You've carried so much, and your strength to seek healing is a beautiful light. At Thrive Academy, we've created a gentle, nurturing course designed especially for women survivors like you.
Understanding Your Body's Responses
This course helps you understand how trauma responses affect your body and the chemistry behind them, bringing awareness to your healing journey.
Nurturing New Growth
We'll walk together through every step, with kindness, to help you feel safe, whole, and empowered as you heal both your heart and your physical self.
Understanding Trauma's Touch
Trauma leaves lasting imprints on both your physical body and emotional landscape. During our first week together, we'll create a nurturing environment where you can safely explore how trauma responses manifest in your daily life. You'll discover that these reactions aren't weaknesses—they're your body's natural protective mechanisms.
Fight
Your heart races, muscles tense, and anger surges through your body like a protective shield. This response resembles a lioness standing her ground—fierce and ready to defend herself when she perceives threat or injustice.
Flight
Your breathing quickens, adrenaline floods your system, and every instinct tells you to escape. Like a bird taking wing at the first sign of danger, this response drives you to physically or emotionally withdraw from situations that feel overwhelming.
Freeze
Your body becomes still, your mind goes quiet, and you may feel disconnected from your surroundings. Similar to a deer becoming motionless in tall grass, this response helps you become invisible when fighting or fleeing doesn't feel possible.
Fawn
You become highly attuned to others' needs, setting aside your own feelings and boundaries. Like a puppy that rolls over to show submission, this response teaches you to please others and minimize conflict as a strategy for securing safety and connection.
Your Body's Story
Your body holds memories of your experiences, and trauma can leave gentle but noticeable marks. In Week 2, we'll explore how trauma affects your physical self, understanding these signals with compassion and care.
Muscles
Persistent tension in your shoulders, jaw, or back; pain that comes and goes; feeling stiff when you wake up—as if your body is constantly on guard
Heart
Racing heartbeat during triggering moments; chest tightness when certain memories arise; feeling your pulse in your ears when anxious—your heart expressing what words cannot
Sleep
Waking up multiple times through the night; vivid nightmares that replay fears; exhaustion despite long hours in bed—your body processing during rest what it couldn't while awake
Stomach
Digestive troubles before stressful events; loss of appetite when overwhelmed; unexplained nausea at certain locations—your gut's wisdom speaking through sensations
Healing Practices
Body Scan
Find a quiet space for 10 minutes, lie down with a blanket, close your eyes, and slowly move your attention from toes to head, breathing warmth into each area that feels tight or painful
Warm Tea Ritual
Choose rooibos, chamomile or lavender tea, hold the cup with both hands, feel its warmth, inhale the aroma for 5 seconds, and take small sips while focusing only on the sensations
Learning to recognize and respond to your body's signals with gentleness helps you rebuild trust with yourself. Your body has been protecting you all along, even when it feels confusing or uncomfortable.
The Chemistry of Courage
Your body's biochemistry shifts during and after trauma, creating patterns that explain your responses. In Week 3, we'll explore how these molecular messengers influence your healing journey.
Cortisol
Your body's primary stress hormone that prepares you for "fight or flight" responses. With trauma, cortisol can remain chronically elevated, leading to muscle tension, sleep disruption, and the persistent vigilance you feel in your shoulders and jaw.
Adrenaline
The urgent messenger that triggers your racing heartbeat during flashbacks or triggering situations. This hormone mobilizes energy when you're threatened, explaining the chest tightness and pulse-pounding sensations mentioned in Week 2.
Dopamine/Serotonin
These mood regulators become dysregulated after trauma, contributing to the emotional numbness of the freeze response or the hypervigilance of fight. Their imbalance affects digestion, explaining the stomach troubles and appetite changes you experience.
Oxytocin
The connection hormone that becomes complicated in trauma, especially with the fawn response. When healthy, it facilitates trust and bonding; when distorted by trauma, it can lead to people-pleasing behaviors and boundary confusion as you seek safety.