Rebuilding Body Trust

When Trust Is Broken

There are many ways body trust gets ruptured:

Trauma: The body was the site of violation. It couldn’t protect you. It may have responded in ways that felt like betrayal—freezing, becoming aroused, not fighting back.

Illness: The body got sick. It failed to function. It became unreliable, painful, frightening.

Chronic pain: The body became a source of suffering rather than pleasure. It can’t be trusted to feel good.

Medical experiences: Procedures, surgeries, treatments that involved violation of bodily autonomy—even when medically necessary.

Postpartum: The body changed in ways you didn’t choose. Birth may have been traumatic. The body you knew is gone.

Aging and menopause: The body is changing in unwanted ways. It no longer does what it used to. It feels foreign.

When body trust is broken, the body becomes other—something to manage, override, distrust, or dissociate from. The felt sense of being at home in yourself is lost.

The Cost

Living without body trust is exhausting. You’re always on guard. You can’t relax into physical experience. Pleasure is suspect. Sensation is threatening.

Sexuality suffers particularly because it requires surrendering to the body—letting it lead, letting it feel, letting it respond. Without trust, that surrender is terrifying.

The body cut off from trust becomes a shell you live in rather than the medium through which you experience life.

What Trust Means

Body trust isn’t naive confidence that nothing bad will happen. It’s not pretending the body is invulnerable.

Body trust is:

Believing your body is on your side
Knowing your body’s signals are meaningful information
Feeling safe enough to be present in physical experience
Allowing sensation without bracing against it
Sensing that the body will try to take care of you

It’s a relationship—one that can be rebuilt even after rupture.

The Path Back

Acknowledge the Rupture

Trust-building starts with acknowledging that trust was broken—and that there were real reasons for the break.

If your body was violated, you learned it wasn’t safe. If illness struck, you learned it couldn’t be relied upon. These responses made sense.

You’re not trying to pretend nothing happened. You’re building new experiences that update the old learning.

Start with Safety

Before asking the body to open, establish basic safety. This might mean:

Creating physical environments that feel safe
Reducing exposure to triggers
Working with a therapist if needed
Going slowly—not forcing anything

You can’t rebuild trust while actively being violated or while danger is present.

Small Positive Experiences

Trust rebuilds through accumulated positive experiences. The body learns that it can feel good, that not all sensation is dangerous, that pleasure is possible.

This starts small:

A warm bath where you notice the water feels good
Stretching that feels relieving rather than painful
A meal eaten slowly with enjoyment
Touch that is gentle and welcome

Each small positive experience is a data point: the body can feel good.

Staying Present for Discomfort

Part of trust is knowing you can handle difficult sensations without being destroyed by them.

With appropriate support, gradually experiencing uncomfortable sensation—and surviving it—builds capacity. “This is hard, and I’m okay.” “This hurts, and I’m not dying.”

This isn’t pushing through pain or overriding signals. It’s gently expanding the window of what you can be present for.

Body Communication

Trust involves listening. What is your body telling you?

Practice noticing: What does hunger feel like? Fatigue? Contentment? Arousal? Aversion?

Many people with broken body trust have stopped listening because the messages were too painful or confusing. Reconnecting with body signals—starting with simple ones—rebuilds the communication channel.

Titration

If you have significant trauma, flooding the body with sensation too fast can reinforce distrust rather than building trust.

Titration means going slowly. A little bit of presence, then rest. Gradually increasing capacity. Working at the edges without overwhelming the system.

This is why trauma work often benefits from professional support—a skilled therapist can help you titrate appropriately.

Body Trust and Sexuality

As basic body trust returns, sexual body trust can be explored.

This might look like:

Self-touch that feels safe and pleasant
Exploring sensation without goals
Communicating limits with a partner and having them respected
Building from what feels good rather than pushing through what doesn’t

Sexual trust is more vulnerable than general body trust. It may take longer. It deserves patience.

It Takes Time

Body trust built over years of positive experience was broken. It won’t rebuild overnight.

This is slow work. There will be setbacks—days when trust feels as far away as ever. That’s normal.

What matters is the overall direction. More moments of presence. More experiences of safety. More capacity to be in your body without bracing.

Your body has been waiting for you to come home. It will welcome you when you’re ready.

Go Deeper

These are the original writings this entry draws from: