Implicit Memory & Somatic Healing

You’ve done the work. You’ve journaled, talked it through, revisited your memories repeatedly, and tried to understand how to heal that stubborn pattern that keeps showing up in different ways. You’ve told yourself it’s in the past, that it shouldn’t affect you anymore. But your body… tells a different story.

You still shut down when conflict arises.
You still freeze in moments of intimacy or connection.
You still feel like something’s wrong with you, even when everything “should” feel fine.

And maybe the most confusing part is:
You don’t know why.

This is where many people begin their journey into somatic healing, with a persistent feeling that something inside is stuck.

But you can’t fully explain it.

There’s a reason talk therapy or mindset work hasn’t reached this part of you. It’s because the pain you’re carrying isn’t always stored in your mind. It’s stored in your body.

This is what’s known as implicit memory — the kind of memory you don’t consciously remember, but that your nervous system never forgot. It lives in your muscle tension, your breath patterns, your startle responses. In your gut, your shoulders, your skin.

It’s the memory of not feeling safe and of being emotionally neglected, even if your childhood looked “fine.” The memory of learning to smile and stay small, because being your full self never felt truly welcome.

You may not have a story for what happened.
But your body remembers how it felt.

This kind of pain doesn’t respond to logic.
Because it didn’t come in through logic, it came in through experience.

That’s why healing has to happen through experience, too. Through re-patterning the nervous system with new felt experiences of safety, connection, and permission.

This is what somatic healing offers.

It’s not about reliving trauma, but about becoming aware of how your body has adapted, and gently helping it find another way.

What healing feels like in the body

Somatic healing is not one-size-fits-all. Sometimes it’s as simple as feeling your breath deepen. Sometimes it’s learning to stay present through a wave of emotion without shutting down.
Sometimes it’s letting your body move in a way it never could before: shaking, sounding, dancing, stretching, yawning.

Each time you feel a little more, stay with yourself a little longer, your body realizes: I’m safe now. I don’t have to hold my breath anymore.

And that’s the whole purpose of this work. When we start to listen to the body’s responses and give it what it actually needs in the moment, following it’s call for movement and release, we regulate our nervous system and slowly begin to embody safety.

If this post awakens something in you, and you feel like this is something you would like to explore deeper, I offer 1:1 coaching where I blend parts work, somatic healing, shadow work, and energy work to help you become aware of your stubborn patterns, heal what needs to be healed, and start taking aligned action towards your most dreamy life. Send me a message at elinor[at]sacredunmasking.com and tell me a bit about yourself, and we’ll take it from there!

With love,

Elinor

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For transparency, this post is written in collaboration with my friend ChatGPT.