What It Means to Be Trauma-Informed (and Why It Matters for Real Healing)
- Andrea Goodwin
- Aug 29
- 3 min read
Updated: Oct 30
Why Nervous System Safety — Not Just Strategy — Is the Key to Transformation
You’ve probably seen the term trauma-informed floating around in coaching, therapy, or even your workplace. But what does it actually mean?
And more importantly — why does it matter for your healing, growth, or performance?
If you’re someone who’s been doing all the right things — working on your mindset, meditating, going to therapy — but still find yourself stuck in the same cycles of stress, burnout, or emotional shutdown, there’s a missing link you need to know about:
⚠️ Your nervous system might not feel safe enough to change. And that’s where trauma-informed care comes in.
🧠 What Is Trauma-Informed Care?
Trauma-informed care is more than just a buzzword. It’s a lens — a respectful, science-backed way of working with humans that understands how past stress and trauma shape present-day patterns.
In simple terms, trauma-informed practitioners:
Understand the nervous system’s role in stress, survival, and healing
Recognize how trauma can show up as anxiety, perfectionism, people-pleasing, fatigue, and more
Prioritize emotional and physiological safety before diving into deep work
Avoid re-triggering or overwhelming the system
Empower clients to stay in control of their process
In a trauma-informed space, your system leads the pace. Because true healing can’t happen when your body still feels like it’s under threat.
🔁 Why Strategy Isn’t Enough (Especially for High Achievers)
Many of my clients are high-performing professionals who have read the books, done the therapy, and mastered the self-help podcasts.
But they still feel stuck. Why?
Because they’re approaching healing like a productivity goal — when what their nervous system actually needs is slowness, safety, and deep rest.
Being trauma-informed means we don’t push. We listen to the body’s signals, work with the subconscious patterns driving overdoing or shutdown, and honor the survival strategies that helped you get this far — even if they’re no longer serving you.
🧭 What a Trauma-Informed Session Might Feel Like
In a trauma-informed session with me, we focus on creating conditions where your body and brain can relax enough to rewire.
This might include:
Somatic coaching that honors your body’s rhythms and pace
Brainspotting to release stuck emotional patterns from the subconscious
Internal Family Systems (IFS) Parts Work to connect with protective parts like your Inner Critic or Perfectionist
Rhythmic listening protocols like the Rest & Restore Protocol™ or the Safe and Sound Protocol™ to help regulate the vagus nerve and re-establish safety from the inside out
Reiki or energy work to support subtle body healing and calm
It’s not about doing more. It’s about being with yourself differently.
⚙️ The Science Behind It: Trauma Lives in the Body
Trauma isn’t just about what happened to you — it’s about how your body had to adapt to survive it.
When the nervous system gets stuck in chronic fight, flight, freeze, or fawn responses, it impacts everything:
Emotional resilience
Digestive function
Sleep
Immune health
Hormone balance
Your ability to feel connected or calm
Trauma-informed care helps unwind these patterns at the root. We’re not just changing thoughts. We’re changing physiology.
💬 You Deserve a Healing Space That Feels Safe
Whether you’re new to healing work or have been on this path for years, you deserve support that sees all of you — your past, your present, and your protective parts.
Being trauma-informed means I’ll never force you to open up, rehash your history, or go faster than your system can handle.
It means we build trust first. And then, we get curious about what’s possible when your body finally feels safe enough to shift.
💡 Curious About Working Together?
You don’t have to power through another round of burnout. You don’t have to push down another wave of anxiety just to get through the day.
Let’s explore a trauma-informed path to healing that’s gentle, grounded, and deeply transformative.
✍️ About the Author
Andrea Goodwin is a Somatic Coach and the founder of Retune Health, a science-backed, heart-centered wellness practice that helps high achievers and wellness seekers regulate their nervous systems, release subconscious stress patterns, and restore balance in body, mind, and spirit.
With over 20 years of experience as a healthcare executive, Andrea brings a unique blend of real-world leadership, clinical insight, and holistic care to her work. Because burnout and overwhelm show up in our bodies, minds, and energy, she offers deeply personalized, mind-body-spirit support to help clients feel more grounded, clear, and alive — often in ways they never thought possible.
Through 1:1 sessions, group programs, and integrative experiences, Andrea guides clients toward a more intuitive, connected, and joyful way of being.
🌿 Explore sessions or subscribe to the newsletter at www.retunehealth.com
📍 Based in the northwest suburbs of Chicago | Virtual sessions available worldwide
