#38 - Is Trauma Really "Stored" in the Body?

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The armor is on, but the battle's long over. 

That old line is the heart of this conversation about body armor — Alexander Lowen's Bioenergetics, Wilhelm Reich's lineage, and how the tightening we learned in infancy quietly shapes the way we move, breathe, and meet the world decades later. Nyssa explains how she encountered this work through Structural Energetic Therapy and Emotional Release Breathwork, why muscles are "the most loyal Labrador," and what's really happening when a bodyworker finds a so-called knot. 

Kelly brings 30 years of clinical practice and a healthy skepticism toward the idea that trauma is stored in the body — suggesting remembered might be the truer verb — while both dig into traditional Chinese medicine's view of emotions as energy moving through channels, why stagnation matters, and what happens when a beloved mentor answers "when will this be over?" with a simple, kind "it's not." 

Warm, curious, and unhurried, this one sits with the idea that healing isn't linear, that trauma may be the gateway to individuation, and that the goal was never winning.

Why holding back a cough makes you want to cough more — and what that reveals about armoring

Main Topics Covered:

  • Alexander Lowen, Wilhelm Reich, and the lineage behind the idea of body armor

  • What actually happens in emotional release breathwork — and why you don't need to know which memory it was

  • Muscles as "the most loyal Labrador": how repetition turns a reaction into a permanent posture

  • "A pain in my neck," "get it off my chest," "bite my tongue" — the language clues bodyworkers listen for

  • Stored vs. remembered: the one-word swap that changes how you think about trauma

  • Why The Body Keeps the Score is great marketing — and why van der Kolk is currently under scrutiny

  • The knot that isn't a knot: what's really under a bodyworker's hands

  • Traditional Chinese medicine, emotions as energy in channels, and the problem of stagnation

  • The kindest thing a mentor ever said: "When will this be over?" "It's not."