[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":120},["ShallowReactive",2],{"article-\u002Farticles\u002Fthe-body-keeps-the-appointment":3,"article-rel-\u002Farticles\u002Fthe-body-keeps-the-appointment":81},{"id":4,"title":5,"author":6,"authorTitle":7,"body":8,"date":67,"description":68,"draft":69,"extension":70,"featured":69,"heroCredit":71,"heroImage":72,"meta":73,"navigation":74,"path":75,"readingTime":76,"seo":77,"stem":78,"topic":79,"__hash__":80},"articles\u002Farticles\u002Fthe-body-keeps-the-appointment.md","The body keeps the appointment","Dr Marcus Holloway","clinical psychologist",{"type":9,"value":10,"toc":59},"minimark",[11,15,20,23,29,33,36,39,43,56],[12,13,14],"p",{},"One of the most useful shifts in trauma science over the past few decades is the\nrecognition that trauma is not stored the way a diary is. It is held in the\nnervous system as readiness — a body braced for a danger that has, in fact,\nalready passed.",[16,17,19],"h2",{"id":18},"why-just-talk-about-it-can-fail","Why \"just talk about it\" can fail",[12,21,22],{},"Talking is a cortical activity. Much of what trauma does happens below that\nlevel, in systems that evolved to act fast and ask questions never. This is why\na person can understand, intellectually, that they are safe and still find their\nheart racing at a sound, a smell, a date on a calendar. The knowing and the\nbracing live in different places.",[24,25,26],"blockquote",{},[12,27,28],{},"Recovery is not persuading the mind that the danger is over. It is persuading\nthe body.",[16,30,32],{"id":31},"where-new-approaches-fit","Where new approaches fit",[12,34,35],{},"Some psychedelic-assisted protocols for post-traumatic stress are interesting\nprecisely because they appear to change the conditions under which a memory can\nbe approached — lowering the alarm enough that the experience can be revisited\nwithout the body slamming the door. The therapy does the work; the medicine, in\nthis account, widens the window in which the work is bearable.",[12,37,38],{},"This is a hypothesis under investigation, not a settled mechanism. But it points\nat something clinicians have long observed: people can often only process what\nthey are not, in that moment, drowning in.",[16,40,42],{"id":41},"what-this-means-for-expectations","What this means for expectations",[44,45,46,50,53],"ul",{},[47,48,49],"li",{},"The aim is not erasure of memory but a changed relationship to it.",[47,51,52],{},"Bodily safety — pacing, grounding, a trusted person present — is not optional.",[47,54,55],{},"Progress is frequently non-linear, and a hard week is not a failed treatment.",[12,57,58],{},"The body kept the appointment for years. Healing tends to mean, at last, being\nallowed to leave the waiting room.",{"title":60,"searchDepth":61,"depth":61,"links":62},"",3,[63,65,66],{"id":18,"depth":64,"text":19},2,{"id":31,"depth":64,"text":32},{"id":41,"depth":64,"text":42},"2026-04-10","Trauma is not only a memory problem. Understanding why it lives in the body helps explain why some emerging therapies work on the body's terms, not the mind's alone.",false,"md","Higher Place — original artwork","\u002Fimg\u002Fheroes\u002Ftrauma-ptsd.svg",{},true,"\u002Farticles\u002Fthe-body-keeps-the-appointment",8,{"title":5,"description":68},"articles\u002Fthe-body-keeps-the-appointment","trauma-ptsd","LMOSdC7N3Bq0ALkwZbZLm7K1Thm3G_2QY5W7YXlJj20",[82],{"id":4,"title":5,"author":6,"authorTitle":7,"body":83,"date":67,"description":68,"draft":69,"extension":70,"featured":69,"heroCredit":71,"heroImage":72,"meta":118,"navigation":74,"path":75,"readingTime":76,"seo":119,"stem":78,"topic":79,"__hash__":80},{"type":9,"value":84,"toc":113},[85,87,89,91,95,97,99,101,103,111],[12,86,14],{},[16,88,19],{"id":18},[12,90,22],{},[24,92,93],{},[12,94,28],{},[16,96,32],{"id":31},[12,98,35],{},[12,100,38],{},[16,102,42],{"id":41},[44,104,105,107,109],{},[47,106,49],{},[47,108,52],{},[47,110,55],{},[12,112,58],{},{"title":60,"searchDepth":61,"depth":61,"links":114},[115,116,117],{"id":18,"depth":64,"text":19},{"id":31,"depth":64,"text":32},{"id":41,"depth":64,"text":42},{},{"title":5,"description":68},1779224636635]