When Your Body Remembers What Your Mind Tries to Forget: Understanding Shock, Parts, and Deep Healing

By Nathanael Schlecht, LAC

There are moments in life when we feel emotions we can’t explain.

A sudden tightness in the chest.

A drop in the stomach.

A hollow emptiness behind the eyes.

A sense of being “far away” even though we’re physically present.

Or an unexpected wave of sadness, frustration, or disconnection.

Most people assume these reactions are psychological.

But for many, they are physiological memories—moments when the body remembers what the mind had to forget in order to survive.

This is where trauma therapy becomes more than just talking.

This is where depth work truly begins.

Your Nervous System Has a Story of Its Own

Before we develop language, before we understand ourselves, before we even form conscious memory… the body is already learning.

It learns:

• how to respond to threat

• how to orient toward safety

• how to shut down when overwhelmed

• how to protect the vulnerable parts within us

These early survival impulses don’t disappear with age.

They continue—quietly, subtly, persistently—inside adult relationships, conflicts, and emotional struggles.

In my work, I often see clients who feel:

• confused by their emotional reactions

• stuck between two versions of themselves

• like their mind and body are telling different stories

• that they “should be fine” but something deeper resists healing

  
  

This is not a character flaw or weakness.

It is the nervous system faithfully protecting you.

The Parts of Us That Carry Pain

Many people don’t realize they have an internal world made of different “parts”—not in a pathological sense, but in a deeply human one.

A part that’s angry.

A part that’s exhausted.

A part that wants to disappear.

A part that never felt good enough.

A part that’s still waiting for someone to show up.

These parts are not problems.

They are the younger versions of you who lived through moments when:

• emotions were not safe to express

• needs went unmet

• connection was inconsistent

• you learned to adapt instead of feel

Trauma therapy involves meeting these parts, not suppressing them.

Not to live in the past, but to help your internal world reorganize into something whole, connected, and capable of peace.

Where DBR Meets Identity and Symbolic Integration

You may have noticed from my approach that I don’t treat trauma as merely a cognitive issue.

Trauma lives in the body’s impulses, the brainstem’s alarms, and the symbolic images the mind produces when words fall short.

This is why I use a blend of:

DBR (Deep Brain Reorienting)

→ to repair the shock responses and involuntary body patterns formed during early or overwhelming experiences.

Ego-State & Symbolic Integration

→ to help your internal parts communicate, reconnect, and finally receive the recognition, protection, or compassion they needed years ago.

Biblically Grounded, Non-Sensational, Spiritual Integration

→ for clients who want a faith-informed process rooted in discernment, wisdom, and grounding—not sensationalism or pressure.

Together, these create a therapy experience that is:

• gentle

• structured

• emotionally honest

• somatically attuned

• spiritually grounded

• deeply restorative

What Healing Actually Feels Like

Most people assume healing is dramatic.

But in reality, it often looks like:

• “I don’t feel afraid of that memory anymore.”

• “I can breathe again.”

• “I don’t tense up around certain people.”

• “I feel more ‘myself’ than I have in years.”

• “Something inside feels quieter… but stronger.”

Healing isn’t about forgetting the past.

It’s about becoming someone who is no longer controlled by it.

You Don’t Have to Navigate This Alone

If you feel like your reactions don’t make sense…

If you sense old patterns returning when you least expect them…

If you’re tired of managing, suppressing, or outrunning your own body…

There is nothing wrong with you.

Your system is trying to resolve something unfinished.

With the right process, the nervous system can finally untangle what it’s been holding, and your internal world can reorganize into something calmer, stronger, and more whole.

If you want to explore this kind of depth work, I’m here to walk it with you—at your pace, with discernment, and without pressure.

Your story can change.

Your body can settle.

Your identity can heal.

And you don’t have to do it alone.