How Trauma Lives in the Body: Male Sexual Abuse, Racial Trauma & Preverbal Healing Explained with SE Therapist Becky Carter

Trauma doesn’t only live in memory.
It lives in the body.

Long before we have words, the nervous system records everything — touch, safety, fear, abandonment, violation, belonging.

So what happens when trauma occurs preverbally… in infancy… in utero… or across generations?

How do we heal experiences we can’t consciously remember?

In this episode, I’m joined by Becky Carter, a somatic experiencing therapist and trauma specialist with over 20 years of clinical work supporting survivors of sexual abuse, adoptees, men healing from sexual trauma, and individuals navigating racial and transgenerational trauma.

Together we explore how the body holds these early wounds — and how gentle, somatic therapy can help release them.

This conversation is grounded, compassionate, and deeply practical for anyone seeking true nervous system healing.

We discuss:

• What “preverbal trauma” actually means
 • How trauma is stored in the nervous system and tissues
 • Why talk therapy alone often isn’t enough
 • Somatic Experiencing & Transformative Touch Therapy
 • Healing trauma that happened before memory
 • Recognizing sexual trauma patterns in the body
 • Dissociation, shutdown & pelvic constriction
 • Male sexual abuse — the hidden epidemic
 • Shame, performance pressure & men’s intimacy struggles
 • The fawn response and people-pleasing for survival
 • Racial trauma and microaggressions as chronic nervous system stress
 • How sexual and racial trauma compound in the body
 • Adoption, attachment wounds & the “primal wound”
 • Learning to feel your body’s authentic yes and no
 • Rebuilding safety through co-regulation and touch

If you’ve ever felt:

– disconnected from your body
 – confused by your reactions in intimacy
 – stuck in shame or shutdown
 – or like “something happened” but you can’t explain it

This episode offers language, understanding, and hope.

Because healing isn’t about forcing the story.

It’s about helping the body finally feel safe enough to release it.

Resources:

Becky Carter – Family Resilience Group
 https://familyresilience.org

Organizations supporting male survivors:
 • https://menhealing.org

• https://1in6.org

• https://malesurvivor.org

More somatic sexual healing resources
 https://rahichun.com

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