More Than a Buzzword: The Mind-Body Connection in Clinical Practice
By Stacy McNeal, PhD, LMFT, Clinical Director of Highlands in Bloom
As a licensed therapist, yoga teacher, and clinical director at a trauma-informed residential center, I have witnessed time and again what many somatic and contemplative traditions have long understood. Namely, that the mind-body connection is real – the body carries our stories, especially the ones we couldn’t speak at the time.
The phrase “mind-body connection” gets used a lot these days, but in clinical practice, it’s more than a buzzword. It’s a guiding truth. Your mind doesn’t exist in a vacuum – it lives in your body, shaped by your breath, your posture, your nervous system, and your history.
For those living with trauma, however, this connection often reveals itself not through thoughts but rather through symptoms – such as chronic pain, tension, autoimmune flare-ups, gut issues, and insomnia. These are not just psychosomatic complaints – they’re real, embodied expressions of past overwhelm.
As trauma expert Dr. Bessel van der Kolk wrote in The Body Keeps the Score:
“The body keeps the score: if the memory of trauma is encoded in the viscera, in heartbreaking and gut-wrenching emotions, in autoimmune disorders and skeletal/muscular problems… this demands a radical shift in our therapeutic assumptions.”
Trauma Is a Full-Body Experience
Trauma often begins as an event, but its imprint lingers as a pattern – in the nervous system, the breath, the way someone walks into a room or flinches at kindness.
In a traumatic moment, our bodies are wired to respond with survival mechanisms – fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. But when the body isn’t able to fully process or discharge that threat response, it can stay stuck in overdrive or shut-down. That’s why clients may say, “I know I’m safe, but I don’t feel safe.”
“Traumatized people chronically feel unsafe inside their bodies,” van der Kolk explains.
“Their bodies are constantly bombarded by visceral warning signs.”
At Highlands in Bloom (HiB), we see this daily: the migraines that follow family triggers, the shallow breath of hypervigilance, the collapsed posture of shame. These patterns are not character flaws — they are brilliant, protective adaptations that now need support to unwind.
Healing Through the Body – The Mind-Body Connection
Fortunately, the body is also the gateway back to healing. When we support the nervous system, when we help the body feel safety again – slowly, respectfully – transformation becomes possible.
Our approach includes:
- Somatic therapy to build awareness and regulation
- EMDR for reprocessing traumatic memory in a safe, embodied way
- Yoga and mindful movement to reclaim agency and safety in the body
- Breathwork and grounding practices to anchor presence
- Polyvagal-informed care that restores the body’s natural rhythm of connection
When clients begin to reconnect with their body as a resource instead of a threat, the shift is powerful. The body is no longer a battlefield – it becomes a partner in healing.
An Invitation to Slow Down
If you’ve felt like your body is betraying you, or that therapy hasn’t reached the root of your distress, know this: it’s not all in your head – it’s in your whole system. And you’re not broken. Your body has been protecting you the best way it knows how.
At Highlands in Bloom, we help clients listen to those signals, tend to them with compassion, and slowly build a felt sense of safety again. Full-body healing is not quick, but it is possible.
Healing is not about “getting over it.”
It’s about coming back home to yourself — gently, one breath at a time.
Highlands in Bloom
Residential Treatment Center for Autoimmune + Mental Health
Agoura Hills, California
(805) 892-6313
Licensed by CDSS • Certified by DHCS • JCAHO Accredited
