How Trauma Can Impact Your Relationship With Your Body

By Jessica Trainor, Registered Trauma Therapist | Serving Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, and across Ontario & Quebec virtually

💭 “I feel disconnected from my body — like I’m living outside of myself.”

If that sentence feels familiar, you’re not alone. Many survivors of childhood trauma or sexual abuse describe feeling detached from their bodies — as if they’re observing life from a distance, or struggling to truly feel their own sensations.

This disconnection isn’t your fault. It’s actually one of the body’s most powerful survival mechanisms. When something painful or overwhelming happens, your body protects you by disconnecting you from sensations that might feel unbearable.

🧠 Why Trauma Changes How You Experience Your Body

When you experience trauma, your nervous system goes into survival mode — fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. If your body couldn’t safely fight back or escape, it often chooses to “freeze” or disconnect.

Over time, this protective response can become your body’s “default setting,” even after the danger has passed. You might:

• Feel numb, disconnected, or “shut down” physically or emotionally

• Have trouble sensing hunger, fatigue, or pleasure

• Feel uncomfortable or unsafe being touched

• Struggle with chronic pain, tension, or illness

• Criticize or mistrust your body

These reactions are not weaknesses — they’re signs of a body that learned to keep you safe in impossible circumstances.

💔 When Disconnection Turns Into Self-Blame

For many survivors in Ottawa, Toronto, and across Ontario and Quebec, the disconnection can evolve into shame or self-blame. You might feel angry at your body for “not protecting you,” or uncomfortable in your skin when intimacy or touch comes up.

But here’s the truth: your body didn’t fail you — it protected you. It did what it had to do to help you survive trauma that should never have happened. Healing means gently helping your body unlearn those patterns and begin to feel safe again.

🌿 How to Rebuild a Relationship with Your Body

Healing your relationship with your body is a gradual, compassionate process.Here are a few ways trauma therapy supports that reconnection:

1. Body Awareness (Somatic Work)

Gentle body-based techniques help you notice sensations in safe, manageable ways — like noticing your breath, heartbeat, or the feeling of your feet on the floor. Over time, this helps you feel present in your body again.

2. Mindful Movement

Practices like yoga, walking, or stretching — when done with self-kindness — help reconnect mind and body through movement rather than force or performance.

3. Inner Child Healing

Reconnecting with the younger parts of you that felt unsafe or rejected helps restore compassion and softness toward your own body.

4. Therapeutic Support

Working with a trauma-informed therapist in Ottawa or Toronto can help you move at a pace that feels safe. You don’t have to rush your healing — it’s about listening to your body and letting safety grow over time.

💛 Remember: Your Body Is Not the Enemy

It’s easy to think your body betrayed you, but in truth, it protected you in the only way it could. Healing isn’t about forcing connection — it’s about learning to listen to your body’s wisdom again.

With time, care, and support, you can learn to feel safe in your skin, trust your body’s cues, and even find comfort there again.

Whether you’re beginning your journey in Ottawa, Toronto, or anywhere in Ontario or Quebec, you don’t have to do it alone.

🕊️ Begin Reconnecting with Your Body

If you’re ready to start healing your relationship with your body after trauma, I’d be honoured to support you.Together, we can help you reconnect with your body and rediscover a sense of safety, trust, and belonging.

👉 Book a free consultation for trauma therapy in Ottawa or Toronto or learn more about online trauma therapy across Ontario and Quebec.