, or exhausted—this is not your fault. You are not broken. Your body adapted the best it could to survive what happened.
But survival isn’t the end of the story. You deserve to move from surviving to living. Regulation is possible. Safety is possible. Connection, joy, and presence are possible.
It starts with listening to your body, honoring its signals, and offering it the compassion it may never have received before.
Final Words
Healing from trauma isn’t about “fixing” yourself—it’s about learning to understand and care for a nervous system that adapted to keep you safe in ways that may no longer serve you. When we begin to see anxiety, shutdown, or overwhelm not as personal failures, but as survival responses, something shifts. We move from self-blame to self-compassion. From confusion to clarity. From isolation to connection.
Shikha is a therapist/owner of The Therapeutic Way, Counselling and Psychotherapy Services. Her and her team are relationship and relational trauma therapists who works with individuals, couples, and families who have been on the receiving end of narcissistic abuse, gone through trauma, experiencing relationship issues, and experienced attachment wounds as a child or adult. Her team uses a trauma-informed and holistic approaches to help their clients.
Thinking of therapy? Schedule your free 20 mins consultation call to see how we can help.
For more information reach us at info@thetherapeuticway.ca or call/text (289) 635-4660.
Therapy services: Online Anywhere in Ontario; Hamilton, ON; Burlington, ON, Oakville, ON; Mississauga, ON; Milton, ON.
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Online therapy is as effective as in person therapy. What is most important with any format of therapy is the strong therapeutic relationship between you and your therapist. Online therapy is a good option when coming in-person is not feasible, when you have dependents at home, and it is also more convenient.
At The Therapeutic Way, we offer online therapy and therapy by phone from the convenience of your home. Click here to learn more about our online therapy.
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Not necessarily. Online therapy and in-person therapy are usually the same cost as their effectiveness are the same. Online therapy can also be most cost effective for the client as transportation is not involved. Now, there are therapy apps or programs that area available to clients that are cheaper than traditional therapy. However, the effectiveness of those programs are questionable, and they are most likely not covered by insurance.
At The Therapeutic Way, we offer online therapy with a registered psychotherapist that is covered by most insurance providers and helps you save the cost of transportation.
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There are many different types of therapist that you can choose from. Before reaching out to a therapist, it’s important to know what issue you would like to work on. A tip is to seek out a therapist who specializes the issue and problem you are facing with. For example, if you would like to work on trauma, a therapist who focuses on eating disorders may not be the best fit.
It is also important to decide what type of therapist you are looking for, such as gender, experience, their approaches to therapy, etc. It’s also a good idea to check with your insurance provider which type of therapist they cover. A lot of therapists offer free consultation calls for you to decide they are a right fit.
At The Therapeutic Way, we specializes in relationship issues, relational trauma, narcissistic abuse recovery, and attachment wounds. We work with adults, couples, and families over the age of 16.
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The type of therapy that is best for you, depends on you as a person and the reason you are seeking therapy. There are different types of therapy, such as somatic-based therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy, trauma-informed therapies, holistic therapy, existential therapy, and more. The type of therapy that is right for you will depend what you are looking for. While you may have an input in this, majority of the time the therapist will know what is best suited for you and will let you know.
At The Therapeutic Way, we work with clients using an integrative approach to therapy, meaning using different modalities to suit your needs. We use a trauma-informed, holistic, and relational approach to working with you. Click here to learn more.
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The term psychotherapy and counselling are often used interchangeably with some slight differences. Psychotherapy refers to the treatment based for psychological disorders and mental health issues, such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, etc. Counselling refers to wellness support and providing insights and clarity which leads to growth or personal betterment. At The Therapeutic Way, we provide both psychotherapy and counselling.
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The difference between psychotherapist, psychologist, and psychiatrist, depends on education and scope of practice.
Psychotherapist, psychologist, and psychiatrist can provide therapy called talk therapy.
A psychotherapist can provide therapy under the College of Registered Psychotherapist of Ontario, a psychologist can provide therapy under the College of Psychologists of Ontario, and a psychiatrist can provide therapy under College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario.
Difference:
Psychotherapist Education: Master’s Degree or higher
Psychologist Education: PhD or PsyD.
Psychiatrist: MD
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Psychotherapist: Can’t diagnose
Psychologist: Can do assessment and diagnose
Psychiatrist: Can do assessment, diagnose, and prescribe medication
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Psychotherapist Training: Counselling and focus on therapy techniques
Psychologist: Focus on clinical research and assessment
Psychiatrist: Use medical treatment such as prescribing medications for mental health conditions
Before seeking help, it’s important to know what you need and are seeking. A consultation call can help you decide.
At The Therapeutic Way, we are registered psychotherapist with the College of Registered Psychotherapist of Ontario.