The role of Fascia in Trauma Healing

What is Fascia?

Fascia is a connective tissue, primarily collagen that forms a fibrous web that extends into every structure and system of your body. It helps to support overall structure, stabilize and to aid in movement.

Key Functions

There are many different types of fascia including superficial layers just under your skin and deeper layers that wrap around your muscles and bones. One of the key functions of fascia is to allow the surrounding tissues to slide and glide across each other, providing a nourishing and lubricating layer around the organs including the lungs, digestive organs and endocrine glans.

Fascia is also deeply intertwined with the nervous system and it is shaped by how you think, feel, move, and breathe in response to the environment. It plays a key role in transmitting hormones (e.g. adrenaline, estrogen, insulin, thyroid hormones, oxytocin) and neurotransmitters (e.g. serotonin, dopamine, GABA, acetylcholine) throughout your body.

Fascia also plays a key role in your resilience, how you physically experience stress and heal from traumatic events.  Furthermore, fascia plays a key role in the immune system. 

Unhealthy Fascia

Lack of movement, emotional stress, physical injury and historical trauma can lead to the stickiness or hardening of fascia. Overtime, your body will adapt and compensate as a result of chronic stress and/or repetitive movements or postures. The fascia will then develop areas of tension, tightness, or restrictions in response to these adaptations. These restrictions disrupt fascia’s normal function, which may lead to:

• Chronic pain

• Chronic fatigue syndrome

• Histamine intolerance

• Systemic inflammation

• Fibromyalgia

Fascia and the Vagus Nerve

The vagus nerve is a lengthy 10th cranial nerve stretches from our brainstem down to our abdomen. It is a bi-directional information highway between brain and body that helps regulate your autonomic nervous system (ANS).

The ANS manages and regulates the involuntary actions of the body such as stress response, heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, respiratory function, body temperature and urinary function. The vagus nerve helps us regulate our response to stress through its connection with the ANS.

When we experience stress or perceive a threat, our body activates the sympathetic branch of the ANS, the ‘fight or flight’ response, leading to an increase in heart rate, respiration, and blood pressure while suppressing functions such as digestion and immune response.

 The vagus nerve, however, acts as a counterbalance to the fight or flight response. It activates the parasympathetic branch of the ANS, which promotes a state of relaxation and restoration, supporting functions such as digestion, immune function, and tissue repair.

Fascia and the vagus nerve are closely connected both anatomically and functionally. The fascial tissues contain sensory receptors that respond to mechanical forces such as pressure, stretch, and tension.

These receptors send signals to the brain, which then influence the function of the vagus nerve in regulating autonomic functions and maintaining balance in the body.

Healthy fascia protects and promotes the health of the vagus nerve, which regulates the ANS, proving the deep connection and reliance fascia and the vagus nerve have on one another.

 Fascia and Trauma

When we have experienced a physical injury or emotional trauma we tend to go into shock which restricts movement to ensure our survival. Simply put, we either move into either freeze (tonic immobility) or faint (collapsed immobility) responses. If this trauma response doesn’t resolve we can feel stuck in having too much tone in the body or too little. We lose touch with our natural capacity to rhythmically expand and contract.

 Unresolved trauma has consequences on our emotional and physical health. Not only can the fascial harden up; but, it can leave us in a perpetual state of activation, giving the message to our body that we are still under a perceived threat, this can, in turn lead to psychosomatic issues.

 Below are a few signs that you your body is in a threat response:

• Digestive distress (bloating, acid reflux, IBS)

• Changes in your breath (fast, shallow, held)

• Increased muscular tension

• Loss of postural tone or feeling collapsed

• Feeling jumpy, restless, fidgety

• Excessive still or feeling “frozen”

Learning how to recognise the states we are in with curiosity is an important first step in knowing how to respond and support ourselves appropriately. For example, when noticing that the breath is shallow and/or fast, we might want to use somatic tools to help down regulate the nervous system – i.e. long slow breaths, touch, grounding, etc. If we notice our body is in more of a collapse or frozen state, we might want to focus on bringing more movement to our body – i.e. going for a walk, exercise or even simple gentle stretches.

 Fascia and Embodiment

One of the key ways to restore the health of our fascia, which in turn will support the overall healing of our body and mind, involves restoring a relationship to your body. 

Embodiment is the conscious awareness of your felt sense of self that is developed through sensing the body from the inside out. This inward sensing can be developed through becoming aware of the change in sensations in the muscles, organs, heart rate, temperature, etc. This inward sensing, begins to build a relationship of trust with our internal landscape, leading to an increased sense of safety and trust in our body’s innate intelligence.

Developing this interceptive capacity isn’t always easy, especially when there has been some past history of chronic pain or illness, which often leaves us feeling betrayed by the body. In this case, it is important to practice patience, acceptance and trust in the process, so you can slowly peel the layers of beliefs previously established that have been hindering the development of trust and opened with your body.  

Including mindful movement and other forms of somatic practices, such as below, in your daily routine will also support your embodiment journey:

• Conscious breathing

• Mindful stretching

• Yoga

• Strength training (when done consciously)

• Body-scan meditation

• Self-inquiry

Below are a couple of videos for Fascia Release that you can try at home.