Understanding Emotional Flashbacks & Triggers

Learn how emotional flashbacks work, what triggers them, and how to gently soothe your nervous system. A trauma-informed guide from internationally recognised psychotherapist Tess Hunneybell.

🌿 What Are Emotional Flashbacks?

Emotional flashbacks are intense internal experiences—waves of fear, shame, sadness, or anger—that often appear without a clear cause. Unlike visual flashbacks, which replay traumatic events like a movie, emotional flashbacks are felt deep in the body. You may not see the memory—but your nervous system remembers.

This is not weakness. It’s your body’s attempt to protect you from something that once overwhelmed you. These emotional states are often triggered by subtle cues that resemble past pain, particularly if your trauma was relational or developmental—as described in the retreat workbook.

Common Triggers After Trauma

Triggers can be emotional, sensory, or situational. Small things—a look, a silence, a sudden shift in tone—can awaken unresolved pain. In the retreat workbook, we explore how triggers such as:

• Feeling ignored or dismissed
• Loud voices or conflict
• Unpredictability or loss of control
• Grief anniversaries or relationship stress

…can stir old wounds. Your nervous system is trying to keep you safe—even if the threat is no longer present.

What Happens in the Body

In an emotional flashback, your system may enter a survival state—fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. These aren’t decisions; they’re biological responses. In the retreat workbook, we explain how trauma is stored when we can’t complete a response. The body may shut down, numb, or go still. These patterns can return later, seemingly out of nowhere.

How to Cope and Soothe

• Orienting: Slowly look around the room and name what you see.
• Grounding Touch: Place a hand on your chest or belly, offering reassurance.
• Breath: Exhale longer than you inhale.
• Gentle Movement: Shake, stretch, rock—release stuck energy.
• Self-Talk: Speak kindly to your inner child from your adult self.

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You’re Not Broken—You’re Responding Intelligently

What you’re feeling makes sense. As written in the retreat workbook, “We don’t need to get rid of our symptoms—we need to listen to what they’re telling us.” Emotional flashbacks are signals. When met with care and curiosity, they become invitations to heal.

An Invitation to Go Deeper

Each year, I open my home—San Flaviano Monastery—for just eight weeks as a private trauma retreat space. In this safe, supportive environment, we explore emotional flashbacks, somatic memory, and nervous system restoration using proven, drug-free methods.

During the retreat, Tess Hunneybell, psychotherapist, will work one-to-one to help remove emotional flashbacks, triggers, and PTSD. Eszter Balázs will work with somatic therapy, trauma-informed yoga, and touch therapy. Viktoria Varga, holistic healer, senior yoga teacher, body alignment specialist, and massage therapist, will realign the body from past to present.

Tess will guide the gentle release of trauma from both mind and body. Eszter and Viktoria will support your body in finding its new realignment—without fear, without pressure—restoring trust in your own system.

→ Explore the Healing Trauma Retreat

    ‘It’s safe to feel safe when I am safe.’

The Extended Butterfly Hold

A nervous system reset you can carry anywhere

This simple self-soothing practice helps calm your body when you feel overwhelmed, disconnected, or anxious. It gently signals safety to your nervous system — through rhythm, touch, and breath.

You can use this anytime — during the retreat, while journaling, after a deep memory, or even at home in daily life.

1. Cross Your Arms
   Place your right hand on your left upper chest, fingers resting gently over the lymph area. Then place your left hand on your right upper chest. You’ve created a butterfly over your heart.
2. Begin to Tap
   Alternate a gentle tapping motion — left, right, left, right. This wakes the lymph system and draws your awareness back to your body.
3. Breathe from the Belly
   Let your breath drop low. Inhale gently, exhale even slower. Chest breathing is for danger — belly breathing is your signal of calm.
4. Give Your Mind Something to Land On
   Let your imagination soften. Visualize color, movement, warmth, music — or simply listen to your breath. You can even sing quietly to yourself: “Zoom…Zoom…Zoom…”

If your thoughts wander, that’s okay. Gently bring them back. Try 20 breaths. If you’re still activated, try another 20. This isn’t about doing it perfectly. It’s about coming back to yourself — over and over — with tenderness.

Section from Healing Trauma Retreat Workbook by Tess Hunneybell