Fascia: Our Emotional Storage System
When I was a young(er) physiotherapist, I went to see a more alternative bodywork practitioner. At the time, my boss would often refer clients to him when their presentations were complex and he’d reached a roadblock. I thought that before referring my own clients, I should experience his work firsthand.
I walked in. The treatment room looked fairly ordinary, perhaps slightly messier than most. He took my history. I told him about my ankle fracture at 11, my lower back pain and L5/S1 stress fracture as a teenager, and a cycling accident that left me with a torn TFCC (an unstable and slightly gimpy left wrist).
I lay on the table and he began.
His touch was so gentle I could barely feel it. My brain was scanning the experience, quietly concluding that my boss had lost his mind and that we should never refer another client.
Then something shifted.
I began to feel a line of connection running from my left wrist up into my thorax. The line grew warmer. It felt like a literal tug on a heartstring. My breathing quickened, and suddenly, uncontrollably, I burst into tears. With these tears there were associated images of challenging aspects of my childhood and my family context flashing through my mind.
He didn’t move. He continued the gentle contact. And just as the tears began to dry, he tapped my wrist and said, “Well done.”
A rush moved up my chest and out through my head. I took an involuntary deep breath. And the treatment continued like any other day.
My curiosity was well and truly awakened and since then, I’ve been fascinated by the relationship between our bodies, our emotions, and how experience is held. It’s widely accepted that “trauma is stored in the body,” but that generalised statement never fully satisfied me.
Where?
How?
Why?
And if trauma is in the body, why do we talk so much when we’re trying to heal from it?
Enter fascia and body-based nervous system treatments.
What Is Fascia?
If you’ve seen me recently, you’ll know I’m currently fascia-obsessed. (My construction-minded husband often needs reminding that I’m not referring to the finishing edge along the roofline of a building.)
So what is fascia really?
Fascia is the continuous web of connective tissue that surrounds and interpenetrates every muscle, bone, nerve, and organ in the body. It is not simply a redundant wrapping (as was long believed and often discarded by anatomists) but a living, sensing, communicating system.
Researchers such as Robert Schleip have demonstrated that fascia is richly innervated with sensory nerve endings. In fact, it contains more sensory receptors than muscle tissue. It plays a profound role in proprioception, interoception (awareness of our internal state), pain perception, and nervous system regulation.
Fascia is not passive.
It feels.
It responds.
It adapts.
Are Emotions Actually “Stored” There?
Here, nuance matters.
From a strict neurobiological perspective, emotions are processed in the brain, particularly in regions such as the amygdala (threat response), hippocampus (memory), and prefrontal cortex (regulation).
But emotions are not just thoughts. They are felt in the true sense of the word and are therefore whole-body physiological experiences.
When we feel stress, fear, grief, anger for e.g…
The autonomic nervous system shifts.
Muscle tension (often called “armouring”) increases.
Breathing and heart rate change.
Hormones circulate differently.
and posture adapts…
If stressful or traumatic experiences are unresolved or chronic, these physiological responses can become habitual patterns. Accordingly, our fascia remodels and begins to reflect these repeated patterns of tension.
So no, emotions are not “stored” in fascia like files in a cabinet. But the body, including the fascial system, holds the imprint of repeated emotional states.
The tight chest of long-term anxiety.
The braced jaw of suppressed anger.
The heavy shoulders of chronic responsibility.
These are not imagined. They are embodied. And as the nervous system continues to live in protection mode, fascia can become denser, less hydrated, and less elastic. The result? Relentless tension. Decreased mobility. Chronic pain. Ultimately, a physical, and emotional sense of being stuck.
Why Can Emotions Surface During Treatment?
When we work with fascia, through gentle manual therapy, mobility work, and nervous system regulation, we are not simply mobilising tissue. We are changing the input to the nervous system.
Because fascia is deeply involved in interoception, releasing long-held tension can shift autonomic state and reduce protective guarding. It is as this protection softens, emotions can surface.
Not because we have mystically “released trauma from tissues,” but because the nervous system finally feels safe enough to process what it had been bracing against.
An Integrative Approach Matters
Pain is rarely just structural and healing is rarely just mechanical.
Biomechanics do matter (my whole undergrad taught me that). But so do nervous system regulation, stress processing, load management, lifestyle, and context.
Our fascia is responsive.
Our nervous systems are adaptive.
And with the right facilitation, patterns held for years can begin to shift.
I’ve had the privilege of sharing moments with many of you as we work with and through this so-called “emotional storage system.” What continues to amaze me is the intelligence of our bodies and our nervous systems.
If you feel stuck, and sense that your challenges are rooted in something more complex than structure alone, it may be worth slowing down, listening to your fascia, and noticing what arises.