There’s a sacredness in walking beside someone through their last moments — and a weight that never fully leaves you. After years as a paramedic, I found myself carrying invisible wounds of my own: PTSD, grief, and a deep disconnection from my body. This letter is my remembrance — for my EMS family, and for the long, tender journey home to myself.

We’ve been taught to think our way through healing—to analyze, talk, and understand our pain. But what if the missing piece isn’t in your mind at all? Somatic healing invites you to reconnect with your body, where your deepest memories, emotions, and wisdom truly live. This article explores how trauma imprints in the nervous system, what science (and the Polyvagal Theory) reveals about our body’s responses to stress, and why integrating mind and body creates the wholeness that talk therapy alone often misses.