Returning to Your Body After Betrayal — The First Step to Healing in 2026
Why Betrayal Trauma Pulls You Out of Your Body
January is supposed to be the month of fresh starts, resolutions, and reinvention.
But if you’re healing from betrayal or navigating a life-saving divorce, January often feels like a spotlight on the parts of you that feel disconnected, scattered, or shut down.
So many women tell me:
“I don’t feel like myself.”
“I can’t calm down.”
“My mind knows I’m safe, but my body doesn’t.”
This is one of the most common — and least talked about — impacts of betrayal trauma.
Betrayal doesn’t just hurt your heart.
It disrupts your attachment system and your nervous system at the same time.
Your body gets thrown into survival mode without your consent.
You didn’t “lose yourself.”
Your body protected you.
The Nervous System’s Response to Betrayal: What’s Actually Happening
One reason healing feels confusing is because your brain and your body don’t recover at the same speed.
Betrayal trauma triggers:
fight
flight
freeze
fawn
These are not personality traits — they are automatic survival responses.
Your nervous system reacts long before your mind has time to understand what happened. This is why you may:
feel numb or disconnected
snap into anxiety without warning
shut down emotionally
stay hypervigilant
struggle to make decisions
feel like you’re floating outside yourself
This isn’t emotional weakness.
This is biology.
This is your neuroception — your body’s internal threat detector — doing what it was designed to do.
You can’t mindset your way out of a dysregulated nervous system.
You have to feel your way back into safety.
This is why somatic healing methods like Brainspotting, Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) principles, and the Alexander Technique interweaves are so effective. They help the body complete the protective responses that betrayal interrupted.
Why Reconnecting to Your Body Is the Real First Step of Healing
So many women try to rebuild their lives before they’ve actually returned to themselves.
But you cannot access clarity, intuition, boundaries, or self-trust without some level of somaticsafety. Your body is the foundation of everything else.
Before reinvention comes reconnection.
Before clarity comes regulation.
Before trust comes safety.
When the nervous system softens, even a little, you start to hear yourself again.
A Simple Somatic Reset You Can Do Today
You don’t need a long routine to begin reconnecting with your body.
Start with one minute.
One-Minute Body Check-In
Place your hand over your heart or sternum.
Let your eyes move slowly around the room until they land on something neutral or calming.
Bring your attention to one place in your body that feels even slightly less tense.
Breathe into that spot for three slow breaths.
Whisper: “I’m here. I’m listening.”
It seems small, but this practice begins to reopen the pathways between your brain and your body — the pathways that betrayal tried to shut down.
This is how safety returns, moment by moment.
2026 Can Be the Year You Feel Like You Again
Not the “old you.”
Not the “performing strength” version of you.
Not the “holding it all together” version either.
But the you who is grounded, connected, wise, and aware of your own agency.
That version is still here.
She’s just waiting for your nervous system to feel safe enough to let her lead again.
If you want support this month
Dating From Within – January 8 to 10
If you want to date again without abandoning yourself or repeating old patterns, this workshop is your foundation.
Somatic Healing Sessions
For those ready for deeper healing using Brainspotting, DBR-informed work, or Alexander Technique interweaves.
APSATS Conference (February)
If you’ll be there, say hi — I love connecting with you in person.
Free Divorce & Healing Q&A
Happening the first Thursday of every month.
Final Thought
Your body is not the enemy.
Your symptoms are not failures.
Your reactions are not flaws.
They are invitations.
Invitations to slow down.
To reconnect.
To honor what you’ve lived through.
And to step into this next chapter with your whole self — not just the parts that survived, but the parts that are ready to truly live.
You are the creator of your life, and you get to create the life you want — because you can.
Amie Woolsey
