The Spine Remembers: How We Hold and Heal Trauma
Trauma Lives in the Body, Not Just the Mind
Here in the Bay Area, the air has felt heavy lately; it’s not just from wildfire smoke but also from collective stress. The Bay Area Air District recently lowered its threshold for issuing Spare the Air alerts, meaning more frequent warnings around fine particulate pollution in our region.
When the air fills with smoke, when schools and streets whisper of anxiety, when neighbors talk about “feeling stuck,” these are not only environmental stressors. Your body picks them up.
At Kaname Chiropractic, we say the body tells the truth. Our spines carry more than posture. They carry the weight of what we’ve experienced: scars, disappointments, losses and all the tensions between. A stiff neck from hours indoors with masked air, a lower back ache from holding tension silently, shoulders tight from bracing against uncertainty.
These are not random aches. They are messages from your nervous system, waiting to be heard.
How Trauma Is Stored in the Spine
In moments of perceived threat — whether from a fast-moving wildfire, a public health warning, or ongoing anxiety about climate, economy, or community safety — the body moves into protection mode:
Muscles tighten to shield.
Breath becomes shallow to stay alert.
Posture shifts defensively.
If the body never gets a full “all clear” signal, those protective patterns linger. That’s why you might see common presentations among Bay Area patients:
Chronic back pain
Neck and shoulder tension
Headaches or migraines
Restrictive breathing
Digestive discomfort
In our upcoming post on Fight, Flight, Freeze & Fawn as Body Patterns, we noted how each of these responses leaves a distinct somatic imprint along the spine. Here, those imprints are often echoed in our local rhythms: the smoky air days, the school or work stress, the community anxiety.
Chiropractic Care for Trauma Release
A chiropractic adjustment is more than a physical shift. It’s a communication to the nervous system: It’s safe now.
Patients often report:
A sudden lightness
Deeper, freer breathing
Unexpected emotional shifts with tears, relief, release
These are not anomalies. They are signs your spine is beginning to let go of what it no longer needs to carry.
Just as the Bay Area changes with the seasons, shedding leaves and adjusting to shifting light, the body too can shed old layers of tension. That is renewal in action.
Healing in Community
The open adjusting room at Kaname, Castro Valley
In San Mateo and neighboring towns, we’re reminded daily how essential connection is. From mask mandates returning in healthcare settings across San Mateo County and others to news about teens turning to stress-coping behavior in Alameda County, we’re reminded: mental health is collective.
At Kaname, our open adjusting rooms are designed for more than physical work — they are spaces of shared vulnerability, of quiet witnessing. Because healing is not meant to happen in isolation.
Your spine doesn’t just remember pain. It remembers safety, belonging and the capacity to recover when offered space and care.
If your body feels like it’s holding onto tension, grief or overwhelm, chiropractic care in the Bay Area might help you release it and reclaim ease. Send us a message, perhaps we can help.