notes on freedom
A weekly email series containing easily digestible morsels of info on relational trauma and how to find freedom from it.
THIS WEEK IT’S A NOTE ON…buried trauma
Because most people can’t remember their childhood before the age of about five to seven years old, a lot of childhood relational trauma, especially early attachment trauma, is ‘buried’.
As well as the unavoidable fact that we cannot remember our own infancy, the survival response also affects our memory processing. It’s common to have hazy memories of highly stressful environments or relationships. For some people, who spent their whole childhood in their survival response, this means they can remember nothing of their whole childhood.
So what I see time and time again are people who are experiencing unresolved trauma today, but who aren’t sure what they’re reacting to. They sense that something isn’t right but because they look back and see ‘nothing’ they blame themselves.
This is why it’s so important to learn how trauma shows-up in our thinking, our body, our behaviour and our relationships. Because once we understand our own trauma we can move out of self-blame and confusion, even if we can’t remember much of our childhood.
We move towards healing and freedom as we trust this one basic principle: if there’s unresolved trauma today, there was a traumatic experience before.
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Sarah Woodhouse is a trauma expert, research psychologist and writer who delivers people the knowledge and tools to recognise and overcome self-defeating cycles, to achieve personal freedom and success. Please follow her on Instagram, Facebook or X for all the latest updates.
