🎙️ Embodied Processing: Healing Trauma Through the Body

leigh milne
May 25
3 min read

An Interview with Ryan Hassan, Co-founder of The Centre for Healing By Leigh Milne, Holistic Psychologist | www.transcendingtrauma.com.au

This week on Transcending Trauma, I had the privilege of interviewing Ryan Hassan, co-founder of The Centre for Healing, about one of the most vital and effective approaches to trauma recovery available today: Embodied Processing (EP).

In a world where trauma is increasingly understood, yet still often addressed only on a cognitive level, Ryan’s insights remind us that real, sustainable healing happens through the body. If you’ve ever felt stuck in your head or overwhelmed by emotions, this episode offers a grounded path back into your body—and into your power.

Full podcast also available on Podbean

🔍 Segment Summaries

Segment 1: What Is Embodied Processing?

Ryan begins by explaining what Embodied Processing is and how it differs from traditional talk therapy. He shares how trauma is stored as unprocessed survival responses in the body, and that talk therapy often fails to resolve it—sometimes even retraumatizing the client. EP is a bottom-up approach, working with the nervous system, not just the mind.

🧠 Key Takeaway:

“Trauma isn’t just about what happened—it’s about what didn’t get to complete in the body.”

Ryan explains that many of us are “disembodied”—living from the neck up, dissociated from physical sensations, because the body feels chaotic or unsafe. EP helps us slowly return home to the body, but only once we feel resourced and safe.

Segment 2: Understanding the Science of Trauma

In this section, we dive deeper into the autonomic nervous system, exploring how trauma triggers fight, flight, freeze, or fawn responses—even in non-life-threatening situations like conflict at work or being judged socially. Ryan shares how the body creates adaptive loops when trauma isn’t fully processed, and how these loops affect behaviour, emotions, and physical health years later.

🧬 Key Insight:

“The body remembers what the mind forgets. Chronic pain, anxiety, shutdown, or addiction may all be symptoms of unprocessed survival stress.”

We also discuss the importance of safety, resourcing, and how pre-verbal and inherited trauma shape our lives unconsciously.

Segment 3: What Does an Embodied Processing Session Look Like?

In this powerful segment, Ryan walks us through a typical EP session. The session begins by creating safety and connection with the practitioner, followed by internal resourcing (finding a felt sense of safety). From there, clients are gently guided into the felt experience of a trauma-related memory or emotion.

🌀 Phases of a Session:

Connection and Resourcing
Identifying a Part or Pattern
Exploring Felt Sense in the Body
Finding the Origin of the Pattern
Processing Emotions with Somatic Tools
Reintegration and Learning

Ryan emphasizes that processing trauma is not about "re-living" it, but about helping the body complete what was interrupted—crying, shaking, expressing, or breathing it through.

Segment 4: Healing at Your Own Pace

Many people hesitate to begin trauma work because they fear being overwhelmed. Ryan explains the difference between Stage 1 and Stage 2 trauma work:

Stage 1: Regulation, safety, and building capacity
Stage 2: Deeper trauma processing once resourced

This trauma-informed pacing allows clients to stay safe and avoid retraumatization. He also explains how EP helps people gently move out of “trauma stories” and identity patterns that keep them stuck.

🧘 Core Message:

“Healing trauma is not about pushing through. It’s about going slow enough to feel safe while you transform.”

Segment 5: Who Is This For, and How Do You Start?

Ryan shares that EP is especially helpful for people who feel stuck in talk therapy or personal development, and are ready to go deeper. Many clients come to EP after years of trying to “think their way” out of trauma. The difference? EP helps you feel your way through.

He also offers simple somatic practices you can start today:

Daily check-ins with your body
Noticing sensations before and after stressful interactions
Naming emotions by how they feel physically (tight, hot, heavy, buzzing)

🌱 Practical Wisdom:

“Just taking 30 seconds before or after an event to check in with your body can change everything.”

✨ Final Thoughts

If you’re feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or disconnected, know this: healing is possible. Not through more thinking—but through returning to your body, one breath and sensation at a time.

Ryan’s work with The Centre for Healing is a testament to what’s possible when we combine safety, somatic awareness, and trauma-informed guidance.