body memory
Flesh remembers trauma
Body memory is the idea that physical experiences, especially traumatic ones, can be stored in the body and later resurface as sensations, pain, or emotional responses—even when conscious recall is absent.
The concept appears in somatic therapy, trauma treatment, and bodywork practices: Her body memory of the accident manifested as chronic shoulder tension.
The term is controversial in clinical psychology, where some consider it pseudoscientific, but it remains influential in alternative healing and certain psychotherapeutic approaches.
- somaticConcerning the body
- muscleContractile body tissue
- traumaLasting psychological wound
- cellularComposed of small units
- kinestheticRelating to body awareness
tissue · deep tissue · recall · sensation · felt sense · flashback · tension · holding pattern · healing · instinct · fight or flight · reflex · posture · stored · implicit · physical · touch · dance
- traumaabuse, abandonment, abandonment trauma, acute stress, amnesia
- embodimentproprioception, kinesthesia, corporeal, corporeality, sensorimotor
- actingacting, act, performing, playacting, actor
- bodyworkmassage, massage therapy, manual therapy, bodywork, deep tissue
- stress symptomsanxiety attack, panic attack, panic attacks, stress headache, tension headache