The Past Is Not Behind You: How Emotional Healing Begins in the Body
By Adel Houten
They say time doesn’t exist. That it isn’t linear, but layered. And the more I work with women through regression, EFT, and subconscious healing, the more I believe this is true. When we revisit past experiences in therapy, we’re not going back in time. We’re going back within. It’s like peeling open a Russian doll—layer after layer—until we reach the younger version of you, still carrying emotions that never had space to be expressed. Still waiting to be seen, heard, and loved.
The Body Remembers What the Mind Forgets
This is what regression work really is.
We’re not just talking about the past—we’re accessing the emotional parts that are still active within the nervous system.
And no, this doesn’t always require years of analysis.
Sometimes, a single, guided session can shift something fundamental. Because trauma isn’t stored in memory—it’s stored in your breath, posture, tension patterns. We carry it in the body, until it’s released.
One woman I worked with came in experiencing unexplainable anxiety and a pattern of fearing abandonment. On the surface, there was no cause. But through gentle regression and EFT, a memory emerged:
She was four years old, standing by the gate after nursery. Everyone else had been picked up. She was still waiting.
In that moment, her small nervous system registered panic. She wasn’t just left behind—she felt forgotten.
She hadn’t thought of that memory in decades.
But her body remembered.
The tight chest. The breathlessness. The frozen feeling when someone didn’t text back.
These weren’t logical reactions. They were emotional imprints, replaying in her subconscious for years.
Tapping Through the Layers
We tapped through it gently using EFT—acknowledging the fear, the sadness, the belief that she didn’t matter. We brought compassion to that four-year-old, let her feel safe, let her be heard.
By the end of the session, she looked lighter. Her shoulders softened. She whispered:
“I don’t feel scared anymore.”
That was just one session.
Of course, not every experience dissolves that quickly. But when we work at the root, and through the emotional body, deep shifts happen fast. Because healing isn’t always about talking. It’s about releasing.
Why I Use EFT (Tapping)
I love EFT because it addresses both the emotional and physical systems. It helps calm the fight-or-flight response, and gently rewires beliefs. And it’s backed by science—clinical studies and brain imaging show that EFT significantly reduces cortisol, emotional distress, and even physical pain.
We’re not just talking about healing.
We’re doing it.
The subconscious doesn’t speak in logic.
It speaks in feelings, images, patterns, energy.
When a woman reconnects with a part of herself she had to leave behind—when she feels what she couldn’t feel before—and is guided to safely release it, something beautiful happens.
Something that doesn’t just shift how she feels, but how she lives.
Try This Gentle Practice
If you’ve been feeling emotionally triggered by something that doesn’t make sense, here’s a gentle process to try:
Close your eyes and bring to mind a recent situation that caused an intense emotional reaction.
Ask: “How old do I feel right now?”
Trust the number that comes.
Imagine that younger version of you standing in front of you.
What is she feeling? What does she need?
Place your hand on your heart and gently say:
“I see you. I hear you. I’m here now.”
Sit with the emotion. Let it move through you. No fixing. Just presence.
Even just two or three minutes of this can begin to calm your system.
Safety is what your inner child has been waiting for all along.
The Past Lives in the Body
The past isn’t just behind you—it’s within you.
It shows up in your reactions, your relationships, your triggers—until you meet it with compassion.
Time might not be real in the way we’ve been taught.
But healing is.
And when you bring presence to your inner world,
you start to live from a place of wholeness you forgot was possible.
