At Art of Awareness, we understand emotional regulation as a relational, physiological, and developmental process. Our trauma-informed model invites a fundamental shift: from managing symptoms to supporting the body’s capacity for resilience and coherence.
Emotions are biological signals rooted in the nervous system’s adaptive responses to risk, connection, and survival. When working from a trauma-informed lens, emotional disregulation is the body’s intelligent attempt to respond to lived experience.
This perspective reframes emotional regulation as a skill built over time, through practices that honor the body’s story, support nervous system recovery, and invite a return to safety.
The content in this blog post is drawn from a clinical training facilitated by Tommy Waltz, LCSW and Ida O’Donnell, LCSW on June 11, 2025. We are grateful for their continued leadership in advancing trauma-informed practice across all levels of care.
The Physiology of Regulation
Emotional regulation is deeply embodied, shaped by patterns in the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system constantly assesses internal and external cues of safety and threat, influencing heart rate, breath, muscle tone, and neurochemical activity.
When clinicians and clients work together to support this system, regulation becomes more than a coping strategy. It becomes an integrative pathway toward agency, grounding, and connection.
Below are four physiological domains that shape emotional experience, along with practical tools we use to support them in clinical practice:
Heart Rate and Heart-Focused Coherence
The heart is a sensitive barometer of stress and safety. Under sympathetic activation, heart rate increases. Under parasympathetic regulation, especially through vagal engagement, heart rate variability (HRV) increases. HRV is a marker of physiological flexibilityand resilience.
Practice: Engage in coherent breathing by inhaling for five seconds and exhaling for five seconds. Directing attention gently to the area around the heart while breathing can support autonomic balance, strengthen vagal tone, and increase emotional steadiness.
Breath Awareness and Interoception
Breath is one of the most accessible pathways to the nervous system. During states of anxiety, fear, or shutdown, breathing often becomes shallow, restricted, or irregular. These patterns often go unnoticed but reflect the body’s state of arousal or collapse.
Practice: Begin by noticing your natural breath without changing it. Where is it felt? Is it rapid or slow? Deep or surface-level? Then, slowly lengthen the exhale. For example, inhale for four seconds, and exhale for six to eight seconds. This gentle elongation of the breath supports parasympathetic activation and can help shift the nervous system toward safety.
Muscle Tension and Somatic Softening
Muscle tension is a form of somatic communication. Chronic tightness in areas such as the jaw, shoulders, chest, or pelvis often reflects protective responses or a history of bracing against threat. These physical responses are not dysfunctions. They are adaptive strategies.
Practice: Conduct a body scan in segments. Ask yourself, “Is this part of me asking for attention, support, or softness?” Use breath, small movements, or gentle pressure to explore what it feels like to soften by even ten percent. Such micro-adjustments can cue the nervous system toward increased safety and connection.
Neurochemical Regulation through Ritual
Emotional experience is also influenced by neurochemistry. Hormones and neurotransmitters such as cortisol, oxytocin, dopamine, and serotonin shape our sense of threat, reward, and connection.
Practice: Establish a simple daily ritual that promotes safety and sensory integration. This might include stepping into natural light, listening to grounding music, using a calming scent, or holding a warm beverage. When shared with someone trusted, these small moments can foster co-regulation. Neuroscience confirms that our nervous systems attune to one another, and even brief shared rituals can enhance resilience.
Building Capacity over Time
Trauma-informed emotional regulation is a tool to build internal capacity: one breath, one signal of safety, one moment of compassionate presence at a time.
This work must also be situated within a relational and systemic context. Regulation does not happen in isolation. It emerges through practices of listening to the body, honoring its signals, and fostering environments where individuals can safely reconnect with their dignity, voice, and agency.
At Art of Awareness, we support clients in developing the internal resources needed to move toward groundedness, clarity, and care. We do not pathologize the body’s responses. We work in partnership with them.
Your body is not the problem. It is the place where healing begins.
Thank You for Reading
This post is part of our ongoing blog series at Art of Awareness. We are committed to sharing clinically grounded, trauma-informed perspectives on healing, resilience, and integrative mental health care.