How Trauma Rewires the Brain — and What It Takes to Heal

Trauma changes the brain — but not in the way some people think. In this post from the Resolve to Rise series, we’ll explore how trauma reshapes the brain for survival, what neuroscience reveals about those changes, and how healing can help you rewire your brain for calm, safety, and connection.

Why Does Trauma Impact the Brain?

When trauma happens, your brain doesn’t fail you — it protects you.

It rewires itself for survival, even if that means staying on high alert long after the danger has passed. Just as a fever helps fight infection, your brain and body activate certain regions and quiet others in response to threat. Stress hormones surge, heart rate increases, and attention narrows — all designed to keep you safe.

This is wisdom at work. Your body knows how to protect you.

But when the danger is repeated or prolonged, the brain learns to stay on alert — even when the threat is gone. That’s why emotional regulation, focus, and memory can feel harder.

We struggle because we are adaptive, not because we are defective.

Trauma and the Brain: Three Key Areas

When you’ve lived through repeated stress, your brain’s alarm system can get stuck on on.

The alarm system stays loud, the thinking brain goes quiet, and your memory starts to blur. That’s because trauma affects three key regions:

• Amygdala: Detects threats and triggers the fight, flight, or freeze response (Rauch et al., 2000).

• Prefrontal Cortex: The “thinking” brain that helps plan, problem-solve, and regulate emotions goes offline (Shin et al., 2006).

• Hippocampus: Handles memory processing — when disrupted, it can lead to flashbacks, confusion, or difficulty forming new memories (Bremner et al., 1995).

These aren’t the only areas affected, but they’re where change begins when your brain learns it must always be ready to protect you. That adaptation keeps you alive — but at a cost.

What fMRI Studies Reveal About Trauma

Neuroscience has made trauma visible. Functional MRI (fMRI) scans show specific patterns — some areas that light up too much, others that go dark, and networks that stop communicating. 

Here’s what researchers consistently find:

1. Default Mode Network (DMN) Disruption – challenges with self-perception, intrusive memories, and rumination (Bluhm et al., 2009).

2. Amygdala Hyperactivity and Enlargement – heightened emotional reactivity and difficulty calming down (Rauch et al., 2000).

3. Hippocampal Atrophy – memory disruption and increased flashbacks (Bremner et al., 1995).

4. Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) Dysfunction – struggles with decision-making, impulse control, and emotional regulation (Shin et al., 2006).

5. Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) Changes – increased emotional reactivity and reduced ability to manage distress (Etkin & Wager, 2007).

6. Insular Cortex Abnormalities – difficulty connecting emotions with bodily sensations (Simmons et al., 2009).

If you’ve experienced repeated trauma and find yourself struggling in these ways, it’s because your brain made necessary adaptations to ensure you are safe. 

Repairing Your Brain After Trauma

Your brain rewired itself to keep you safe — now, it can be rewired to help you heal.

Healing starts with safety and regulation. Evidence shows that:  

• Bottom-up approaches — like mindfulness, yoga, breathwork, and physical exercise — help calm the nervous system and restore balance (van der Kolk, 2014; Streeter et al., 2012). 

• Evidence-based therapies such as EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), or Prolonged Exposure (PE) can help reprocess and integrate traumatic memories (Shapiro, 2017).

• Adjunctive tools like neurofeedback or network spinal analysis may also strengthen emotional regulation and reinforce neural stability (van der Kolk et al., 2016). 

Over time, safety, connection, and meaning help those gains last. Healing your brain from repetitive trauma starts with safety, deepens through processing, and strengthens with practice — each step reminding you that you are adaptive, resilient, and capable of healing.

References

Benjet, C., Bromet, E., Karam, E. G., Kessler, R. C., McLaughlin, K. A., Ruscio, A. M., ... & Koenen, K. C. (2016). The epidemiology of traumatic event exposure worldwide: results from the World Mental Health Survey Consortium. Psychological Medicine, 46(2), 327–343. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291715001981

Bluhm, R. L., Williamson, P. C., Osuch, E. A., Frewen, P. A., Stevens, T. K., Boksman, K., ... & Lanius, R. A. (2009). Alterations in default network connectivity in posttraumatic stress disorder related to early-life trauma. Journal of Psychiatry & Neuroscience, 34(3), 187–194.

Bremner, J. D., Randall, P., Scott, T. M., Bronen, R. A., Seibyl, J. P., Southwick, S. M., ... & Charney, D. S. (1995). MRI-based measurement of hippocampal volume in patients with combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 152(7), 973–981. https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.152.7.973

Etkin, A., & Wager, T. D. (2007). Functional neuroimaging of anxiety: a meta-analysis of emotional processing in PTSD, social anxiety disorder, and specific phobia. American Journal of Psychiatry, 164(10), 1476–1488. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2007.07030504

Rauch, S. L., Shin, L. M., & Phelps, E. A. (2000). Neurocircuitry models of posttraumatic stress disorder and extinction: human neuroimaging research—past, present, and future. Biological Psychiatry, 60(4), 376–382. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2006.06.004

Shapiro, F. (2017). Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy: Basic principles, protocols, and procedures (3rd ed.). Guilford Press.

Shin, L. M., Rauch, S. L., & Pitman, R. K. (2006). Amygdala, medial prefrontal cortex, and hippocampal function in PTSD. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1071, 67–79. https://doi.org/10.1196/annals.1364.007

Simmons, A. N., Paulus, M. P., Thorp, S. R., Matthews, S. C., Norman, S. B., & Stein, M. B. (2009). Functional activation and neural networks in women with posttraumatic stress disorder related to intimate partner violence. Biological Psychiatry, 66(8), 681–690. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2009.04.021

Streeter, C. C., Gerbarg, P. L., Saper, R. B., Ciraulo, D. A., & Brown, R. P. (2012). Effects of yoga on the autonomic nervous system, gamma-aminobutyric-acid, and allostasis in epilepsy, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Medical Hypotheses, 78(5), 571–579. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mehy.2012.01.021

van der Kolk, B. A. (2014). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Viking.

van der Kolk, B. A., Hodgdon, H., Gapen, M., Musicaro, R., Suvak, M., Hamlin, E., ... & Spinazzola, J. (2016). A randomized controlled study of neurofeedback for chronic PTSD. PLOS ONE, 11(12), e0166752. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0166752