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How Trauma Affects the Brain & Why MAP Can Help You Heal
Rewiring your brain & releasing the hidden effects of past pain
If you’ve ever felt stuck in overthinking, self-sabotage, or emotional patterns you can’t seem to break, you’re not alone. These struggles have deeper roots than we realize. They can often be traced back to how your brain adapted to painful early experiences — known as Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), which are surprisingly common.
The MAP Coaching Institute published a white paper on The Neurobiology of Trauma and the MAP Method™, exploring how early trauma reshapes different parts of the brain — and how MAP helps rewire these patterns for lasting change. Below, I’ve summarized key insights from this research to help you understand why stress, anxiety, and emotional triggers feel so overwhelming — and, most importantly, how healing is possible.
How Trauma Affects the Brain
Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, a leading psychiatrist and neuroscientist, describes trauma as:
“Not the story of something that happened back then, but the current imprint of that pain, horror, and fear living inside [the individual].”
This means that two people can go through the same event and have completely different reactions…
