The trauma reflex arises due to an accident or injury, but it can also be a bodily response to an imminent threat. It can also develop as a consequence of chronic asymmetric strain (waiters, hairdressers, tennis players, handball players…) and specific adaptations in work or sport. For example, when a leg is broken, the muscles of the injured leg tense due to shock to reduce the pain, and later the muscles on the opposite side of the torso tense up because they must take on the load of the entire body instead of the injured leg. During rehabilitation, this change often becomes permanent and prevents the even distribution of load across the legs.
The trauma reflex can also be triggered by emotional pain and psychological trauma. A word, gesture, or relationship can increase muscle tension just as much as a blow, fall, or fracture. For example, when a mother breaks our heart as we realize she hates us, we tense the left side of the chest and the entire left side of the body. When a father abandons us and doesn’t come to our aid even though he could, tension forms on the right side of the body. When we have to suppress rage and contempt, muscle tension is activated on the right side, leading to postural and movement consequences similar to a broken right leg. The inability to show love, or when someone exploits our compassion or affection, causes similar effects on the left side of the body.
The trauma reflex is always a consequence of avoiding pain, both physical and psychological.
The trauma reflex is a necessary bodily response to danger and helplessness, where the soma seeks escape from the situation through fleeing or changing the direction of movement and influence in order to bring about a necessary change in life. It’s similar to instinctively swerving while driving to avoid an oncoming threat. If the threat is acute and we can escape by changing direction, the trauma reflex doesn’t become chronic. However, the chronic form is harmful in the long term, as we become accustomed to it and stop noticing it, making it impossible to eliminate. It limits our direction choices and guides us subconsciously. AEQ somatics focuses on chronic forms of trauma reflex by reducing sensory-motor amnesia, particularly in cases where the trauma reflex results from physical injury. If its origin lies in psychological pain and relationships, the help of an AEQ teacher is necessary, as the process requires increasing emotional maturity, which AEQ somatics alone cannot adequately provide.
An activated trauma reflex is similar to riding a bicycle with a twisted handlebar that pulls to one side. It is easier to turn in that direction and harder in the opposite one. If this reflex becomes chronic, it increasingly influences our decisions, which unconsciously become repetitive, leading us in circles like a lost person in the desert, returning again and again to the same spot, wasting time and energy while remaining in distress.
The trauma reflex manifests outwardly in various ways: a tilted head or body, uneven shoulder height, unequal eye openness, limping or unequal stride length, and different arm swing amplitudes while walking. Usually, the person has injured a hand or leg or received a strong blow to the side of the torso. They turn more easily in one direction, and when walking, their footsteps produce uneven sounds. In stronger activation, the person stops turning their face toward their conversation partner.
Again, the trauma reflex is always a result of avoiding pain. When something hurts, we instinctively protect ourselves by changing posture and movement to avoid pain.
Yet, the trauma reflex has a much deeper component addressed by the AEQ method. It often requires the guidance of an AEQ teacher who has felt the deeper layer of their trauma reflex and, instead of escaping into sensory-motor amnesia, has confronted it successfully through AEQ training. Only someone who has effectively influenced their own trauma reflex through AEQ exercises and altered their behavior and relationships sufficiently to understand the student’s state can provide proper support and guidance. Such a teacher also gains the student’s trust more fully.
A chronically activated trauma reflex disables the ability to fight against what threatens us or to flee from what causes trauma. The system chronically activates the trauma reflex to help us adapt to threatening situations and accept the belief that different behavior is impossible. The reflex thus prevents more severe long-term consequences that could result from spontaneous, authentic actions in an environment that threatens us, as resistance or escape could escalate the danger. If we feel powerless, it’s better to adapt than to die. The system thereby prevents even greater trauma and prolongation of suffering.
Example: The child doesn’t want to go to kindergarten
A child refuses kindergarten because they feel they should stay with their mother. The mother is stuck in a dysfunctional relationship and feels lonely, scared, and in need of care and attention lacking in her partnership. The child, driven by survival instinct, tries to provide what the mother needs, as maintaining the connection with the parent is vital. The child senses that the mother must not be left alone and that she needs him, even though she consciously knows he must go to kindergarten because she has to work. The child resists leaving for kindergarten, which disrupts and bothers the mother, but she doesn’t understand the real cause of the child’s resistance and perceives the attachment as excessive, not recognizing the poor connection between herself and her partner. Thus, the child receives two conflicting messages: one part of the mother says it’s not okay to leave her, and the other insists he must go. This creates intense inner pain and activates the child’s sympathetic nervous system, affecting behavior and disrupting the mother’s life. The child then must reduce sensitivity to the mother’s influence, which causes problems with both her and the environment. He resolves this by increasing tension on the left side of his torso (especially the chest), creating a condition that, in terms of chronic muscle tension, is equivalent to a broken left leg or repeated sprains of the left ankle.
It’s also important to know that such muscular tension caused by chronic emotional trauma and psychological injury increases the likelihood of physical injury to the affected side or body part (leg, arm, torso, head), reinforcing and stabilizing the tension pattern. Through conversation, hands-on work, and analysis of childhood relationships, trauma reflexes can be linked to chronic injuries in all clients. Scoliosis arises from the same cause: the child had to adapt their structure to maintain a chronically dysfunctional parental relationship for safety and survival.
This causes changes throughout the body, strongly impacts confidence in legs and grounding, significantly affects walking and movement efficiency, and unconsciously limits diversity, spontaneity, and creativity. Balance is crucial for a naturally upright human. When the trauma reflex causes the body to lean, it affects structures evolved for upright posture. Consequences can include torso leaning, pelvic, shoulder, back, and neck rotation, eventually leading to serious problems: limping, arthritis, foot pain, restricted hip rotation, scoliosis, chronic fatigue, and leg length discrepancy.
From the upcoming book AEQ Somatics: The Path Out of Chronic Issues with the AEQ Approach
Author: Aleš Ernst
