The Uncomfortable Truth About Trauma Recovery: Why You Might Feel Worse Before You Feel Better
If you're doing trauma therapy (or thinking about it) and feeling worse than when you started, you're not broken. You're not doing it wrong. And you're definitely not alone.
This is one of the hardest conversations I have with clients, but it's also one of the most important. Trauma recovery isn't a straight line up. It's messy, uncomfortable, and yes – it often gets worse before it gets better.
Your Body Has Been Keeping Score
Here's what happens when trauma gets stuck in your system. Your body becomes a storage unit for all the things your mind couldn't process at the time. Every muscle tension, every shallow breath, every clenched jaw – they're all holding pieces of your story.
When you start somatic or body-based therapy like Brainspotting, you're essentially asking your body to start talking. And after years of being ignored, it has a lot to say.
Think of it like cleaning out a garage that's been packed for decades. The moment you open that door and start moving boxes, everything looks worse. Dust flies everywhere. Old smells come up. You wonder why you even started this project.
But here's the thing – that mess was always there. You're just finally seeing it.
Why Body-Based Therapy Hits Different
Traditional talk therapy works with your thinking brain. Body-based approaches work with your nervous system – the part that doesn't speak in words but in sensations, movements, and reactions.
When you start paying attention to what your body is holding, several things can happen:
Old feelings surface. Emotions you've been pushing down for years might suddenly feel overwhelming. Anger, sadness, fear – they all want their moment to be felt.
Physical symptoms increase. Headaches, fatigue, muscle pain, or digestive issues might get worse temporarily. Your body is literally releasing what it's been holding. Keep in mind that the impact is leaving your body, not coming in.
Sleep gets disrupted. As your nervous system starts to recalibrate, your sleep patterns might change. This is normal, even though it's exhausting.
Emotions feel intense. Things that didn't bother you before might suddenly feel overwhelming. Your emotional thermostat is resetting.
The mess was always there, you’re just finally seeing it
The Biology Behind Feeling Worse
Your nervous system has three main states: safe and social, fight or flight, and shutdown/collapse. Trauma often gets us stuck bouncing between the last two like a pendulum.
When you start trauma work, especially somatic therapy, you're teaching your nervous system that it's safe to feel again. But before it trusts this new information, it might test the waters by bringing up old stuff.
This isn't your body being difficult. It's your body being smart. It's checking to make sure you can handle what it's been protecting you from.
How Long Does This Last?
This is the question everyone asks, and I wish I had a simple answer. For some people, the "worse before better" phase lasts a few weeks. For others, it can be months.
What I can tell you is this – it doesn't last forever. And the intensity usually happens in waves, not as one constant state.
Signs You're Moving Through It
Even when things feel harder, there are signs that healing is happening:
You can feel your emotions without being completely overwhelmed by them
You notice body sensations you couldn't feel before
You have moments of genuine calm, even if they're brief
Your sleep starts to regulate
You feel more connected to yourself
The Long-Term Health Benefits: Why This Work Matters
Here's what most people don't realize – trauma isn't just psychological. It's physical. When you work trauma out of your body, you're not just improving your mental health. You're literally changing your physical health from the inside out.
Your Immune System Gets Stronger
Chronic trauma keeps your body in a constant state of alert. This floods your system with stress hormones like cortisol, which suppresses your immune function over time. When you release trauma from your body, your immune system can finally do its job properly.
Your Heart Health Improves
Trauma survivors have higher rates of heart disease, high blood pressure, and stroke. This isn't coincidence – it's biology.
Chronic activation of your fight-or-flight response puts constant strain on your cardiovascular system. When you heal trauma somatically, you're teaching your nervous system to relax. Your blood pressure can normalize. Your heart rate becomes more variable, which is actually a sign of health.
Chronic Pain & Inflammation Often Decrease
Your body holds trauma in specific places. Tight shoulders from always being on guard. Lower back pain from carrying emotional burdens. Jaw pain from clenching through stress.
When you work somatically to release stored trauma, these physical patterns can change. The chronic pain that doctors couldn't explain with X-rays or MRIs often starts to fade. Your body can finally relax muscles it's been tensing for years.
Trauma also creates chronic inflammation in your body. This shows up as joint pain, skin problems, autoimmune issues, and accelerated aging.
Sleep Quality Transforms
Trauma disrupts your natural sleep cycles. Your body never fully believes it's safe to rest deeply. As you heal trauma through body-based work, your nervous system learns to downshift properly. Good sleep affects everything – your mood, your immune system, your ability to handle stress, even your weight.
Digestive Issues Improve
Your gut and your nervous system are intimately connected. When you're stuck in trauma patterns, your digestive system suffers. Acid reflux, irritable bowel syndrome, stomach ulcers – these are often trauma responses showing up in your belly.
Somatic trauma work helps regulate your vagus nerve, which controls digestion.
Your Energy Returns
Trauma is exhausting. Holding all that tension, staying hypervigilant, managing overwhelming emotions – it takes enormous energy.
When you release trauma from your body, that energy becomes available for living. Tasks that felt overwhelming become manageable again.
Relationships Get Healthier
When your nervous system is regulated, you show up differently in relationships. You're less reactive. You can handle conflict without your whole system going into overdrive. You can be present with others because you're present with yourself.
The people in your life often notice these changes before you do. They might comment that you seem calmer, more grounded, easier to be around.
Your Brain Function Improves
Chronic trauma affects memory, concentration, and decision-making. When you're always scanning for threats, there's less mental energy available for thinking clearly.
Somatic trauma work literally rewires your brain. The parts responsible for rational thinking can come back online. Your memory improves. Your ability to focus increases. You can make decisions without second-guessing yourself constantly.
The Investment Perspective
Trauma therapy, especially somatic work, is an investment in your long-term health. The money and time you spend now can prevent years of medical bills, chronic illness, and decreased quality of life later.
Think about it – how much do you spend managing symptoms that might actually be trauma responses? Pain medications, sleep aids, antacids, therapy for anxiety and depression. What if addressing the root cause could reduce your need for all of these?
The Bottom Line
Feeling worse in trauma therapy doesn't mean you're not healing. It often means you're healing in a deep, authentic way. Your body is finally safe enough to let go of what it's been carrying.
This work takes courage. It takes patience with yourself. And it takes trust in a process that doesn't always make sense to your logical mind.
But on the other side of this discomfort is a version of yourself who can feel without being overwhelmed, who can be present in your body without fear, and who can move through life with genuine ease. A version of yourself whose body works with you instead of against you.
The temporary discomfort that is a result from trauma therapy is the price of getting to a life where your body is your ally, not your enemy. Where your nervous system supports your goals instead of sabotaging them. Where your health improves year by year instead of declining. If you’re located in Michigan, Florida, or Arizona, feel free to reach out to chat about what Trauma Therapy would look like with me.
The version of you – healthy, grounded, and free – is worth every difficult moment of getting there.
van der Kolk, B. A. (2014). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Viking.
