Trauma is not defined solely by what happened —
it’s shaped by how our own mind and body internalize and shape these experiences.
What we endure during trauma is a direct fracture in our nervous system's rhythm and the brain's experience of safety.

How we overcome trauma is also directly influenced by our own sense of safety and security in our relationships.

Research in neuroscience and attachment theory emphasize how trauma directly impacts how memory is stored; it is the exact reason that many sensations, emotions, or pieces of one's experience can seem extremely vivid, while another person's experience may seem inexistent or forgotten.
 
One's protective strategies, the direct impacts of trauma (and the nervous systems response to danger), can lead to adaptive strategies, such as a hypervigilance, avoidance, and numbing patterns. As attachment therapists, we look at navigating these earlier protective strategies, and how they've directly impacted forming safety in our own relationships, past and present. 

When working with clients using the EFT model, both emotional processing and the therapeutic bond are key to change. The therapist has the capacity to open doors into underlying emotion and meaning that ultimately help shape and transform core emotional experiences. Through safe emotional attunement in session, and experiential processes, the therapist helps clients create new meaning around experiences of shame, fear, or avoidance, cultivating renewed safety and self-trust.

In EFT, trauma is approached from, not directly visiting the event itself, but through connecting to self and other(s). Recovery is all about reconnection.