Exploring Trauma Through the Sensory Systems: Insights on Balance, the Vestibular System, and Healing
My recent experience at the Transform Trauma event in Oxford brought attention to the relationship between trauma, neuroscience, and the sensory systems. Trauma is not only a psychological experience. It can also affect how we perceive our bodies, navigate our surroundings, and experience safety, balance, and connection.
The Vestibular System and Trauma
The vestibular system plays a central role in balance, movement, and spatial orientation. Its relationship to trauma offers an important area for clinical consideration, particularly in understanding how sensory processing may influence a person’s experience of stability and safety.
A sensory-informed approach can complement existing trauma treatments by broadening how clinicians assess symptoms and develop treatment plans.
A Sneak Peek at a New Resource
One exciting work highlighted in this area is the highly anticipated upcoming book, The Atlas of the Traumatized Brain: A Sensory Roadmap for Healing, by Dr. Ruth Lanius and her colleagues Benjamin Pandev-Girard, Breanne Kearney, and Sherain Harricharan.
As a clinician with a background in trauma-informed bodywork, I’m particularly interested in how their clinical research illustrates the importance of touch in trauma healing. The book offers a sensory roadmap for understanding trauma through neuroscience and the eight sensory systems. Its framework explores how bottom-up, sensory-based strategies can be integrated with top-down approaches to inform clinical assessment and treatment.
The work also considers the distinction between trauma responses and neurodiversity, as well as the potential role of sensory pathways in supporting connection, meaning making, and recovery.
This emerging framework offers clinicians another way to consider the relationship between the brain, sensory systems, and trauma treatment.
