When a person experiences trauma, processes in their body and brain can be altered by the trauma response. This can include changes to their sense of interoception, or more specifically changes to how they experience their internal body sensations.
For example, some people report:
- A muted inner experience, where their inner sensations are quieted and might go completely unnoticed. Take Francine, who shared that after her trauma her body just felt numb. The body signals letting her know when she was hungry or thirsty were non-existent and she could go a full day, maybe more, without eating or drinking water. She would forget to eat or drink and her body sensations indicating hungry! or thirsty! were not loud enough to remind her. Francine reported that even her pain sensations were so dull that one day she realized that her finger looked very different in appearance only to realize that she had developed a significant infection around her fingernail that required medical care.
- An intense inner experience, where inner sensations are distracting or loud. A person might notice one or two sensations that are all encompassing (e.g., common during a panic attack) or they might notice so many body signals at once it is difficult to work out which are providing the most relevant information in that moment. Jace shared that his inner experience was a mass ball of sensation—he didn’t know what to pay attention to—he constantly felt anxious and uncertain about what his body felt or needed in the moment. Quite often this inner uncertainty and loudness would lead to him attempting to quiet his bodily sensations thru several addictions.
- A mix of the two—fluctuating between a muted and an intense inner experience where one minute a person might be overwhelmed by their body signals and the next minute they completely miss noticing important body signals.
Incorporating Interoception into Trauma Supports Can Help
Often trauma impacts a person’s felt safety—or their automatic, inutitive interoceptive response of feeling safe and secure in the world. Trauma occurs when a person’s safety is chronically or acutely violated, thus a very natural automatic response to trauma is heightened alert of the interoceptive system, continuously wary of any potential threat. In fact, one of the hallmarks of healing from trauma is to regain that felt safety, or the deeply wired interoception feeling of safety and security. The way each person can reach their own personal felt safety can vary, but it often includes healthy, supportive relationships that validate the inner experience and help to co-regulate.
Furthermore, helping to (re)connect to body signals in careful ways can be an essential aspect of healing. Given that a clear and reliable interoceptive experience allows us to idenitfy and care for what our body needs we need to (re)establish that inner connection. Many times, cognitive-based or talk-based therapy is attempted with people that have experienced trauma, only to be a mismatch for what their nervous system currently needs. If a person is struggling to regulate their bodily/emotional needs, their access to the rationale, thinking parts of their brain will likely be unavailable. Interoception is a critical aspect of helping each person understand and enhance their own personal self-regulation needs.
Take a deeper dive into interoception and trauma with our on-demand course, An Interoception-Based Approach for Supporting Traumatized Learners.
Three Levels of Interoception-Based Trauma Support
When you experience trauma and seek help, it’s important to approach your healing from a level that matches the needs of your nervous system. The same can be said when we work with a client; it’s always best to meet them where they are and to provide support from a level that meets their needs. Our sequential approach has three levels to meet people where they are at and help them feel supported and regulated.
Level One
Co-regulation is the starting point of our framework. Promoting feelings of safety and regulation can help our clients feel safe enough to shift their focus from the outer world to their inner sensations. For example,
- Considering the environment and reducing any distractors or sensory aspects of the room that could be triggering or perceived by their nervous system as a threat (e.g., bright lights, unexpected sounds, certain smells)
- Offering various forms of sensory input that is regulating and soothing to their nervous system
Before moving on to Level Two, it is imperative that our client feels safe and regulated with us.
Level Two
With level two, we want to focus on connection to the inner self in ways that read as safe to the nervous system. For example:
- Playfully examining how their body feels during meaningful activities
- Understanding their inner sensations thru practice noticing and exploring them
Once clients can connect with themselves more easily and understand their bodies’ feelings, we can naturally progress to level three.
Level Three
Now that a client is more connected to their interoceptive sensations, finding more ways to regulate and promote feel-good sensations is what level three is all about. For example:
- Exploring a variety of feel-good activities to identify the most impactful
Neurodiversity and Trauma: An Impact on Interoception
Why do neurodivergent people suffer more often from interruptions to their interoceptive awareness? They navigate a “typical-focused” world that lacks the support they need. Because of this, many neurodivergents have formed trauma responses to everyday stimuli not considered within the framework of what many consider to be traditional.
1. Sensory Trauma
For people who experience sensory differences, their external world can feel overwhelming, unsafe, and threatening. Sounds that might seem benign to someone without sensory differences, like a snow blower or a car horn, for example, can cause a trauma response in those with sensory differences. They may also mask their differences, which adds trauma.
2. Social Trauma
Social trauma can come from bullying or feeling isolated, which are things that disproportionately affect neurodivergent people. Feeling different from others, or being perceived as different from others, can be traumatizing, leading creative, unique thinkers to feel they are not good enough or become distressed.
3. Compliance Trauma
Neurodivergent people tend to suffer in settings where they are forced into compliance and normalization approaches. Straying from the “behavioral norm” is not widely accepted, though some new programs exist to promote acceptance. This forced compliance can be traumatic for neurodivergent people.
4. Neurological Trauma
Neurological trauma occurs when neurological-based variances, like an inability to communicate effectively, cause a person to become overwhelmed and feel uncertainty in everyday settings. Being unable to communicate their needs, wants, or desires can lead to feeling misunderstood or unsafe, a form of trauma.
5. Medical Trauma
Feeling misunderstood, unheard, and unaccommodated by healthcare providers can lead many neurodivergents to feel traumatized. These providers tend to treat the specialized needs of neurodivergent people with standard, cookie-cutter solutions that often do not accommodate neurodivergence well.
Our Unsafe, Unheard, and Misunderstood course offers practical, evidence-based approaches to nurture healing from past trauma and help prevent future trauma from occurring.
Learn More About the Link Between Interoception and Trauma
Each person’s nervous system responds to trauma differently. Interoception has emerged as an important consideration when attempting to understanding and support the trauma response. Our interoception and trauma resources can help! Register now and start learning how to utilize interoception in trauma healing.
