209: How "The Body Keeps the Score" - Making Sense of Stored Trauma, Survival Mode & Functional Freeze
Adult Child
Andrea Ashley
4.9 • 1.9K Ratings
🗓️ 10 December 2025
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Your childhood isn’t just a memory — it’s still quietly running the show inside your body. This episode unpacks how “The Body Keeps the Score” shows up in ways you might never have connected.
Andrea joins us for a solo episode today, pulling back the curtain on how much of her childhood was still alive in her body long after she thought she’d “done the work.” She shares how a trauma-bonded relationship, nine months of functional freeze, and chronic neck and shoulder pain finally forced her to understand The Body Keeps the Score on a visceral level—not just as an idea. Through her story, she invites you to see your own stuckness, shame, and survival mode as evidence of unfinished trauma, not personal failure.
✨ What this episode explores:
▪️ Fragmented Memories & Emotional Flashbacks — How unprocessed childhood experiences get stored in your nervous system and why they show up as emotional flashbacks that feel way out of proportion to the present moment.
▪️ Survival Energy That Never Shut Off — What it means to carry stored fight-or-flight energy in your fascia, muscles, and nervous system, and how that shows up as chronic hypervigilance, numbness, and living in low-grade survival states.
▪️ The Hidden Faces of Functional Freeze — What it looks like when you’re stuck in functional freeze, whether you’re procrastinating endlessly, over-functioning for everyone else, or feeling emotionally numb and disconnected from your own life.
▪️ The Long-Term Impact of Survival Mode — How staying in chronic survival states can lead to physical issues like muscular tension, autoimmune conditions, and chronic pain that are actually linked to stored trauma.
▪️ Limbic System Healing — What it means to actually reprocess and integrate those fragmented memories at the limbic system level, and how this helps reduce emotional flashbacks and bring your nervous system out of survival mode.
Trauma-Bonded No More: My Journey Through Shame, Regression & Finding My Way Back
The Many Faces of Functional Freeze: The Stuck & Shame-Filled Overthinker
The Many Faces of Functional Freeze: The Over-Functioning Fixer
The Many Faces of Functional Freeze: The Detached & Disconnected floater
— — —
⚓JOIN THE SHITSHOW — The Adult Child Healing Community
6 weekly Zoom support groups · Discussion boards · Peer connection
🗞️ SIGN UP FOR SHITSHOW NATION
Get the newsletter for community updates, healing insights & early access to workshops.
➡️ Join here
💁♀️ SUPPORT THE POD
☕ Buy Me a Coffee – help Andrea (and her cats) eat
💬 CONNECT WITH ANDREA
Instagram → @adultchildpod
TikTok → @adultchildpod
YouTube → @adultchildpod
SPONSORS
Check out Uncommon Goods: https://uncommongoods.com/adultchild
Check out Calm: https://calm.com/ADULTCHILD
Check out Happy Mammoth, Use Code ADULTCHILD for 15% off happymammoth.com.
Check out SiderAL, Use Code ADULTCHILD for 10% off https://pharmanutra-us.com/
Check out Bioma for 15% of your order gobioma.com/adultchild
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | All right, shit shows, breathe to heal is officially back, and this time we're going deeper than |
| 0:04.8 | ever before. The theme of this third round is release and receive, releasing everything that's |
| 0:10.2 | been stuck for way too long, so you can finally receive the peace, love, and safety I know you've been |
| 0:15.3 | craving. The seven-week healing journey goes beyond talk therapy by working directly with your nervous |
| 0:20.6 | system using breath |
| 0:21.7 | work, somatic practices, and parts work to give you the kind of healing your body has been waiting |
| 0:26.8 | for. This is all facilitated by fellow shit show member and certified somatic and breathwork |
| 0:31.3 | practitioner, Teresa, who's just added some fresh breathwork certifications to her toolkit. |
| 0:35.9 | And the best part of all, this all happens right within the shit show healing community. So think of it like a healing journey where you can show up exactly as you are, like you're hanging out with your friends on the couch, in your pajamas, instead of feeling like you're in some stuffy environment. So this all kicks off on Tuesday, January 13th, and early bird pricing is on through December 11th. |
| 0:54.5 | So you, yes, you, the person that's been wanting to sign up for the past two rounds, |
| 0:58.0 | but hasn't, how about we do the damn thing already, okay? Head to adult childpodcast.com slash breathe to heal that is breathe with an E at the end. adult child podcast.com slash b-r-e-a-t-h-h-E-A-T-H-E-2-H-E-T-H-E-T-E-T-E-H-E-T-E-E-A-T-H-E-2-H-E-2-H-E-2. To learn more and grab your damn spot. |
| 1:12.0 | One fat white for Bethen. |
| 1:13.7 | Here! |
| 1:14.6 | And I know the farting for David? |
| 1:17.3 | Running a business in Cardiff, you must register for VAT if your taxable turnover |
| 1:22.2 | reaches £90,000. |
| 1:24.4 | To avoid any penalties, check HMRC's guidance today. Just search, register for VAT on |
| 1:31.6 | Gov.uk. VAT. It's part of business. |
| 1:38.4 | Happen to VAT for Reese. |
| 1:42.5 | There are wounds that never show on the body that are deeper and more hurtful than anything that bleeds. |
| 1:49.4 | My name is Andrea and this is an adult child. |
| 1:55.7 | What's holding on to? Let's just let it all go. What's my mind? Welcome back to deep dive into |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Andrea Ashley, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Andrea Ashley and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.