I’m excited to share the highlights from our recent summer conference, a powerful day where we focused on trauma through the lens of integrative medicine. The day was packed with powerful insights, moving stories, and practical tools to support both patients and practitioners.

In my welcome address, I reflected on the growing complexity of modern healthcare. As our lives become more demanding, so too do the challenges we face in diagnosis and treatment. Understanding health requires looking at every level: from the subcellular (think of mitochondria and metabolic health) to the societal demands. We asked big questions: how does trauma affect us not only as patients but as individuals in families, communities, and a world grappling with different crises? Where does trauma live—in the mind, body, spirit? And it was these themes that guided our day.

Dr. Susanna Petche, a GP and trauma specialist, opened with a deep dive into post-traumatic stress and the body’s survival responses—fight, flight, freeze, flop, and fawn. These are natural reactions to perceived threats, yet they can become chronic patterns when trauma is unresolved. She encouraged us to shift our perspective: instead of asking ‘What’s wrong with you?’ we ask ‘What happened to you?’ This trauma-informed approach sees symptoms not as problems, but as signals, adaptive responses to overwhelming events.

Susanna also highlighted how trauma can manifest in healthcare settings. Patients may appear agitated, avoidant, overly compliant, or disconnected. Recognising these behaviours as trauma responses rather than labelling patients as “difficult” is essential. She introduced the three Ps of holistic consulting:

* Predisposing factors

* Precipitating events

* Perpetuating conditions

Together, these help map out a patient’s trauma landscape and guide more compassionate care.

Next, Dr. Deepak Ravindran, an NHS consultant and pain specialist, spoke about how trauma underlies many chronic pain conditions. The brain, he explained, is a prediction and protection machine—anticipating threats and amplifying pain signals as part of a hyper-aroused state. He defined trauma as “an event or set of circumstances experienced as physically or emotionally harmful or life-threatening, with lasting effects on one’s well-being”.

Deepak emphasized that trauma isn’t what happens to you, it’s what happens inside you in response to what happened. This internal response can rewire the brain, especially during childhood, leading to long-term impacts. He stressed the need for trauma-informed care in pain clinics and beyond, including screening for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).

Christiana Churchill-Ley introduced us to Internal Family Systems (IFS), a therapeutic model that sees each of us as made up of many “parts.” Some manage, some protect, and some carry deep pain. Through this lens she defined some of the parts of a person:

* Managers that keep us functioning and in control

* Firefighters who distract us from pain (sometimes destructively)

* Exiles who hold our raw, often hidden, emotional wounds

Trauma, especially in childhood, can split us internally. IFS helps us gently reconnect with these parts, fostering healing through compassion and awareness. It was a personal and profound session, prompting many of us to consider which parts were showing up in our own lives.

Professor Gene Feder shared important research on gender-based violence and its intersection with healthcare. One of his most striking findings was that healthcare professionals themselves are often survivors of domestic abuse, at higher rates than the general population. Gene emphasized the need to train healthcare teams to ask, listen, and respond effectively. Disclosure often won’t happen unless someone creates the safety to ask. This isn’t just a moral imperative, it’s critical to effective care. He also stressed the importance of moving upstream: identifying trauma early, intervening before crisis hits, and embedding trauma-awareness into policy, procedure, and practice.

Aga Kehinde and George Brooks introduced us to Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), also known as tapping, a body-based method using acupressure to calm the nervous system and reduce the brain’s threat response. Though once seen as a fringe therapy, EFT is now backed by over 70 randomized control trials, showing its effectiveness in reducing stress, anxiety, and trauma symptoms.

Lastly, Ellie Grace closed the day with a beautiful session on trauma-informed yoga, a slow, mindful practice that helps reconnect the mind and body. Through breathwork, movement, and presence, yoga can support self-regulation, emotional balance, and recovery from trauma. She reminded us that healing is about restoring wholeness and bringing the fragmented parts of ourselves back into relationship, safety, and connection.

My key takeaways from the conference:

* Trauma is common and often unrecognized in healthcare settings.

* It affects not only patients but also professionals, sometimes silently.

* Trauma-informed care is essential, it transforms how we listen, diagnose, and treat.

* There are powerful tools available in the integrative medicine model: Internal Family Systems, EFT, yoga, and more.

* Healing happens in relationship with ourselves, with others and within safe, supportive systems.

It was an incredible day of learning, sharing, and deep reflection. I left reminded that while trauma is widespread, so too is the potential for healing when we meet each other with compassion, curiosity, and care.

If you are interested in watching the full conference, please email [email protected] to purchase a recording or consider joining the NCIM membership, for just £4.99 a month and watch all our backlist of conferences: JOIN THE NCIM MEMBERSHIP