We don’t just remember trauma as a story, a timeline, or a series of facts. We remember trauma as sensory experiences, emotions, and body states.
When I sit with people who are processing trauma, we often talk about the experience of suddenly feeling tightness in the chest, a shortening of breath, tensing muscles, and a racing heart… like something bad is about to happen. When we seek to trace the feeling back to something specific in that moment, they often tell me, “There’s nothing wrong, so why do I feel like something bad just happened, or is about to happen?”.
This is when we talk about memory, and specifically, the impact trauma has on how we remember.
First, how does memory work?
Our current understanding of how we form and store memories looks like this:
- Observation: We are always taking in the world around us through our senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell, interoception (internal sensory cues) and proprioception (our sense of ourselves in time and space).
- Encoding: The brain registers sensory information, along with the related thoughts and feelings.
- Storage: Some of this information is stored temporarily in short-term memory. Other pieces of information may be encoded into long-term memory.
- Retrieval: We can access explicit memories consciously (recalling a birthday party or a fact), or we can access implicit memories unconsciously (having an emotional response to a smell, song, or facial expression, or being able to drive home without consciously recalling the exact process).
- Reaction: When we retrieve memories, we can experience emotional, cognitive (thinking), or physiological responses.
Our memory systems help us learn, adapt, and survive. They’re a bit like a filing cabinet for our life experiences, helping us to sort and organise events and learnings so we can recall them when required.
But when we experience trauma, this process can be disrupted. The filing system gets interrupted, and we may experience less of what are called explicit memories and more implicit memories.
So, what’s the difference between these types of memory? Let’s take a closer look.
What is explicit memory?
Explicit memory is what we usually think of when we think about memory. That is, a story, a timeline, or a series of facts you can recall, for example: what happened, where you were, and what was said.
Explicit memories are:
- Conscious: we know about something and we can talk about it
- The details and imagery we recall to tell a story, or share knowledge and facts with others.
But when something traumatic happens (especially in childhood, or repeatedly over time), our memories don’t always get stored this way.
When the brain is under threat, it doesn’t prioritise forming clean, coherent stories. It prioritises survival.
“I don’t remember what happened…”
Many trauma survivors don’t have detailed memories of what occurred. There may be a sense that something wasn’t right, or they notice they feel afraid in certain situations, but the images and language to explain these noticings don’t arrive.
However, even when you can’t name the memory, you’re still living with the imprint.
And that’s where implicit memory comes in.
What is implicit memory?
Implicit memories are:
- Mainly unconscious and hard to put into words
- Involved in helping us ride a bike or drive a car without having to consciously think about it
- After trauma, they are often experienced in the body (somatically) and can be triggered by our senses (smells, sights, or sounds), or a certain time of year, or anniversary.
Our implicit memories can explain why you notice yourself flinching when someone raises their voice near you, or your muscles tighten when someone startles you.
When your body responds with fear, shame, or panic in moments that don’t seem threatening to you or to others in that moment, it can be a sign that you are experiencing an implicit memory.
Your nervous system isn’t necessarily responding to what’s happening now, but to what it’s learned to watch for.
Because, the body keeps score, even when the mind doesn’t have the words.
Bessel van der Kolk, a psychiatrist and trauma researcher, suggests that trauma is primarily remembered not as a narrative or story, but as isolated sensory and emotional imprints. These imprints include images, sounds, smells, and physical sensations that are often accompanied by intense emotions like terror or helplessness.
Why trauma memories don’t always form like other memories
When you experience overwhelming stress or threat, the brain deprioritises narrative memory.
Instead, it focuses on survival: activating the fight, flight, freeze or fawn responses to help you fight or feel danger.
That means:
- Parts of the brain responsible for language and storytelling (like the hippocampus and Broca’s area) go offline (temporarily), so the brain can prioritise immediate survival over conscious processing of the trauma
- The trauma may not be stored in a clear, linear way, or may not be stored at all
- What remains are the sensory warning signs, or emotional fragments that felt dangerous at the time
This is especially common in childhood trauma, where a child may not yet have the language or cognitive development to process what’s happening in real time.
Healing after trauma starts with the body
Because trauma is held implicitly, healing has to reach those implicit places.
Talk therapy can be powerful, but sometimes insight and cognitive understanding alone aren’t enough. You might understand exactly what happened, but your nervous system still responds like the threat is current and present.
You might know in your mind that you’re safe, but your body doesn’t believe it yet.
That’s why trauma-informed approaches like somatic therapy, EMDR, and parts work are so important, not just in your thoughts. They create space to feel, process, and re-pattern at a pace that respects what your system has been through.
You don’t need to remember everything to begin healing. You only need a place to start.
And often, that starting place is through what you feel, not what you remember.
Memory reconsolidation for trauma recovery
Memory reconsolidation is the brain’s natural process of updating and reshaping emotional memories. When a memory is reactivated, in a safe, supportive environment, and paired with new emotional experiences, the brain has a chance to rewrite the meaning of that memory.
This means:
- The emotional charge attached to the memory can reduce
- The nervous system no longer reacts as though the threat is still present
- The body can begin to feel safe again in the present moment.
Many trauma-informed therapies work by supporting this process, including:
- Somatic experiencing: Helping the body complete survival responses that were interrupted
- EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing): Supporting traumatic memories to be accessed and reprocessed
- Internal Family Systems (IFS) or parts work: Helping internal parts of us that hold pain or fear to feel seen, safe, and supported
- Sensorimotor psychotherapy: Supporting the integration of somatic and emotional memory
- Trauma-informed mindfulness: Increasing body awareness and present-moment safety
These approaches don’t force you to relive trauma. Instead, they invite the memory or feeling into awareness within a container of safety and support.
You are not your trauma and healing is possible
If you’ve been living with the impact of trauma and implicit memories, I understand how confusing and exhausting this can be. Please know that these experiences, while part of your story, are not the whole story of who you are.
With time, care, and trauma support, it’s possible to feel safe again, not just in your mind, but in your body too.
Even if you don’t remember the details and facts, we can start with the memories your body holds. We can work with your emotions and sensations as a path to better understand your needs.
If you would like support with processing implicit memories, please reach out. I’m here to walk with you.
