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A growing body of evidence shows a link between childhood trauma and physical illness in adulthood.

Mind-body symptoms such as migraines, eczema, and digestive issues may stem from a traumatic childhood.

But these symptoms can be treated with skilled, holistic care—including trauma-informed therapy.

How is your gut? I hope it’s gurgling away happily, digesting food, extracting nutrients, and dispatching waste as it was designed to do. But for many of us, including me, our gut is not a happy organ. I have long struggled with both acid reflux and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), neither of which is fun. It’s clear to me that these conditions, along with musculoskeletal problems and eczema, are stress-related—and that this stress is long-term, with roots in childhood trauma.

This is one of those connections—from early childhood to adulthood—that can be hard for folks to understand or even accept sometimes, so let’s explore it together. First, every physical illness clearly manifests in the body. I have a cold right now, and it is showing up, with annoying persistence, in my sinuses, nose, throat, and chest. And some illnesses, like my cold, are purely biological, caused by an invading pathogen. Others are purely the result of physical trauma, such as breaking your wrist when falling off a ladder.

But many........

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