We Need to Feel to Heal: How Interoception Supports EMDR and Recovery

In our fast-paced world, it’s easy to stay in our heads—thinking, analyzing, distracting—anything to avoid discomfort. But when it comes to healing trauma and emotional wounds, one truth often comes forward: we need to feel in order to heal.

That doesn’t mean we need to feel everything all at once or dive into pain recklessly. It means that reconnecting with our body’s sensations—our internal experience—can be a powerful guide on the healing journey. One way we do that in EMDR therapy is by strengthening a process called interoception.

What Is Interoception?

Interoception is your brain’s ability to sense what’s happening inside your body. It’s how you know you’re hungry, thirsty, tired, nervous, sad, calm, happy, etc. It includes awareness of:

• Your heart beating

• Muscle tension or relaxation

• Breath changes

• Warmth, tightness, or butterflies in your stomach

When you’ve experienced trauma or long-term stress, interoception can become disconnected or overwhelmed. You may feel numb, chronically tense, or unsure what your body is trying to tell you.

Why Feeling Matters in Healing

In EMDR therapy, the goal is to help the brain reprocess traumatic memories and release stored distress. Interoception helps by giving us access to the felt sense of a memory—not just the thoughts, but the emotions and body responses that are linked to it.

When we tune into the body during EMDR:

• We notice where distress shows up (tight chest, shaky hands, stomach knots)

• We follow the body’s cues to help the memory move and shift

• We recognize when something has “cleared” emotionally or somatically

This awareness isn’t just helpful—it’s necessary. The body stores trauma, and often the body leads the way in letting it go.

How We Rebuild Interoception in Therapy

You don’t have to be good at this to start. In fact, many people begin therapy feeling numb or unsure how to describe what they feel. That’s okay. Together, we practice:

• Body scans to gently observe sensations without judgment

• Mindful breath work to anchor and regulate the nervous system

• Somatic check-ins during EMDR to track shifts in sensation and emotion

• Movement, grounding, or sensory tools to reconnect when emotions feel overwhelming

The goal is not to sit in discomfort forever—it’s to increase your window of tolerance, so your body and brain can safely release what’s been stuck.

You’re Not Broken—You’re Rebuilding Connection

If you’ve been avoiding your feelings, disconnecting from your body, or feeling overwhelmed by emotions, you’re not broken. You may just need help learning how to listen to your inner world again.

EMDR, when supported by interoceptive awareness, can help you safely reprocess pain and move toward healing—not by avoiding feelings, but by allowing them to be acknowledged and integrated.

You can heal.

— Jana Grimes, LMHCTrauma-Informed EMDR & ACT Therapist in Gig Harbor, WA