In this episode of Her Brain Matters, we explore what happens in the brain during and after acute trauma. Drawing on neuroscience and psychology, we break down how the brain’s survival systems take over, why memory and time can feel distorted, and why responses such as freeze, dissociation, and hypervigilance are not signs of weakness, but of adaptation. With a smaller focus on women’s neurobiology, this episode offers language, understanding, and compassion for how acute trauma shapes the brain and how healing begins.

Sources

• Acute and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders: A biased nervous system
• ⁠What Is Acute Trauma?⁠
• Understanding the Trauma Brain
• Understanding the Impact of Trauma
• ⁠Neurobiology of Trauma⁠
• The Psychology of Healing: How Trauma Shapes and Transforms the Brain
• 5 Ways Trauma Changes Your Brain and Body (And How You Can Start Taking Back Control)
• Why it matters that trauma affects women and men differently